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Boatzon is a leading digital marketplace for boat financing and transactions, revolutionizing the marine industry by bringing modern financing methods to a traditionally lagging sector. Founded with the vision to create a "Carvana for boats," Boatzon has onboarded approximately 2,400 dealers and lists about 90,000 boats on their platform.
While Boatzon continued to innovate how consumers find, finance, and purchase boats they faced significant challenges with their customer engagement operations:
These challenges were particularly critical in the financing workflow, where Boatzon needed to quickly connect with pre-qualified applicants to complete their applications and move them through the approval process.
They first turned to outsourcing a call center to address these bottlenecks, little did they know that these call centers come with entirely different bottlenecks of their own:
"We tried an outside call center to just handle some of the fronting where we did most of the closing and any approvals but that has challenges too... it's a training and somebody quit oh my god what do we do we got to train... it becomes a mess." - Bryan Lenett
The solution that Boatzon found to transform their operations? Retell AI.
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Before Retell AI, Boatzon relied on a team of 7-8 representatives to contact customers who had been pre-qualified for boat financing. This critical touchpoint required personalized outreach to move customers through the financing funnel, but connection rates were persistently low.
With Retell AI, Boatzon deployed "Anna," an AI voice agent who now manages all outbound follow-up calls. Anna contacts pre-qualified customers within minutes of their application, identifies herself as calling from Boatzon about their recent financing inquiry, and offers to help complete their application.
What makes this approach particularly effective:
"Anna's our super AI employee of the month, every month...she's doing better than those seven or eight people were." - Bryan Lenett
Boatzon's underwriting team was constantly pulled between answering inbound questions and focusing on revenue-generating approval activities. This split focus created inefficiencies and slowed down the application completion process.
Retell AI's voice agents has supercharged Boatzon's inbound support calls, allowing the underwriting team to stay focused on generating revenue. Anna answers customer questions, helps with application completion, and only transfers calls to the underwriting team when necessary.
This approach has been particularly valuable for Boatzon's demographic, which includes many customers who prefer voice conversations to digital only experiences.
Boatzon's technical team led the integration of Retell AI with their existing systems. As a technology-focused company, they found the implementation process straightforward:
The technical team at Boatzon particularly appreciated the ability to disposition calls automatically and integrate with their existing CRM systems, ensuring no leads fall through the cracks.
Boatzon's use of Retell AI has produced meaningful results across their operations:
Most importantly, Retell AI solved the challenge of connecting with busy professionals during their limited available time. By calling during lunch hours, evenings, and weekends, Anna reaches more potential customers at times when they're available to talk.
"Most people buying boats are professionals like ourselves. When I get a call during the day, there's a slim chance I'm picking up. It's just not happening." - Bryan Lenett
For businesses exploring AI voice automation, Boatzon's journey offers valuable insights:
By automating routine outreach and support, Boatzon freed their underwriting team to focus on revenue-generating activities. The AI doesn't replace the team—it makes them more effective by handling the repetitive tasks that previously consumed their time.
Boatzon is actively exploring new AI-powered use cases with Retell, including:
For businesses struggling with customer engagement and follow-up, Boatzon's experience demonstrates that thoughtfully implemented AI voice agents can deliver substantial operational benefits without sacrificing the personal touch that customers expect.