Call in 24 minutes
What 30 mystery shops of Carvana’s stores and nearby franchise dealers show about follow-up, plus a creator playbook from a $10M TikTok Shop brand.
7 min read
The Lead
LeadVantage mystery-shopped Carvana’s seven company-owned Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram stores this fall, along with 10 traditional franchise dealers in the same markets. They submitted vehicle inquiries, booked service appointments, and scored what happened next.
The finding most people will repeat is that Carvana’s stores never picked up the phone. None of the seven called the shopper. Nine of the 10 traditional dealers did.
The more useful findings are in the details.
Speed and a human voice still win sales
LeadVantage weights a phone call more heavily than a text or an email. Six traditional dealers scored 80 or higher, which LeadVantage rates “great,” and all six called within 24 minutes of the inquiry. The one traditional dealer that never called scored 38. The Carvana stores scored between 26 and 38.
The franchise emails were also more personal. All 10 named a salesperson, and six suggested an appointment. None of the seven Carvana emails named a rep or asked for an appointment. LeadVantage found no human anywhere in Carvana’s sales outreach.
That’s consistent with Carvana’s own numbers. Its Q4 2025 shareholder letter said more than 30 percent of buyers finish without talking to a customer advocate until delivery. Applying the same approach to franchise stores is a deliberate bet, and on this scorecard it’s losing to dealers who just call.
The machine wins on consistency
Carvana’s stores weren’t sloppy, though. All seven texted the shopper within 10 minutes. Five of the seven emailed a price quote, while only four of the 10 franchise dealers did.
In service, all seven Carvana stores scored an identical 72. Each one confirmed the appointment and sent a reminder through at least two channels. Of the four traditional dealers shopped for service, two matched that standard, and two sent one confirmation and no reminder at all.
So automation gave Carvana a floor: every store did the basics the same way, every time. The franchise dealers had a higher ceiling and a much lower floor, with sales scores ranging from 38 to 92. LeadVantage’s CEO said every dealer runs a different process, even on the same CRM and the same AI tools.
The no-show nobody chases
Only one of the 11 service shops followed up after the shopper missed the appointment. That was a traditional CDJR store near Dallas, which also posted the highest service score of anyone, a 91. Across LeadVantage’s service shops nationally over the past year, 65.7 percent got no follow-up after a no-show.
Think about who that customer is. They found you, chose a time, and gave you their contact information. They’re further along than any conquest lead you’re paying for, and most stores let them go without a single text.
What to do this month
- Shop yourself. Submit a vehicle inquiry on your own site and book a service appointment you won’t keep. Do it from a number and email your team won’t recognize, and track what happens for 48 hours.
- Set a five-minute standard. LeadVantage recommends a call, a text, and an email on every sales lead within five minutes. If your process skips a channel, have a reason backed by data, not habit.
- Automate the floor. Confirmations, day-before reminders, and no-show follow-ups shouldn’t depend on who’s working the BDC that day. That’s what Carvana got right, and it’s the cheapest fix on this list.
- Keep the human for the ceiling. The top franchise scores came from people who called fast and put their names on the follow-up. Automation can make sure nothing gets missed, but on this scorecard it didn’t close the gap on a real call.
The caveat
This is a small sample, and LeadVantage itself calls its scoring the subjective part of the process. The pattern is still hard to argue with. The best stores combined fast human contact with automated basics. The worst had neither.
When did someone last shop your own store’s follow-up, and what did you find?
Borrowed: Shapermint’s 5,000 everyday creators
Shapermint sells shapewear to women 35 to 65. That audience usually gets ignored on TikTok. Shapermint built its TikTok Shop on it anyway, and it’s working:
- $1.5 million in sales in its first four months of the year
- on track for about $10 million this year
- month-over-month growth that peaked at 515 percent
It doesn’t use celebrities. It has more than 5,000 affiliate creators, all regular women, and 60 percent of its top performers are over 35. Since January they’ve posted more than 20,000 videos, over 5,000 of them in the last 30 days. One creator has earned more than $31,900 so far.
The videos that sell are simple: a woman who looks like the customer, wearing the product while doing normal things, showing that it doesn’t slip or ride up. Brand director Gabrielle Richards said the product is hard to understand “without feeling and touching the product.” Watching someone with a similar body type wear it is the next best thing.
The system behind it is what makes it repeatable:
- Weekly creative briefs go out to creators in a Discord channel.
- The team studies the top performers’ posts and shares what worked so other creators can copy it.
- Creators who request a free sample and don’t post within a set window get penalized.
The dealer version
A car has the same problem. Shoppers want to see it in a life like theirs: car seats in the third row, a stroller in the cargo area, golf clubs in the trunk, the morning commute.
Your sold customers already live that life. Recruit a small group of owners of your best-selling models, such as five Telluride owners, five Tacoma owners, and five CR-V owners. Look for people who match the shoppers you want, not people with big followings.
Give them a monthly brief with one idea per model. Pay them through your referral program. Every month, share the best video with the whole group so everyone learns what works.
Two things to check before launch:
- Every post needs a clear paid-partnership disclosure under FTC rules.
- Some states restrict paying referral fees on vehicle sales, so confirm yours with counsel.
What to measure
- views per video by model
- visits to that model’s VDPs
- leads where the CRM source names the creator
Signals
Hybrids are where the demand is. CarGurus’ Q3 review shows new hybrid sales up 24% year to date and used hybrids up nearly 33%, with gas averaging $4.48 in late September. Used 2026 RAV4 Hybrids are listing at 116% of new MSRP. Used EV inventory is up 60% year over year, but prices fell only 5%. If you have hybrids in stock, say so in your search ads and on your homepage this week, and put days-to-sell data in front of your used EV pricing before the units age. CBT News
Google is putting an AI answer above your store name. Ahrefs tracked 233 million US desktop searches from July through September and found AI Overviews on 83% of branded results by late September, up from a 61% monthly average in July. In about three of four cases the AI answer sat in the top position, above the brand’s own site. The most-cited sources were Wikipedia, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Ahrefs tested big global brands, not dealers, so search your store name with “reviews,” “service,” and “hours” and see what Google says before a shopper does. Ahrefs
Google Ads is testing a ROAS calculator that starts from your margin. A beta tool lets you enter your average profit margin, and Google suggests the breakeven Target ROAS. For example, a 15% margin needs a 667% ROAS just to cover ad spend. It also projects weekly clicks, revenue, and profit. It’s only as good as the margin you enter. If you can’t get the beta yet, do the math yourself for service and parts campaigns: 1 divided by your margin is your breakeven ROAS. Compare that to the target your agency set. Search Engine Land