myKaarma: What It Does and How a Dealership Uses It

A guide to myKaarma for service directors, and a clear plan for sharing the customer with the sales side of the store in LeadLocate.

myKaarma is a software company built around one idea: service customers would rather text than call, and a service department that communicates by text runs faster and collects approvals sooner. Its platform is aimed at advisors and service managers, and most dealers know it as the tool that turned the service visit into a text conversation.

Around that core, myKaarma is known for helping advisors send photos and video of recommended work, collecting payment by text so the customer can pay before arriving, and coordinating pickup and delivery when the store collects the car from the customer. Each of those lives inside the service visit, tied to the repair order.

This guide covers what the category does well, what to ask before you sign, and how to share one customer between myKaarma on the service side and LeadLocate on the sales side without confusing anyone. Confirm current myKaarma features, pricing and contract terms directly with the vendor, since products change.

Service texting. The advisor and the customer trade messages about the car in the shop: arrival, findings, estimate, approval, ready for pickup. The thread follows the repair order, which keeps the advisor's day organized around the cars in the bay.

Photo and video updates. A technician's short video of a worn part or a leaking seal explains a recommendation better than any advisor can over the phone, and stores across this category report that customers approve more readily when they can see the problem.

Payment by text. The customer receives a link, pays from their phone, and skips the cashier line. That shortens pickup and is one of the features dealers mention most when they talk about myKaarma.

Pickup and delivery. For stores that collect and return vehicles, the platform is known for tools that schedule and track those trips. Our service pickup and delivery software page explains the category.

All of it serves one moment: the car is with you, and the customer wants to know what is happening. That is a valuable moment and myKaarma is known for handling it. The customer relationship before and after the visit is a separate job.

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Start with the connection to the dealer management system you run. Which DMS does it read repair orders from, who maintains the connection, and how does it behave if you change DMS? Service texting tied to the repair order is only as good as that link.

Ask about phone numbers. Which number do customers see when an advisor texts, can the store keep that number if it ever moves, and how are replies routed when an advisor is out? A customer who texts a number that nobody watches is a customer who calls the shop across the street.

Ask about consent and opt outs. How is texting consent captured, and does an opt out in the service thread carry to every other system your store uses to text? That answer matters more than any feature.

Finally, ask about exports. How do you get your message history and customer contacts out, in what format, at what cost? Confirm current pricing and terms with myKaarma directly and get them in writing.

Both platforms send texts, so the division has to be clear. The rule that works: the service visit texts from myKaarma, everything else texts from LeadLocate. Advisors keep their repair order threads where they are. Sales, the BDC, marketing and the phone system run in LeadLocate, with no DMS connection required.

Put that rule in writing for advisors and salespeople and the customer never gets two stores' worth of texts. They get a service conversation about the car in the bay and a sales conversation about the next one.

Two texting platforms in one store means two places a customer can say stop. Handle it deliberately and it is simple.

In LeadLocate, the DNC Blacklist applies across every channel: a number on it is blocked for texts, calls and campaigns store wide, and inbound spam from a blocked number is stopped both ways. A live do not call lookup checks numbers before anyone dials, and opt outs from any LeadLocate campaign are honored everywhere in the CRM. Blacklist import lets a manager load a list of numbers in one step, so a regular export of service opt outs can be added to the LeadLocate blacklist on a schedule the store sets.

Write the rule down: any customer who opts out of service texts is added to the LeadLocate blacklist, and any customer who opts out in LeadLocate is flagged in the service system. That takes a few minutes a week and protects the store from the one mistake that costs real money. The DNC scrub and blacklist page shows how it works on screen.

Texting handles the customers who already have a thread with an advisor. New customers, returning customers without a car in the shop, and anyone who simply prefers to talk still pick up the phone, and a busy drive lets many of those calls ring out.

LeadLocate's phone system catches them. Tracking numbers per source show which ad, listing or page produced each call. The IVR call flow builder routes service callers to service and sales callers to sales, with your own recorded audio and saved revisions. Business hours routing and a Forward Calls To ring list decide who rings, when and in what order.

If nobody answers, missed call text back opens a text thread with the caller within minutes. Every call is recorded and transcribed, and Call Alerts check each transcript for the words the store chooses, so a manager learns about the caller who said "trade in" before the day is over. Voicemail greetings are recorded in the browser, and Voicemail Drop sends a recorded message to a list when a callback campaign runs.

The service texts often reveal the opportunity. A customer who replies to a large estimate with "at this point I should just trade it" has told you exactly what to do next. The advisor's job is to pass that to sales in under a minute, and the salesperson's job is to take it from there in a different system built for selling.

In LeadLocate, the advisor or whoever walks the drive opens the LeadLocate app, taps New Lead and scans the driver license into the record. In-Store Now tells the desk the customer is on the lot. The trade-in form with VIN scan captures the car with photos while it is in the bay. The salesperson texts a replacement from live inventory with photos and price, then opens EZ Desking with the customer and the trade on the worksheet and sends a customer deal page with e-signature by text.

Every call, text, email and voicemail from the sales side lands on one timeline on the lead record, so the manager sees the whole conversation. The service to sales campaigns page covers the marketing side of the same idea.

A repair order thread ends when the car leaves. Retention happens in the months after. Follow Up Processes in LeadLocate run multi step drips by lead type: a declined brake job, a customer who has not been in for a year, a first visit after purchase. Scheduled sends time each message, short links with click stats show who opened it, and the phone validator and email validator clean old lists before they go out.

Growth needs new customers, and LeadLocate brings them. Our team builds and runs campaigns on the webXintel Ads Network from your Leads Manager selections: your zone, campaign type and prescreening questions. Every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you, prescreened at capture, and backed by a replacement review. Marketplace Acquisitions adds opt in seller leads from local owners who asked for an offer on their vehicle. We cannot guarantee lead counts, close rates or results.

Nothing in the rollout touches myKaarma or your repair order threads. Start with the phones: tracking numbers, a short IVR, a ring list and missed call text back. Set the texting rule for advisors and salespeople, and set up the weekly opt out exchange. Then put the LeadLocate app on the phones of whoever walks the drive and build a Service Lane feed with its own Automated Templates and Follow Up Process.

CRM Only starts from $199 a month and plans with exclusive leads start from $799, month to month with no long term contract and built for US dealerships. Training is included with every plan. See the pricing page or call 844-376-2274.

Does LeadLocate replace myKaarma?

No, it runs beside it. Keep myKaarma for repair order texting, video updates, payment by text and pickup and delivery. LeadLocate handles the phones, missed call text back, sales texting, the service to sales handoff and retention follow up.

Both platforms send texts. How do we avoid confusing customers?

Use one rule: the service visit texts from myKaarma and everything else texts from LeadLocate. Put it in writing for advisors and salespeople so each conversation stays in its own place.

How do we keep opt outs consistent across both systems?

Add service opt outs to the LeadLocate DNC Blacklist, which blocks a number across every channel, and flag LeadLocate opt outs in the service system. Blacklist import makes the weekly exchange a quick task.

Do we need to connect LeadLocate to myKaarma or our DMS?

No connection is required. LeadLocate runs on its own, so the phone system, sales texting and follow up can start without an integration project.

How does a service conversation become a sales lead?

From the LeadLocate app, whoever walks the drive creates the lead, scans the driver license, flags the customer In-Store Now and captures the trade with VIN scan and photos. The desk can pencil it in EZ Desking right away.

What does LeadLocate cost?

CRM Only starts from $199 a month and plans with exclusive leads start from $799, month to month with no long term contract. Details are on the pricing page.

See the phone system, missed call text back and the service to sales handoff working beside your service texting. Month to month, no long term contract.

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