How AI Increased Service Booking Rates from 60% to 88% | NADA 2026
When Josh Utley, Service Manager at Earnhardt CDJR, went looking for a way to improve his service department's guest experience, he needed something that could handle calls, book appointments, and represent his store positively around the clock.
What he found was Mia.
In this interview recorded live on the floor of the 2026 NADA Convention, Josh sat down with Car Dealership Guy to break down exactly what happened after implementing Mia's AI at his store:
- Service booking rates climbed from 60% to 88%
- January 2026 became the best revenue month the store had ever seen
- The store ranked above every other Stellantis dealer in the region on ease-of-appointment metrics (by a lot)
Josh also shares tips for GMs implementing AI in their dealerships, including the key mindset shift that made the difference: training your AI like you'd train a new employee.
Watch the full interview below.
Want to see what Mia could do at your dealership?
Earnhardt CDJR is one of a growing number of dealerships using Mia to handle inbound calls, book appointments, and improve customer experience scores across sales and service, every hour the phones are ringing.
What GMs are asking about AI
How can AI improve service appointment booking rates at a car dealership?
AI handles inbound service calls 24/7, ensuring every customer who reaches out can schedule an appointment immediately, even outside business hours or when staff are occupied. At Earnhardt CDJR, implementing Mia's AI for service drove booking rates from 60% to 88%.
How does dealership AI affect OEM customer experience scores?
Because AI tools like Mia handle every service call consistently and professionally, they directly improve the metrics OEMs use to evaluate dealer performance.
Does AI for dealerships replace service advisors?
No. Dealers who use Mia report that AI supports their advisors rather than replacing them. By handling inbound calls and appointment scheduling, Mia frees staff to focus on customers already in the store — test drives, status updates, service walkarounds. As Josh Utley put it: "It gives them time back to spend with the guests."
How quickly do dealerships see results after implementing AI?
Earnhardt CDJR saw measurable improvement within 30 days of going live. Josh Utley noted that within that first month, Mia was already outperforming the previous tool and driving more service appointments than the team had achieved on its own.
Full interview transcript
Host: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Car Dealership Guy Podcast industry spotlight. Joining us today here from the 2026 NADA convention floor is Joshua Utley, CDJR Earnhardt in Arizona – Gilbert, Arizona.
Josh Utley: Yeah, nice weather there.
Host: It's nice weather there. It's nice weather here. If you're in my home state of Michigan, Detroit, it is sub-zero. So we're all happy to be here. Anyway, we're sitting here at NADA where AI has just exploded. It's a buzzword. And you found a specific use case where you're like, this has changed the way we've done business.
Tell us a little bit about the use case. Tell us about the problem that you were first wanting to solve and then the use case.
Josh: Yeah, so for our store, we do a good job of taking care of guests. But I needed a great job.
Host: Yeah.
Josh: Right? And so for the guest experience, I think a lot of stores like us are challenged with connecting. Let's connect with a live person or somebody that can help.
And so Mia came to the table. That was the best solution that I could ever ask for because I was on a previous tool… The previous tool was very clunky and didn't do what I wanted it to do. Right? Because you hear AI and we all think it's the same thing.
Host: Not all AI is equal in today's marketplace. There's a lot that make promises, don't deliver on it.
Josh: So I needed a conversational piece that could take care of my guests. It really started on the back end, kind of a support system if my team, you know, couldn't do the job.
Within 30 days, I found out it did a better job. Driving guests to the store. In service, they have a need. My car's broken, I need maintenance. Let's just get 'em in.
Host: What's the metric for success once you implemented it?
Josh: So January, last month, booking rate 88%.
Host: Wow. Okay. Just wow. And that's up from what, previously?
Josh: Year over year I mean I was booking 60%.
Host: Okay. So a 20-point increase in book rates. How does that quantify back to dollars? It's not a pop quiz too, I apologize.
Josh: Last year, I mean, it was the best January we've ever had.
Host: Yeah. And so aside from the economics, and that definitely leads the way, how do you qualify success using this voice AI technology?
Josh: So, appointments, my dollars. Stellantis had a piece of the review process if you will. And the ease of setting an appointment was a very large metric that I was above everyone else in.
Host: Nice. Wow.
Josh: Not by a little, by a lot.
Host: By a lot.
Josh: It's Mia, she takes all of my calls for service. So that metric... that's huge.
Host: What's some feedback that you have from the staff and maybe even customers?
Josh: So the staff is, it's great. They love it because it helps support them, gives them time back to spend with the guests, right? Make those test drives, you know, seal the deal, take care of the customer in service, give them those status updates.
Host: And does that actual, does that kind of kindness by an AI, does that kind of endear the tool more to your employees where they're kind of like, hey, you know what, I see some benefits where if I can't answer every call, at least that's there helping to represent our store in the marketplace?
Josh: Mia is a 24/7. Always has... always there. Always on time. Has the empathy, has the sympathy with the customer. That's, that's what the customers need. You know, we can't just let plain Jane upset, "I don't want to work today."
Host: Yeah. So as a final question today, when you're thinking about other GMs who are here – again, a ton of attendees this year at 2026 NADA. Everybody's thinking about AI.
A couple questions actually as we wrap up: A) What advice would you give to GMs considering similar tech? And then B) What would you say to a GM as far as their responsibility to learn it, to manage it, and to plug it in?
Josh: If a GM is looking for an AI tool or solution, you know, why, why do you feel you have a need for it? There's got to be a need. And I think every store has a need. It's really the guest experience. And whether it's sales, service, parts, what is that store doing to satisfy that?
Mia does a great job in all of those departments. Every day, all day, when they're closed, when they're open. So if you're looking for that great experience for a customer, you know, explore the option.
With saying that, if a GM wanted to implement the tool, they want to know how the tool worked. I think for me it was a very hands-on approach. I want to know what she does. Because think about your employees. Employees have challenges. Right? And we have to train our employees. Train Mia like you would an employee. You wouldn't just put an employee on the floor and say, "Go sell cars."
Host: You gotta be proactive. It's really the new role of general management in today's economy is you've got to engage with it, you've got to understand it well enough to stand it up, and then you've got to teach and train it.
Absolutely appreciate you joining the show today, sharing your perspective, and the success that you've had in, by the way, an incredibly competitive marketplace in Stellantis, competing up against the likes of Carvana. You are winning in a tough marketplace. So thanks for being here.