Quick answer. For a car dealer weighing alternatives, these products do different jobs. Podium answers your inbound service calls around the clock and runs text conversations to get customers booked. Lokam is built for the customer after the visit: your store calls them the day after the closes, using Lokam's AI assistant. On that call, the assistant flags an unhappy customer from what they say, and the people on your store's escalation list, such as your service manager, get the customer with a short summary. A store can run both.
What does Podium do well?
Podium is a serious platform, and a director evaluating it should know what it is good at before reading any comparison.
- It answers the phone. Podium says its Service AI and Voice AI "answer every inbound service call 24/7" and book appointments directly into Xtime or Tekion. If your advisors miss calls during the morning rush, that is a real gap closed.
- It fills bays from your . Podium says Jerry connects to CDK Drive or Dealertrack and starts outreach when a customer is overdue, hasn't visited in over 18 months, or bought a vehicle and never booked service. Podium describes that outreach as a text conversation that handles questions and books the appointment.
- It puts your channels in a single place. Every Podium automotive plan includes a shared inbox for calls, texts, chats, emails and form fills.
- It asks for reviews. Automated review outreach is included in every plan, and Podium's reviews product collects reviews by text.
- It plugs into what you run. Podium lists 180+ integrations, including CDK Global, Reynolds & Reynolds, Tekion, Dealertrack and PBS. Check integrations with both vendors against your own DMS and .
- It has programs. Podium announced in August 2025 that it is in the FordDirect program, with exclusive pricing for Ford dealers and Lincoln retailers, and advertises , Ford, Stellantis and Shift Digital partnership offers.
Podium describes the whole package as an "AI Workforce" for dealerships, with Jerry working sales and service leads and Operator working for the GM.
Takeaway
Match each bullet to a gap your store has today, and leave the rest off the quote.
Where the jobs differ: booking the next visit, or hearing about the last one
As Podium describes it, its service work starts in two main places. The customer reaches out, and Podium answers. Or your says the customer is due, and Podium starts a text conversation to book them. Podium also sells declined-service, first-service, next-service and recall campaigns as a Service Marketing AI add-on; Podium's plans page does not say which channel those campaigns use, so we won't guess.
Lokam starts from the closed . Your store calls the customer the day after the visit's RO closes, using Lokam's AI assistant. The question the assistant asks is how the visit went, and the job is to find the customer whose problem isn't fixed yet.
Booking the next appointment and hearing about the last one can both happen in the same store, run by different tools.
Takeaway
Write down which job your store is short on, booking or hearing back, and take that into each demo.
What happens when a customer is unhappy?
Podium's pages describe an AI that keeps the conversation by default and hands off when the conversation requires it, and with Lokam the unhappy customer goes to your store's escalation list.
Podium is designed for autonomy. Its homepage says Jerry "follows up 100% autonomously" and promises "No more human escalations". Its FAQ says Jerry hands off to a human "when a buyer is ready to close or when the conversation requires it". Podium's integration guide also tells dealers to "decide which events pause AI follow-up, how a human claims a conversation, and who receives an escalation". Read together, Podium's pages describe a default where the AI keeps the conversation, and a person comes in when the conversation requires it or when the escalation rules your store sets say so. For booking appointments and answering routine questions, that is exactly what a busy drive wants.
Lokam is designed for escalation. On the call your store makes with Lokam's AI assistant, the assistant asks how the visit went and for a 0-10 score, and flags unhappy customers from what they say. After the call, the people on your store's escalation list, such as your service manager, get the customer, a short summary and the main issue. If the issue stays open, the escalation list gets a reminder. The default is that a person at your store owns the unhappy customer, and the assistant's job is to get the problem in front of that person.
Neither design is wrong. They answer different questions: "how do we handle conversations without adding staff?" and "how does the service manager hear about the customer who left unhappy?"
A worked example from the drive
Say a customer picks up her SUV on a Tuesday afternoon after a brake job. On the drive home, the squeal she came in about is still there. She is annoyed but busy, and she doesn't call.
- If she calls the store, Podium's Voice AI answers, any hour, and Podium says Jerry hands off to a person when the conversation requires it; your store decides who receives an escalation.
- If she doesn't call, the contact Podium's service page describes is outreach when she is next due. Podium's plans also include automated review outreach; how that would handle her complaint isn't described on the pages we archived.
- With Lokam, your store calls her the day after the closes, using Lokam's AI assistant, and the assistant asks how the visit went. She mentions the squeal, and the assistant flags her as unhappy from what she says. After the call, your service manager, on the escalation list, gets her details with a short summary and the main issue: brake job, noise still present. If your store's calls with Lokam's AI assistant can't reach her, she gets one short text asking how the visit went.
What the service manager does next is up to your store.
How to read it: the steps after the escalation arrives, in order, each with an owner and a deadline.
| Step | What | Owner | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | Read the summary and pull the RO | Service manager | The day the case arrives |
| Step 2 | Call the customer personally; apologize, don't defend | Service manager | Same day |
| Step 3 | Offer a re-check at a time that suits her, with a loaner or shuttle if she needs it | Service manager / advisor | On the call |
| Step 4 | Tech road-tests and re-inspects; open the re-check the way your store tracks (new RO linked to the original, or per your 's warranty rules) | Shop foreman / tech | At the re-check |
| Step 5 | Close the loop: call back after the re-check to confirm it's fixed | Advisor who wrote the RO, or the service manager if the customer prefers | After the re-check |
| Step 6 | Review comebacks in the weekly meeting | Fixed ops director | Weekly |
What it tells you: the customer hears from a person the same day, and the comeback is on the fixed ops agenda by the end of the week.
Before anyone at your store calls or texts her in these steps, check your store's do-not-call list. Make the calls within your store's calling hours, and text her only if she agreed to texts. If she asks not to be contacted, add her to your store's do-not-call list for calls and texts. Which customers your store may call, and how, is a question for your store's own counsel.
Takeaway
Put a name in each Owner cell at your next fixed ops meeting. The next customer with a squeal after a brake job then hears from someone who can fix it.
What sits where: an unhappy-customer view
How to read it: follow the unhappy customer down the rows, from what starts the contact to what it costs.
| Question | Podium | Lokam |
|---|---|---|
| What starts the contact? | Customer calls in; signals overdue, lapsed or never-booked | Closed ; the first call goes out the next day |
| Channel | Inbound voice; DMS service outreach by text; Podium says its AI works across text, phone, webchat and social; add-on campaigns, channel not stated | Outbound call by your store, using Lokam's AI assistant; one short text if the customer can't be reached |
| Default design | Autonomous by default; hands off when the conversation requires it, under escalation rules the dealer sets | Flags unhappy customers from what they say; your store's escalation list gets the customer and a short summary |
| DMS / integrations | 180+ listed incl. CDK, R&R, Tekion, Dealertrack, PBS | Closed ROs from your DMS, usually through a data integration provider; tell us your DMS and we'll confirm. Unsold visits from VinSolutions |
| Pricing | Quoted, not published | Ask in the demo |
What it tells you: Podium's contact starts with the customer or the DMS calendar, and Lokam's starts with the closed RO.
Takeaway
Ask both vendors to walk the same unhappy customer through these rows in the demo, and you'll see where that customer would land in your store.
When to choose Podium
Podium is the right choice when its strengths match your gaps:
- Inbound calls are your problem. If the phone rings out during the rush and appointments walk to the store down the road, Podium's Voice AI answers inbound service calls and books into Xtime or Tekion.
- You want everything in a single inbox. Podium includes a shared inbox for calls, texts, chats, emails and form fills in every automotive plan.
- You want review requests handled for you. Automated review outreach comes in every plan, collected by text.
- You're a Ford or Lincoln store on FordDirect. Podium announced FordDirect program pricing; ask whether it still applies. and Stellantis stores can ask about Podium's advertised partnership offers.
- You run more than dealerships. Podium says over 100K businesses use it, so a group with non-automotive businesses can ask about running them on a single vendor.
- You want the AI to handle conversations end to end. If your aim is fewer conversations reaching staff, Podium's autonomy-first design is built for that.
Takeaway
Ask Podium to show, in the demo, how a complaint in a booking text reaches a person under the escalation rules your store would set.
Podium alternatives for car dealers: when to choose Lokam, or run both
Consider Lokam if your service manager wants to own the unhappy customer personally, and you want those customers brought to that manager from the closed .
A store can run both: Podium on the inbound phone and booking, Lokam on what happens after the visit. Ask each vendor which actions write back to your and , so your advisors aren't working from two versions of the customer.
Takeaway
Ask your service manager who owns an unhappy customer today. If nobody can name the person, that's the gap to fix, whichever tools you run.
Where Lokam fits
Cut churn at the source: fix the problems before customers leave. Lokam is post-visit follow-up for US dealerships. When a customer on the call wants to talk to someone, the AI assistant passes the request to your team, who call back. Service follow-up and unsold-visit follow-up can be used separately or together.
Related: CSI follow-up automation
FAQ
Does Lokam replace Podium?
Not necessarily; they cover different moments. See "When to choose Lokam, or run both".
Does Podium make outbound calls?
Podium's service page describes its Voice AI answering inbound service calls and its -triggered outreach as text. Podium also says its "Sales AI, Service AI, and Voice AI work across every channel: text, phone, webchat, and social, 24/7". Its plans page does not state the channel for the declined-service, first/next-service and recall add-on campaigns. Ask Podium directly whether its AI places outbound service calls, and get the answer in writing.
Which DMS does each work with?
Podium lists CDK Global, Reynolds & Reynolds, Tekion, Dealertrack and PBS, and writes scheduling to Xtime and Tekion. Lokam reads closed repair orders from your DMS, usually through a data integration provider; tell us your DMS and we'll confirm. With any vendor, ask which actions write back and which are read-only.
How is Podium priced?
Podium's automotive pricing isn't published; plans are quoted.
Before you go
What you can do with this
- Match each vendor's strengths to the gaps your store has today.
- Give unhappy customers a named owner and a same-day call.
- Settle who owns which conversation before you run both.
Where Lokam helps
- Cut churn at the source: fix the problems before customers leave.
- Every open issue has an owner, and a reminder when it sits.
- Free your team from the follow-up list: they call back the customers who need it.
Sources
Podium pages retrieved 22 Oct 2026, archived copies held by Lokam:
- https://automotive.podium.com/
- https://automotive.podium.com/solutions/service
- https://automotive.podium.com/plans
- https://www.podium.com/pricing/
- https://automotive.podium.com/resources/faq
- https://autosphere.ca/dealerships/2025/08/13/forddirect-partners-with-podium-to-deliver-ai-powered-conversations-to-ford-lincoln-retailers/
- https://automotive.podium.com/resources/article/podium-integrations
By the Lokam team · Last reviewed [DATE AT PUBLISH]