Car Wars has uncovered a significant shift in customer conversations. The mention of "tariffs" on dealership phone calls has increased nearly 4,000% when comparing the week of March 27, 2025, to just five weeks prior.
DALLAS, April 5, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Car Wars, the leading provider of innovative phone solutions for automotive dealerships, has uncovered a significant shift in customer conversations. The mention of "tariffs" on dealership phone calls has increased nearly 4,000% when comparing the week of March 27, 2025, to just five weeks prior. While this is a remarkable increase, it's important to note that tariff-related calls only represent 1.26% of total calls in this sample segment during the week of March 27.
Using Car Wars' advanced large language models, Car Wars audited dealership phone calls with customer-facing transcriptions and discovered a spike in the instance of calls referencing tariffs – from 918 mentions the week of February 20, 2025, to 36,955 the week of March 27, 2025 – using a limited, yet representative, subset of calls into and out of dealerships. During the same timeframe, mentions of tariffs by dealership staff, as opposed to customer mentions, spiked more than 67x, signaling a massive acceleration in volume. Furthermore, in this representative segment, the percentage of total dealership calls mentioning tariffs increased from 0.03% to 1.26% - a noteworthy but small segment of total calls.
Dealership staff are driving much of the tariff conversations – mentioning it nearly twice as often as customers. Many are using it as a strategic tool to build urgency and get buyers into the showroom. While it might seem like customers are leading the conversation, Car Wars data shows it's often the agent who brings it up first. Still, a 23x rise in customer mentions confirms there's interest and concern on both sides of the call.
"This surge in tariff-related conversations is a clear signal dealers are proactively using timely market topics to engage buyers and drive them into the showroom," said Stephane Ferri, Chief Executive Officer at Car Wars. "Dealerships need to be prepared with informed answers and strong phone processes to turn uncertainty into opportunity."
One dealer stated: "it felt like as many as 1 in 4 calls" over the weekend involved concerns about tariffs and potential vehicle pricing changes. The trend-based data from Car Wars' LLMs indicate the mentions of tariffs as a percentage of total calls continue to grow each day.
"We're closely tracking how this narrative is affecting dealership conversations," said Matt Andrus, Chief Technology Officer at Car Wars. "By surfacing these insights in real time, we're helping our dealer partners quickly adapt their messaging and improve outcomes on the phone."
Car Wars is continuing to analyze supporting data, including total call volume, intent type, and booking rates on impacted calls. Car Wars will continue to help dealerships respond effectively during this time of heightened customer sensitivity.
To learn more about how Car Wars can help your dealership navigate changing customer conversations and improve phone performance, visit https://www.carwars.com/main/.
About Car Wars
Car Wars is the trusted partner for discerning dealerships in the Automotive Retail Industry, offering premium call tracking, texting, and phone solutions. With over three decades of experience, Car Wars is the industry's most innovative and robust phone solution, meticulously crafted by industry experts and dealer insiders. Car Wars brings deep industry knowledge to provide essential phone handling tools for your team to 'Own the Phone' and dominate the market.
Backed by cutting-edge technology and unwavering dedication to customer success, Car Wars goes beyond the ordinary to help dealers achieve optimal call and text outcomes. With unparalleled CRM integrations, actionable insights and hands-on support, dealerships are able to unlock their full potential and strengthen customer relationships.
Join the automotive retail revolution with Car Wars.
Media Contact
Alyssa Whitmore, Car Wars, 1 888-801-5485, [email protected], https://carwars.com/main/
SOURCE Car Wars
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