Make AI sound like your store

By Steve Baylis

Three settings. Six minutes. Done.

You’re going to do three things, in order:

1. Tell AI when you’re open
2. Pick how AI talks
3. Tell AI what’s special about your store

Most of the time goes into step 3. Steps 1 and 2 are 60 seconds each.

Step 1 — Set your hours (60 seconds)

Open Settings → Speed to Lead → Hours.

Seven fields, one per day. Set your real operating hours. If you close early on Saturdays or you’re closed Sundays, set that.

Don’t put down “9 AM to 9 PM seven days a week” because it sounds aspirational. Customers will text in at 7:45 PM thinking you’re still open, AI starts a conversation, and Monday morning your sales floor walks into a hot lead expecting a callback that never happened.

Real hours. Save.

Step 2 — Pick a voice baseline (60 seconds)

Below the hours, four options:

• Friendly + direct (recommended for most stores)
• Polished + professional (luxury brands — Audi, BMW, Lexus)
• Casual + warm (community-focused, smaller markets)
• Custom (we’ll cover in step 3)

Most stores want Friendly + direct. Talks like your top BDC rep — real person who knows cars. If you sell premium brands, pick Polished. The voice is still warm, just slightly more measured.

Save.

Step 3 — Write your key notes (4 minutes)

This is where AI stops sounding like any dealership and starts sounding like yours.

Grab the AI Agent Key Notes Template. It’s pre-formatted with worked examples for five sections:

1. Top 3 brand quirks — what’s actually special about your store
2. Current promotion — what AI should mention naturally
3. What AI should never quote — the boundaries (always: “never quote firm pricing”)
4. How AI introduces itself — your BDC name + intro tone
5. Tone calibration — one sentence on how you talk

Total target: 80 words across all five sections. Not a novel.

Fill it in. Open Settings → Speed to Lead → Key Notes. Paste. Save.

Why this works

The voice picker sets the baseline tone. The key notes set the specifics. Together, AI sounds like your dealership — not a generic chatbot.

Get this lesson right and the rest of the course is decoration. Get it wrong and customers feel like they’re texting a robot.

Mark this complete and move on to escalation rules — when AI hands off to a human.