Most dealerships are sitting on one of their most valuable revenue opportunities and not using it.
According to recent STELLA Automotive AI data, 50% of dealers have no plan to contact customers on a manifest list, even though those customers convert three times better than new prospects. It’s a missed opportunity hiding in plain sight.
Between busy service departments, short-staffed BDCs and competing priorities, these high-value outbound campaigns often get delayed or forgotten altogether. That means fewer service appointments, lower customer retention and missed revenue that could have been booked with a simple phone call.
That’s exactly why we built STELLA Catalyst: the AI-powered engagement engine designed to turn these missed opportunities into measurable revenue.
Why outbound campaigns fall through the cracks
Dealers know the importance of follow-up calls. The challenge is bandwidth. Even the most organized stores struggle to find time for consistent outbound campaigns. Tire sales, recalls and maintenance reminders take hours to execute manually, and that’s assuming you have enough staff to make every call.
Common obstacles include:
- Limited BDC capacity: Agents spend most of their day reacting to inbound calls. A recent STELLA AI survey also found that on average, dealers estimate 11%-26% of their calls are missed during business hours.
- Staffing shortages: Turnover and training make it difficult to maintain consistent follow-up. According to a Car Dealership Guy article from September 2025, 64% of service managers report being understaffed.
- Manual systems: Outbound lists require manual dialing, tracking and updating.
The result is the same across the industry: Valuable manifest lists sit untouched, while customers who are already likely to book service never hear from the dealership.
The cost of not making those calls
When half of dealers aren’t executing on their own customer lists, the impact adds up fast.
Those manifest lists — whether they’re from recall notices, declined services, or tire promotions — contain customers who are already engaged and familiar with your dealership. They’re not cold calls. They’re warm opportunities that convert at three times the rate of typical outreach.
Retention has never been more critical. Today, according to an October 2025 NADA article, 86% of vehicles are out of warranty, and the same percentage of paid service work happens outside of dealerships. Warranty work provides a steady, manufacturer-backed revenue stream that keeps service bays full, but once customers age out of warranty, dealerships risk losing them unless they stay proactive.
That’s why consistent outbound campaigns make such a difference: They help dealers re-engage those out-of-warranty customers before they defect to independent repair shops.
By not calling, dealerships miss out on:
- Repeat service appointments that drive steady revenue
- Increased retention in the first 12-18 months of ownership
- Opportunities for upsells like tire replacements or extended warranties
STELLA data shows just how costly that can be. On average, dealerships miss 200 calls per month, leaving up to $1.17 million in potential revenue on the table each year. Those aren’t just unanswered calls. They’re unbooked appointments, lost service opportunities and missed chances to build long-term customer loyalty.
Additionally, the same NADA article notes that the goal for dealerships should be to achieve a fixed absorption rate (meaning service and parts profits alone cover all overhead expenses) of 100 percent or more. Meanwhile, the national average for August 2025 was 63.9%. That presents a significant opportunity for growth.
Outbound campaigns powered by AI can help close that gap immediately, reaching every customer on every list and recovering revenue that would otherwise slip through the cracks.
How AI fixes the outbound problem
AI like STELLA Catalyst is helping dealerships overcome this long-standing challenge with automation that’s fast, consistent, and measurable.
1. Speed and scale
AI-powered voice assistants like STELLA Catalyst can contact hundreds of customers in minutes, not days. Dealers using STELLA for outbound campaigns are already seeing strong engagement, with an average 36% callback rate on outbound calls.
And the broader data backs it up: According to Pied Piper’s 2025 Service Appointment Study, dealerships using AI to manage service calls achieved an average Service Telephone Effectiveness (STE) score of 72, compared to an industry average of 64. Even more telling, AI handled calls successfully 91% of the time, outperforming human staff in responsiveness and consistency.
That kind of reliability is exactly what makes AI-driven outbound campaigns so effective: Every call gets made, every opportunity gets reached, and every customer receives a consistent experience.
2. Consistency and quality
AI ensures every customer receives a professional, consistent experience with no rushed calls or missed follow-ups. Each call follows dealership-approved scripts and branding and routes responses directly to the service scheduler or advisor.
When all calls get answered on the first ring with no hold times or dead ends, all customers receive quick service, ultimately enhancing dealership CSI scores.
3. Measurable results
Because STELLA Catalyst integrates with your existing CRM and DMS systems, every call is tracked. Dealers can see which campaigns perform best, what response rates look like and how many appointments are generated.
Outbound calling becomes predictable, repeatable, and ROI-driven.
Campaigns that work best with AI outbound calling from STELLA Catalyst
AI outbound calling can support nearly any dealership initiative, including:
- Recall notifications
- Tire and seasonal maintenance campaigns
- Service reminders and declined services
- Warranty and loyalty program outreach
- Customer reactivation campaigns
With STELLA, these campaigns can run automatically in the background, freeing your team to focus on customers who are already at the dealership.
From missed lists to measurable ROI
With STELLA Catalyst, outbound campaigns become a consistent, reliable source of revenue and customer retention. By combining automation with personalization, Catalyst helps dealerships:
- Reach every customer on every list
- Save hours of manual effort
- Improve engagement and callback rates
- Turn existing data into measurable ROI
- Improve CSI
- Retain customers
For dealerships looking to grow fixed ops revenue and strengthen relationships with existing customers, STELLA Catalyst is one of the fastest ways to see results.
Dealers are already seeing tangible returns from AI-powered efficiency. In 2024 alone, STELLA answered over 3 million inbound calls and booked more than 2 million service appointments. A STELLA Automotive AI survey also found that 40% of dealers said they realized ROI within three months of implementing the conversational AI solution.
And now, that same AI advantage is moving beyond inbound conversations. STELLA Catalyst is the AI-powered engagement engine that now delivers outbound proactive outreach to customers.
Built specifically for automotive dealerships and designed to help dealers stay connected with customers beyond inbound calls, Catalyst automates proactive outreach across voice, SMS, and email, transforming everyday opportunities into measurable revenue.
With Catalyst’s outbound engagement, dealers can re-engage lapsed customers, activate service reminders and capture lost revenue opportunities faster and more consistently than ever.
Ready to reach every customer on your list?
Ready to turn your manifest lists into revenue? Have a recall or tire campaign ready to go?
STELLA Catalyst can contact every customer in minutes with no additional staff required.
See how Catalyst can launch your first AI-powered outbound campaign today.
