TL;DR: Matt Sokolowski, COO of a nine-brand dealership group in central Iowa, went on the Car Dealership Guy podcast and — without being asked — described how his group went from below the national CSI average on seven of nine brands to above it on seven of nine. He credited a communication overhaul: every call answered, voicemail response time cut from one day to ten minutes, and a BDC team finally free to do proactive work. The endorsement was unsolicited. The results were real.
It's not every day that the Chief Operating Officer of a nine-brand dealership group goes on one of the industry's biggest podcasts and, without being prompted, lays out the exact playbook for a complete CSI turnaround. But that's what happened when Matt Sokolowski, COO of Willis Auto Campus in central Iowa, joined the Car Dealership Guy Daily Dealer Live on February 23, 2026.
Before finding a solution that worked, Sokolowski's group had a frustrating experience with a different AI vendor. The story he tells is a cautionary tale for any dealership evaluating AI technology. The vendor made a common promise: that their AI could interact with customers so seamlessly, you wouldn't know it was a machine.
"They specifically said that their AI tool had the ability to talk seamlessly with a guest and you couldn't tell it was AI," Sokolowski recounted. "Yeah, you could tell it was AI and it wasn't listening to our guests when they would say, 'Hey, I just want to talk to somebody,' and it wouldn't get them to the right person."
This failure gets to the heart of the problem with many AI point solutions. They are designed to deflect, not to connect. The experience validates the exact evaluation framework we laid out in our previous post, "5 Questions to Ask Any AI Vendor". A tool that can't handle natural conversation or escalate to a human when needed isn't just ineffective — it's actively damaging the customer experience. It's a solution that creates more problems than it solves.
Sokolowski's lesson is worth noting: the failure wasn't just about the technology. His group was also "grasping at tools rather than grasping at training and developing our people," as he put it. The right tool, in the right hands, with the right process behind it — that's the combination that works.
After the failed experiment, Sokolowski's team switched to Numa. The difference was immediate and measurable. Instead of a tool that created friction, they found a platform that absorbed it. Here is what changed across all nine brands:
•Every call was answered. "There's no unanswered calls anymore. And the calls go directly to the people that they need to go to."
•Voicemail response time collapsed. The group went from taking a full day to return a voicemail to an average response time of just 10 minutes — tracked and visible across all brands.
•Customers chose text. Over 70% of callers opted to switch to text messaging rather than wait on hold, on the first offer.
•BDC reps were freed. The team was no longer fielding a constant stream of frustrating inbound calls. They could focus on proactive, high-value outreach.
•Onboarding was smooth. Sokolowski described it as an "amazing onboarding experience" — a far cry from the painful implementations many dealerships have come to expect.
This isn't just about better technology. It's about a fundamental shift in how the dealership operates. When you can track response times, assign ownership to every follow-up, and see exactly where calls are going, the communication process becomes accountable in a way it never was before.
The most compelling part of Sokolowski's story is the quantifiable impact on the dealership group's most important metric: Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI). The numbers speak for themselves.
"We were underwater on all but two on national CSI, meaning we were below average," Sokolowski explained. "And now we're up to seven of nine on our brands on the service side, finish the year over national average with CSI."
That's the centerpiece of this story. A dealership group with nine distinct brands managed to flip its CSI scores for the majority of its stores — from below average to above average — in less than a year. This isn't a single-store anecdote. It's an enterprise-wide result, achieved across multiple brands with different OEM standards and customer bases.
The broader context makes it even more significant. On the same episode, the host cited a report from InMotion Brands noting that 20-40% of inbound service calls go unanswered nationally. Sokolowski's group started in that same boat. They didn't just improve their numbers; they eliminated the problem.
Metric
Before
After
Brands above national CSI average
2 of 9
7 of 9
Average voicemail response time
~1 day
10 minutes
Callers converting to text
Unknown
70%+
Unanswered calls
Ongoing problem
Eliminated
Beyond the metrics, the most human part of this story is the impact on the dealership's staff. The BDC team, once a catch-all for customer frustration, was transformed.
"What Numa has done is it's given our teammates the ability to inhale and exhale," Sokolowski said. "Those BDC reps were not the right people to be fielding the phone calls... their job satisfaction has gone through the roof. They're able to focus on outbound calls now. CSI calls now."
This is the often-overlooked side of operational improvement. A tool that works doesn't just improve efficiency; it improves the quality of work for the people using it. When you remove the constant, low-level stress of an unmanageable inbound call volume, you empower your team to do the proactive, relationship-building work that drives customer loyalty. That's a win for retention, for culture, and for the bottom line.
It's worth acknowledging: results like this don't happen from technology alone. Sokolowski's group had to be ready for the change — the right people, the right process, and the right tool working together. The technology is the enabler. The team is what makes it stick.
When a COO with responsibility for nine rooftops goes on a major industry podcast and volunteers a story like this, it's a different kind of proof. It's not a curated case study or a paid endorsement. It's a peer telling other dealership leaders what's working for him, in his own words, on a show he watches.
The host of the episode reinforced the point in a separate segment: "If the product works... like Numa, as Matt said, you're not going to need and you're not going to want to make a change."
Sokolowski concluded his thoughts by saying, "We talked about Numa. I imagine them as a partner in our business for years to come."
The question every GM and Service Director should be asking is simple: what would it take for a COO to say that on air, without being asked?
No more hold music. No more unanswered voicemails. Your customers are top priority.
