AutoPoint: What It Does and How a Dealership Uses It

A buyer's guide to AutoPoint and the service lane category, and how LeadLocate works beside it on the customer side: texts with photos, trades on the lift, deal pages and credit applications by text.

AutoPoint is a fixed operations software provider focused on the service lane and on keeping service customers coming back. Its products have covered online service scheduling, digital check in for the drive, multipoint inspection workflow in which technicians record findings and customers approve recommended work from their phones, and service reminders and marketing that bring customers back for the next interval. The common thread is the service visit itself: getting the customer booked, informed and approved faster.

Module names and bundles change over time, and every store buys a different mix, so treat this page as a map of the category rather than a spec sheet. Confirm current modules, pricing and terms with the vendor.

Where AutoPoint sits in the store is straightforward. It works between the customer and the dealer management system you run: the appointment and inspection happen in AutoPoint, the repair order lives in the DMS, and service reminders keep the cycle going. A store that has that rhythm working should keep it. This guide covers what a buyer should look for in the service lane category and then the customer conversations that happen around the visit, which is the ground LeadLocate covers.

The service visit in an AutoPoint store usually starts before the customer arrives. The appointment was booked online or by phone, and a reminder went out the day before. At the drive, the advisor checks the customer in, confirms concerns, and sends the car to the shop. The technician works through the inspection, recording findings with notes and pictures, and the recommended work goes to the customer for approval on a phone. Approved work flows onto the repair order in the dealer management system, and the advisor updates the customer when the car is ready.

After the visit, the reminder cycle takes over: a message when the next service is due, a campaign for customers who have not returned, and offers timed to the season. The service manager watches approval rates on recommended work, appointments booked and customer retention.

Inside that routine sit moments the service department is not measured on. The inspection shows the car needs brakes, tires and a timing belt, and the total is uncomfortable next to the value of the vehicle. The customer mentions her family is growing. The lease on the car in bay four ends in six weeks. Each of those is a sales opportunity, and each one needs a salesperson, a trade number and a follow up plan. That is the conversation LeadLocate carries.

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Service lane software touches every customer who comes through the drive, so the evaluation deserves real scenarios, not a slide deck. Take these questions into the demo.

• Inspection to approval. How long from a technician's finding to a customer's approval, and what does the customer see on the phone? Ask for a live example.
• Declined work. Where declined recommendations are stored, who can see them, and how they are followed up.
• Connection to your DMS. Who maintains it, what it costs, and how approved work reaches the repair order.
• Texting and consent. Which number texts the customer, where consent lives, and whether a stop carries into your other tools.
• Data ownership. Whether you can export inspection, appointment and customer history whenever you want it.
• Pricing and term. Per rooftop, per advisor or per module, plus term length and renewal notice.

Confirm current pricing and terms with the vendor directly. Our guides to digital vehicle inspection software and digital service lane software cover the category in more depth.

AutoPoint runs the service visit. The dealer management system you run holds the repair order. LeadLocate runs every customer conversation that points toward a vehicle sale, from the first text to the signed deal, on one record the sales manager can see. It runs on its own login with DMS access not required, so the service lane keeps working exactly as it does today while the sales layer goes live around it.

Each system does the job it was designed for. The service lane tool is built around the car in the bay. LeadLocate is built around the person in the waiting room and what they might drive next.

A customer waiting on an inspection has a phone in hand and time to read. LeadLocate's sales texting is built for that moment. The rep sends from the store's tracking number, and the vehicle button in the composer attaches a specific unit from live inventory as an MMS with photos and price, supplied by Inventory Link from the store's feed or imported from the store's own website. Messages go as RCS with automatic SMS fallback, so customers on supported phones get a richer branded message and every other phone still receives the text. Every bubble shows its delivery status: sent, delivered or failed.

The writing is quick. The AI writing assistant drafts a message from a short instruction, AI merge fields fill in the customer's name and vehicle, and voice dictation lets a rep on the drive talk instead of type. Trackable short links show whether the customer opened the vehicle page, and every text, call and email lands on one communications timeline on the lead. Jax, the bilingual AI assistant inside the CRM, answers the rep in English or Spanish.

Our page on sending vehicles by text walks through the composer, and service texting software covers the service side of messaging.

An inspection is the clearest look at a trade a used car manager ever gets. The LeadLocate mobile app turns it into an appraisal in place. A salesperson taps New Lead, scans the customer's driver license into the record with the identity scanner, and tags the lead to a Service Lane source in Lead Feeds Manager so the store can measure what the drive produces. In-Store Now flags the customer as physically in the building. The trade-in form captures the VIN by scan and photos of the vehicle, and the trade info scanner reads the details so nobody types seventeen characters in a service bay.

The used car manager sees the trade from the desk on the same record. Start New Deal opens EZ Desking with the customer and trade already on the worksheet: cash, finance and lease structures side by side, the 50 state tax matrix, trade credit caps and three lease tax methods. For a customer staring at a large repair estimate, the pencil that matters compares a monthly payment on the replacement against the cost of fixing the old car.

Paperwork collects itself. The deal jacket takes uploads and QR intake from a phone camera, so the insurance card and registration go straight onto the deal. See trade-in capture and VIN scan for the full walkthrough.

The customer does not have to walk to the desk to see numbers. A PIN protected customer deal page, branded to the store, goes out by text with the structures the store chose, deal chat with the salesperson, a revision view of every version sent, and e-signature on the same page. The digital retail flow on the deal page covers the build, document review and deal review, so the customer can move the deal forward from the waiting room. If the customer wants to know about payments first, a SecureWebX apply link collects a secure credit application with e-signed consent, and the application arrives in the finance office while the repair is still in progress.

The phone deserves the same care as the drive. LeadLocate's IVR call flow builder routes service callers to service and vehicle callers to sales, business hours routing handles after hours calls, and call forwarding rings a list the store builds from its own users. Missed call text back opens a text thread when a call goes unanswered. Every call is recorded and transcribed, and Call Alerts flag the words a manager chooses, such as trade in or payment, so a buying signal from a service caller reaches the sales desk.

Most service customers say not today, and that is where the follow up earns its keep. Follow Up Processes run multi step drips per lead type, so Service Lane leads get their own cadence of texts, call tasks and check ins timed to the next service visit, and Automated Templates answer replies at any hour. Before a list campaign goes out, the phone validator and email validator clean the contacts and the DNC Blacklist runs a live do not call lookup. A reply of stop is honored on the record.

The Reports dashboard shows Service Lane leads next to every other source, with desked deals and deliveries by salesperson, and Manager Lead Copies put the sales manager on the feed so nothing from the drive goes unseen. Team Chat keeps advisors and salespeople in touch without personal phones.

CRM Only starts at $199 a month, month to month with no long term contract. Plans with exclusive local leads include the CRM: every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you, prescreened at capture with the questions you choose, and backed by a replacement review. We cannot guarantee lead counts, close rates or sales results, because those depend on your market and your team. Every plan is on the pricing page.

Should we keep AutoPoint if we add LeadLocate?

Yes. AutoPoint keeps running scheduling, check in, inspections and service reminders. LeadLocate runs beside it and carries the sales conversation: texts with vehicle photos, the trade appraisal, the worksheet, the customer deal page, the credit application and the follow up.

Do AutoPoint and LeadLocate need to be connected?

A connection is not required. LeadLocate runs on its own login with DMS access not required, so it goes live the same day. A store that wants a daily list from its service tools to land in the CRM asks for it, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

How does a salesperson appraise a trade during a service visit?

On the LeadLocate mobile app, the trade-in form captures the VIN by scan and photos of the vehicle on the lift. The used car manager sees them on the same lead record and puts a value on the EZ Desking worksheet.

Can the customer review numbers without coming to the desk?

Yes. A PIN protected customer deal page goes out by text with the structures the store chose, deal chat, a revision view and e-signature. A SecureWebX apply link by text collects the credit application from the waiting room.

How do we text service customers about vehicles responsibly?

The store owns consent, and LeadLocate supports it. The first text says who is texting and why, a reply of stop is honored on the record, and the DNC Blacklist runs a live do not call lookup before a number is contacted.

What does LeadLocate cost next to AutoPoint?

CRM Only starts at $199 a month, month to month with no long term contract, and plans with exclusive local leads include the CRM. We cannot guarantee lead counts or sales results. Confirm AutoPoint pricing and terms with the vendor directly.

Watch the recorded demo or call 844-376-2274 to see a trade scanned on the lift and a deal page sent by text. AutoPoint keeps the service lane running; LeadLocate turns the visit into a sale.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.