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:

• Low Connect Rates: Their target demographic of busy professionals rarely answered calls from unknown numbers during business hours.
• Manpower Limitations: Their team of 7-8 representatives couldn't efficiently manage the volume of outbound calls needed.
• Inconsistent Follow-up: Manual processes led to missed steps in the customer journey, affecting conversion rates.
• After-hours Coverage: Potential customers seeking financing were active evenings and weekends when the team wasn't available.

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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.

At A Glance

• A single AI voice agent ("Anna") outperformed 7-8 human reps in all customer engagement  operations
• Using Retell's pre-built templates to deploy their first AI voice agent same-day
• Implemented full integration with existing systems within weeks
• Achieved higher connect and response rates while maintaining consistent 80% call quality benchmark with automated follow-up handling
• Dual-channel engagement managing both outbound follow-ups and inbound support

Use Case 1: Outbound Lead Follow-up

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:

• Strategic Timing: Anna calls minutes after customers show interest and during peak response times (lunch hours, evenings, weekends) when customers are more likely to answer.
• Consistent Messaging: Every call follows the same high-quality script, ensuring compliance requirements are met and key information is never missed.
• Immediate Engagement: The speed of follow-up has proven critical in converting pre-qualified leads to completed applications.

"Anna's our super AI employee of the month, every month...she's doing better than those seven or eight people were." - Bryan Lenett

Use Case 2: Inbound Support Optimization

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.

• Streamlined Triage: Anna efficiently handles routine inquiries about application status, documentation requirements, and next steps.
• SMS Integration: After pre-qualification, Anna can text links to customers to finish their financing applications.
• Smart Transfers: When appropriate, Anna can transfer customers directly to available team members for complex questions.

This approach has been particularly valuable for Boatzon's demographic, which includes many customers who prefer voice conversations to digital only experiences.

Implementation & Integration

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:

• Day One Launch: Boatzon deployed their first Retell AI voice agent the same day using Retell's pre-built templates.
• Full Maturation: More complex workflows and integrations with HubSpot and Twilio were configured within a few weeks.
• Continuous Refinement & QA: Boatzon's team regularly analyzes calls and refines Anna's responses to improve performance.

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.

Retell's Impact

Boatzon's use of Retell AI has produced meaningful results across their operations:

• 7-8 manual representatives replaced by a single AI voice agent.
• Higher connect and response rates through strategic and immediate calling.
• 80% high-quality call benchmark with automated follow-up handling.
• Improved consistency in customer communications and data collection

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

Takeaways

For businesses exploring AI voice automation, Boatzon's journey offers valuable insights:

1. Focus on Connection Points
   Boatzon identified their critical pain pointz: connecting with busy professionals, and they deployed AI specifically to solve that challenge. By focusing on this key metric, they achieved immediate value from their AI implementation.
2. Embrace Consistency Over Perfection
   Boatzon applies an "80/20 rule" to their AI implementation: Anna delivers consistent, high-quality calls 80% of the time, with automated follow-up handling ensuring continuity in the other 20%. This pragmatic approach allowed them to move forward without being paralyzed by the pursuit of perfection.
3. Leverage Expanded Availability
   One of Anna's greatest advantages is her 24/7 availability. Boatzon strategically schedules calls during times when human representatives were previously unavailable, significantly increasing connection rates.
4. Build on Technical Foundations
   As a tech-focused company, Boatzon was able to quickly integrate Retell AI with their existing systems and continue expanding its capabilities. Their technical foundation allowed them to move beyond basic implementation to more sophisticated use cases immediately.
5. Focus on High-Value Human Work‍

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:

• Live application completion with voice assistance
• Insurance and warranty conversations
• Two-way SMS integration to create a more seamless communication experience
• Through their strategic implementation of Retell AI's voice automation platform, Boatzon has transformed their customer communications, increasing connection rates while maintaining consistency across all customer touchpoints.

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.