Customer case · Ghiraldo & Autoin

44.7% of leads arrived after hours

First half of 2026, Ghiraldo & Autoin website. Almost one in two observed contacts arrived between 6 and 9 or between 18 and midnight — when the BDC is closed or coverage is thin. The figure shows when demand appears. It does not show how many extra cars you sold.

After-hours customer chatting with Ghiraldo & Autoin

Dealership

Ghiraldo & Autoin

Period

H1 2026

Channel

Website, with MIA

Off-peak leads

44.7%

Ownership (staffed hours)

about 5 minutes

Total sample

not published

Customers do not watch showroom hours

Customers do not plan their interest around dealership opening hours. They ask when they see the right vehicle, have time to discuss a trade-in, or want to book a test drive. A website that is technically online all day does not solve that gap if a 22:30 request receives only an acknowledgement.

That is the starting point of the work between Ghiraldo & Autoin and MIA. The goal is not to add another chatbot. It is to shorten the distance between customer interest and the moment the BDC has enough context to act.

«Customers do not know our opening hours. They only know when they need us.»

Ghiraldo & Autoin

What we measured

  • Observed bands: 06:00–09:00 and 18:00–24:00, at the edge of normal coverage.
  • 44.7% is the share of observed leads in those bands over the period — not a before/after MIA comparison.
  • In high-coverage hours, team ownership was observed around five minutes. Overnight the interval stretches: that is the control point, not a sales claim.

What 44.7% does not prove

  • It is not a sales increase, nor a conversion-rate improvement.
  • It does not prove MIA generated those leads. It describes when they arrived.
  • The total number of leads in the period has not been published. Without that total, 44.7% is an order of magnitude, not a board figure.
  • Five-minute ownership applies to staffed hours, not the full day.
Chart: 44.7% of observed leads in the 6–9 and 18–24 bands
Timing of leads observed by Ghiraldo & Autoin in H1 2026.

Three steps, one flow

MIA does not replace the BDC. It keeps the conversation open, gathers context and shows where a contact goes cold.

Lead flow: capture, contextualize, BDC ownership
MIA prepares context. The BDC owns the commercial next step.

1. Capture

MIA first keeps a useful conversation open before the BDC starts, after it closes, or during reduced coverage. The customer can begin from the vehicle page they are viewing and receive a contextual response instead of stopping at «we will call you back».

Covering 24/7 does not mean pretending a person is there. It means stating that an agent is responding, handling the requests it is configured for, and handing over when commercial judgement, negotiation or specific assistance is needed.

2. Contextualize

A contact detail does not explain why the customer wrote. MIA can collect the vehicle of interest, request type, urgency, trade-in information, and preferred next step. The BDC receives a conversation with usable context rather than an isolated row in a queue.

  • Source page or vehicle
  • Customer need and information already collected
  • Urgency and preferred contact channel
  • Test-drive, appraisal, appointment, or callback request
  • Conversation history for BDC handoff

3. Own

When the BDC takes over, the team does not need to rebuild the request from scratch. Ghiraldo & Autoin has also started measuring this stage: during high-coverage periods, ownership can happen in around five minutes, while night-time requests naturally create longer intervals.

That variation is exactly what matters. Capturing an opportunity is only the first step. Operational value emerges when the correct team receives, reads, and progresses it with continuity. MIA does not replace the BDC; it prepares its work and reveals where an opportunity risks going cold.

What to measure next

«How many chats did we handle?» is not a showroom KPI. Use process numbers you can compare month to month.

  • Requests by time band and channel (site, portal, WhatsApp, phone).
  • Time from first message to a useful conversation, not an autoresponder.
  • Completeness of the profile handed to the BDC.
  • Time to ownership, split by staffed vs unstaffed hours.
  • Appointments and outcomes, split by source.

The first figure shared by Ghiraldo & Autoin makes a common dealership problem tangible: demand does not concentrate in the hours that are easiest to cover. Capture, contextualize, and own are three parts of one flow. MIA connects them while people continue to create value in the relationship.

Compare with the aggregated summer 2026 MIA report →

Sources

Questions from owners and BDC leads

Before you put the figure on a slide

What you can say in a meeting — and what you cannot.

No. It is the share of observed leads that arrived between 6–9 and 18–24 in H1 2026. It describes timing, not volume or sales uplift.

Not on its own. Sample size is unpublished and there is no before/after conversion comparison. The operational value is knowing when leads arrive and how long the BDC takes to own them.

No. The agent keeps the conversation open and gathers context. The BDC assigns, calls back and books. Without ownership the contact goes cold even if the chat replied.

A baseline by time band and channel, a definition of «observed lead», and times to first useful conversation and to ownership. In a demo we rebuild those numbers on your site and CRM.

When do leads arrive in your dealership?

In a demo we open your site’s time bands, what reaches the BDC, and where contacts stall. Your flow, your hours.

We need dealer consent and period data. We do not publish a percentage without saying how many leads it is based on.