RingCentral
RingCentral

In March and April 2025, Cartelligent saw demand surge as car buyers moved quickly to lock in purchases ahead of potential tariff-related price increases. But while business was growing, the company's phone system was creating a different problem.

Cartelligent, which helps customers buy or lease new vehicles without navigating the traditional dealership process, found itself fielding a growing number of irrelevant inbound calls. Some callers were looking for used cars. Others were truck drivers trying to sell transportation services. Many never should have reached the sales team in the first place.

At the time, Cartelligent's process was fairly straightforward: callers selected an option from a phone tree and anyone choosing sales was sent to a "live lead line." If sales representatives were unavailable, calls rolled over to an answering service.

According to Cartelligent, by June 2025, 78% of live leads during business hours were being routed to that answering service instead of reaching a member of the sales team.

For a company that competes on personalized guidance and repeat business, that wasn't just an operational inconvenience. It meant prospective customers who had already decided to pick up the phone often weren't speaking to a member of the sales team at the point of initial contact.

Cartelligent built a RingCentral AI receptionist to improve call handling

Rather than hire additional staff to screen calls, Cartelligent built an AI answering agent named "Carrie" using RingCentral's AI capabilities. According to Jessica Carstens, the company's vice president of operations, the team spent roughly two to four weeks testing the system, intentionally trying to break it, and teaching it how to distinguish between serious buyers and callers who weren't a fit for the business.

Carrie now answers inbound calls to Cartelligent's primary business number during business hours, identifies likely sales opportunities and routes qualified callers to sales representatives. The system also handles common questions before transferring serious buyers to an available representative.

Cartelligent reported that, in a recent 30-day measurement period, no business-hours leads were routed to its answering service. They also reported that lead connectivity increased from approximately 50% to 100%, while it maintained a 9.85 out of 10 customer satisfaction score and continued working toward an 85% lead-to-signup target.

How Cartelligent uses conversation intelligence to coach its team

The company also expanded its use of AI beyond call routing.

Managers now use conversation intelligence and AI-generated summaries to review interactions with customers, coach newer employees, and identify habits that may hurt the customer experience, such as interrupting callers or talking more than listening. Purchasing teams have also gained access to more consistent records of customer preferences, giving them additional context beyond incomplete Salesforce notes or email threads.

AI-generated call summaries can be copied into Salesforce, creating a more structured record of customer conversations. RingCentral's AI Conversation Expert also analyzes call sentiment and talk patterns for use in coaching.

What AI call handling means for small and midsize businesses

Cartelligent's experience highlights a challenge many small and midsize businesses face as they adopt AI. The most immediate value may not come from replacing employees, but from removing the friction that prevents employees from spending time on the work customers actually expect them to do.

Cartelligent's core sales consultation and customer relationship remain human-led. The AI is used to capture and route opportunities, document calls and support coaching rather than replace the employees who guide customers through the vehicle-buying process.

For Cartelligent, buying a car is still a relationship-driven experience. AI simply helps ensure that when someone is ready to have a conversation, the right person is there to answer.