Multilingual receptionist for car dealerships

They rang the number under the English listing

Saturday, late morning. The salesperson is already in the grey Peugeot with a couple who walked in at ten. The only keys for that car are in the ignition. In the workshop a technician is under a diesel on the lift, oil draining. Someone at the desk is tagging drop-off keys. The phone on the pillar rings.

The caller did not search for your firm. They searched for a used diesel automatic, in English, because that is the language the portal showed them. Three cards came back. They tapped yours. They will tap the next one if this goes to a Greek greeting and a beep.

The salesperson cannot pick up. The technician cannot pick up. The person at the desk has a customer in front of them.

That is a normal Saturday on a Greek lot that lists in English and keeps a workshop on the same number. The person on a sofa in Munich, the couple who work in English in Athens, the driver who wants an oil change before they drive north: they start in the language of the card, or in the language they have. German, French, Italian and Albanian show up the same week, for the same reason. You do not need a plan per language. You need someone on that number who can continue the first sentence, and who will not invent that the Peugeot is still there because they can say it clearly.

Two ways this call goes wrong

They hang up. That is the first way. They heard Greek, or four rings and a tone, and they went back to the listing. You listen later and hear almost nothing, and you conclude that foreign buyers write. Some of them do. The ones who rang wanted to talk today, with the listing still open on their phone.

They get an answer that is too helpful. That is the second way, and it costs Saturday rather than a lead. An assistant that speaks German well will want to close the loop: yes, that Peugeot, yes, around that price, yes, come at eleven. Said slowly, it sounds like competence. It is still an invented car and an invented figure. The caller will keep the sentence. They will book a flight on it.

A third thing sits next to those. People who are not in the country ask whether they can put the car on German plates, what the transfer costs, whether finance will go through from abroad. The assistant writes those questions down in the caller’s words and stops. It does not become a lawyer or a bank because it can form the sentences.

Sales or service first, in whatever they opened with

The opening is still sales or service. English on the line does not mean they want a car. A German resident with a service light on, a tourist whose rental is due back, a driver who wants a KTEO prep before the sticker runs out — they ring the number on the banner because that is the number they have. If the assistant treats every foreign caller as a buyer, a customer who wants an oil change spends three minutes being offered a test drive.

If they name a listing, write it down exactly — make, year, colour, the fuel if they said it, the site if they said Car.gr or somewhere else. Do not add a status the stock file has not confirmed. Do not turn a vague English title into a different car.

If they have not picked a car, take what they can actually say: body type, automatic or not, a budget band if they offer one, when they can come. “A nice diesel, not too many kilometres” is not something a salesperson can work from when they get out of the passenger seat. “Used, small automatic, Saturday late morning” is.

Service. What they want done, the registration if they have it — including a foreign plate — and when they can leave the car. They may not know the word KTEO. They will say roadworthy, MOT, the sticker, the test before the end of the month. Write the phrases you actually hear, so the assistant does not book a full inspection when they wanted a prep, or a prep when you do not issue the official test.

A caller who left a car yesterday, wants to know if it is ready, or wants to move Tuesday’s booking, should not be asked whether they are calling about a car for sale, in any language. Listen for the job card, the registration, the word “ready”. Those calls belong to the workshop book.

A new-car order is still not a used car on the gravel. Allocation, a wait, a discount off a list: the assistant does not invent any of that in French either. It takes the model they named and a time for someone on sales to call.

The rule the assistant must obey

Same facts, any language.

It may confirm a car is still on the lot only when your stock record says so at that moment. It may repeat a figure only when that figure is in the record you connected. It may book a test drive against a free salesperson and a car that is actually there. It may book a bay against the workshop book. It may do those things in 70+ languages.

It may not say the Peugeot is there because the listing is still up. It may not convert a euro price into pounds to be helpful. It may not estimate. It may not say a car is ready, or that a courtesy car is waiting, unless the job card says so. It may not diagnose a noise. It may not approve finance, promise a delivery month, or decide a transfer. It may not send a Greek text after an English call.

When the file is silent, the English sentence is the same as the Greek one: I cannot confirm that from here; I have the car you mean, or the work you need; someone will call you.

What you configure first

1. English as a working language on the number already on the listings. Not a second line. Not a note that says if they sound foreign, transfer.
2. The same first question in every language you expect to hear — sales or service — written so it cannot be skipped.
3. The fields a desk can act on. Make, year, colour, fuel, registration or foreign plate, what they want done, when they can come. If these are not fields, the transcript is a story.
4. The two bans, written in the languages you actually hear, so a fluent model does not improve them only in English: no invented stock, no invented price.
5. Two books. A test drive is not a bay. Saturday sales hours are not Saturday workshop hours.
6. The confirmation text follows the language of the call. Test this. It is the thing people forget.
7. A named path for transfer, plates, tax and finance. Request, in their words, flag. No answer.
8. How a test drive works — length, who can take one, that they should bring a licence, including a foreign one if you accept it — written down, so fluency does not invent a rule.

Then listen to the first twenty calls that did not start in Greek. You are not grading the accent. You are checking that the split happened, that the car or the work is in the summary, that no figure appeared that is not in the file, and that no car was confirmed off a listing. If a call fails those, it failed, however smooth it sounded.

The buyer who is still in Munich

A lot of the English calls are from people who cannot sit in the car this Saturday. They land next month. They want to know whether the Peugeot is even still there, and whether a test drive is possible the weekend they arrive. Putting them down for eleven this Saturday, against a car they cannot see, leaves a salesperson and a set of keys reserved for an empty space on the gravel.

Offer the callback. Capture the date they arrive, the car they named, and a number that works from where they are. Do not invent a diesel automatic that would fit if the one they named has gone.

If they ask for a video walk-around, that is something a salesperson runs, not a standard test drive, unless you have actually set it up. Do not let fluency invent a video hour you do not offer.

A test drive still needs a licence in the driver’s hand. If you accept a foreign licence, say so. If you do not, the assistant should say that before it offers Saturday at eleven, not after they have bought a ticket.

A caller in Munich at 19:30 is on your pillar at 20:30. These are not odd calls you staff with “the English-speaking one, when he is on the lot”. They are the same unanswered phone as Saturday, with a language on top.

When they want the workshop, not a car

The shared number does not become a sales line just because the greeting was in English.

“Is my car ready?” is still a job-card question. The assistant reads the card. Ready, not ready, waiting for a part. If the card says ready, it can say so and tell them how to collect, in their language. If the card does not say, it takes a name and a number. It does not invent half past five in German to sound sure.

A caller who wants to move a booking follows the workshop book, not the sales diary. Set the notice you actually enforce. The assistant should say it at the end of a service booking, in the language of the call.

“The car is making a noise, can I keep driving it to Thessaloniki?” is not a reception answer in any language. The assistant does not say yes, and it does not say what the noise is. It offers a bay if one is free, or it puts the description in front of a technician. A human looks at the car.

If you run a courtesy car, the assistant offers it only when you have marked one as free. Explaining the courtesy car fluently in Italian does not create a second Polo.

A published oil-and-filter price you gave it can be repeated. Unseen used stock cannot.

A figure spoken on your number is yours

“What’s that in pounds.” “Give me a sense of the market.” “Around nine thousand?”

If the figure is not in the file, the assistant does not say it, convert it, or agree that the caller’s guess is close. A number spoken on your number is your number, in any language. The caller will keep it. They will turn up with that number already written down.

Do not store a “from” figure for the whole lot. The assistant will read it out. If nobody should name a price until someone has walked to the car, do not give it that figure — not in Greek, and not in English.

A trade-in asked from a description is the same trap, and it is worse when the description arrives in a language the desk will read later as a summary. Year, kilometres and a photo on the phone are not a valuation. The assistant takes make, year, kilometres, and that they want to put it against a car. It does not speak a trade-in figure. You look at the car.

A discount if they decide this week is a request. The assistant does not negotiate.

Transfer, plates, and finance

What they need to bring to a handover — identity, tax number, the old registration — the assistant can read back if you wrote the list. Whether a foreign buyer can complete, what a specific transfer will cost in their case, whether German plates are possible from this car: those are requests. The assistant does not give legal or tax advice.

They want to know if they can be approved from abroad, what the month would be, whether you work with a bank they name. The assistant takes a request for the person who actually runs the numbers. It does not say they are approved. It does not invent a monthly figure.

A complaint about last week’s handover, or about work that was supposed to be in the service, is the same kind of call in any language: take the name, take what they said, put it in front of you. Do not offer a free redo from the phone.

Two people, the phone handed across

Couples ring together. One speaks English, one speaks Greek, and they pass the phone. The assistant should follow the language of the sentence it just heard, and it should not lose the fields already collected when the language flips. “Grey 2019 Peugeot, diesel, Saturday” said in English is still the car when the next sentence is Greek. If the switch is messy, it reads the car or the work back once, in the language that is winning, and confirms.

If a third person comes on — a parent, a colleague in Munich, someone who “handles the money” — take their name and whether the callback should go to them. Do not restart the first question. The sales-or-service answer you already have is still the answer.

What you read when you get back to the desk

You do not need to speak German to use the fields. You need the fields. Sales or service. The car they named, in the form they used. The work they want done. Whether they are in Greece. Whether they asked for a test drive, a bay, or a callback. The number that works from abroad. The language for the text.

Check the diary that matches the job before anyone offers a Saturday hour. The caller who said October is not a test drive this week. The couple who are already in Athens and free this weekend might be. Mixing those notes is how you pull a salesperson off the lot for people who are still in Munich.

It is tempting to give English callers a longer chat and a looser hand on stock, because they are coming from abroad. That is how the English enquiries become the sloppy ones. Same first question. Same two books. Same two bans. Same text rule. The language is the only extra.

Put the assistant on the number already printed on the listing, the banner and the workshop card. One forwarding rule at the provider — everything, or only what has rung unanswered for the seconds you choose. If someone at the desk picks up, the call never leaves the lot. You are not printing a second mobile “for international”. You are answering the number they already tapped. Every line is answered at once. The bans do not change.

Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.