Call tracking for car dealerships and repair shops

Sales, service and parts: one business, several phones

In a dealership, sales, service and parts take different callers, are staffed differently and are often marketed differently. An independent repair or body shop may have one line that does it all. Either way the question is the same: which of the things you paid for or printed made this call?

VereTel works at the phone line, so it fits the way a dealership is already organized. Each tracking number forwards at the carrier to a line you already answer, and you choose the line for each number: sales to the sales desk, service to the service advisors, parts to the parts counter. It does not replace your phone system, and it adds no menu.

Marketplaces and Google bring their own numbers

Some of your calls may arrive through a number that someone else provides, and it is worth knowing which. Autotrader’s privacy statement says it “may use a uniquely generated trackable toll-free telephone number on dealer sites or in advertisements,” and that if a person calls one of those numbers it may collect information about the call such as the date, time and duration. Ask each marketplace or listing service you pay what number it shows for your inventory, and how it reports calls to you.

Google works the same way in some of its products:

• Google Ads call reporting. When it is on, Google says “a Google forwarding number is assigned to your ad.” To show your own business number or use third-party call tracking, Google says you can turn call reporting off in your account settings, and that turning it off “prevents Google Ads from tracking calls.”
• Local Services Ads. Google’s United States list of categories includes auto repair shops and auto body shops. The number displayed on one of these ads “is a Google forwarding number,” and Google’s help page says: “There is no way to choose your tracking number.”
• Your Google Business Profile. Google says a Profile can carry up to 2 more phone numbers besides the primary one, and its guidelines say: “The phone number must be under the direct control of the business.” A VereTel number sits on VereTel’s carrier account, and VereTel cannot tell you how Google will treat a tracking number there. Google also says that departments within businesses may have their own Profiles and that auto dealers have specific and separate guidelines, so read the dealer guidelines before you change how your departments are listed.

VereTel logs calls to VereTel numbers. It does not report on calls that arrive through a number another company provides, so ask that company how it reports them.

One number per department and source

Give each department its own numbers, and label them by department and source so that the desk reads like your marketing plan:

• Sales. A number for each placement you can print on, such as a radio spot, a mailer or an outdoor board, and one for the website’s inventory pages.
• Service. A number for each service mailer or coupon, and one for the service pages of your site.
• Parts. A number for the parts pages of your site, and one for any outreach to trade customers.
• Body shop or collision center. Its own number on its own pages and its own signs.
• An independent shop. Usually one line for everything, so a number for each source is enough.

For the website, website number insertion is included in every plan and set up with you. It shows a different tracked number on each site or page you register, so your service pages, your parts pages and your inventory pages can each ring a different line. It works per site and per page, never per visitor, keyword or ad. Whoever manages your site adds one tag to its template, so if a provider runs your site, ask the provider first.

VereTel has no schedules or phone menus, so a number rings the same line at every hour. A call that someone dials straight to your main number does not pass through VereTel, so the desk does not list it.

Reading the desk by department

Each call to a tracking number is a row in the desk: when it started, the caller’s number, the tracking number dialed and its label, whether the call was answered or missed, and how long it lasted. You can filter by date range, and to answered or missed calls.

Because each department has numbers of its own, every row in the missed list shows which department’s number was dialed, and the start times show at what hours. A call to service or sales that nobody answers may be a customer booking or buying elsewhere, so the missed list is worth working the same day.

Answered and missed come from the carrier’s report on the forwarded leg. When the carrier does not report it, the desk says “not reported” instead of guessing.

To judge a source, count its calls for a date range and divide what you spent on it by that count; the guide to measuring cost per call shows the method. Which calls became a sale or a repair order stays in your own systems: match them to the desk by the caller’s number and the date.

Each customer signs in to its own desk, and each customer’s calls are kept apart from other customers’ at the database level, so another customer’s desk does not show your calls. The page on data separation explains how.

What VereTel does not do for a dealership or a shop

Also not part of VereTel today:

• an export, reports and dashboards, lead statuses and notes: the call list, with its date and answered or missed filters, is the whole record;
• call recording, transcripts and AI features;
• keyword or ad-click attribution: a call is credited to the number dialed, so to a source, a site or a page, but not to a keyword, an ad or a visitor;
• call routing beyond one line per number: no phone menus, ring groups or schedules, which stay in your phone system;
• text messages and outbound calls;
• alerts to you when a number goes quiet: VereTel monitors its own call pipeline, and those alerts go to VereTel’s team;
• bringing an existing number to VereTel, which is not available at launch: the main number printed on your signs and invoices stays where it is, and tracking numbers forward to the line behind it.

Free account first, then a plan sized to your departments

Create a free account first. It asks for your email address, not a card, and it needs no demo and no approval. It gives you a desk with sample calls (labeled as samples), a test tag for your website that only your own test link switches on, and the ROI calculator. It has no phone number, so it has no real calls: a free account is not a trial of calls.

You pay when you choose a number, and not before. Numbers are local, in an area code you choose where one is available. Toll-free numbers on Starter and up are on request: talk to us, and we will tell you what is possible. Numbers are not on sale yet. Create a free account and ask to be told when they are.

As guidance, not a promise, this is how the plans tend to match a dealership or a shop:

• Solo $19.99 (1 number, 250 minutes) suits an independent shop that wants to learn whether one source, such as its website or a mailer, makes the phone ring.
• Starter $79 (3 numbers, 1,000 minutes) suits a shop that compares a few sources, for example its website, a mailer and a sign.
• Growth $199 (10 numbers, 3,000 minutes) suits a single-store dealership: three departments with two or three sources each is six to nine numbers.
• Scale $399 (25 numbers, 7,500 minutes) suits a group with several stores, each with departments of its own.

A new account can hold up to 3 numbers during its first 30 days; an order for more is held for review. After that, the full count of its plan applies.

A minute is one started minute of a forwarded call, counted on the inbound leg: a call that lasts 2 minutes and 10 seconds uses 3 minutes. Minutes are pooled across all your numbers. To size minutes, multiply the calls you expect in a month by their average length.

Prefer to talk first? The Talk to us form is optional, and it creates no account. What each plan includes is on the pricing page.