STELLA answers dealership calls and, with STELLA Catalyst, makes "Outbound calls and text messages that book appointments, built for dealerships." With Lokam, your store calls the customer after the visit, using Lokam's AI assistant, to hear how it went. STELLA says Catalyst contacts your customers, and with Lokam your store calls two groups, service customers and unsold showroom visitors; what differs is what the call is for.
What is STELLA Automotive AI?
An earlier version of this page said STELLA only answers calls. That is out of date. STELLA lists an Outbound Agent in its product suite, and its pages describe these products. STELLA offers other products too; this page does not cover them.
STELLA Reception. STELLA says Reception "answers calls on the first ring, 24/7/365, ensuring that customers receive instant attention." It is pitched as a replacement for the phone tree () that routes callers.
STELLA Service. STELLA describes it as "an AI-powered voice assistant that handles inbound service calls for dealerships 24/7." STELLA says it books service appointments into the scheduler or .
STELLA Catalyst. This is the outbound side. STELLA says Catalyst "uses conversational AI to contact your customers via voice and ", with use cases that include declined service outreach and maintenance and recall reminders, calling new leads and lost-sold or unsold follow-up. STELLA also says Catalyst "Improves with proactive, helpful communication".
Channels and languages. STELLA says it "can engage via web chat, voice, or SMS" and "understands and responds in English, Spanish, and Canadian French".
Ford and Lincoln. On its FordDirect page, STELLA says it can "make outbound customer calls, texts, and emails" for Ford and Lincoln dealers and describes the offer as co-op eligible. STELLA announced on 12 Aug 2026 that "FordDirect has selected STELLA Automotive AI" as a strategic vendor, after a partnership STELLA announced in 2024.
Takeaway
Mark which of these products your store would use, and you'll know which STELLA demos to ask for.
Does STELLA do outbound calls? Yes. Here is what each call is for
STELLA and Lokam both describe outbound contact. The useful split is the job of each call: a booking call is there to put a car in a bay, and a listening call is there to find out what went wrong.
How to read it: each row is a reason to call a customer, with what each side has stated about it, and the last column says what the call is for.
| Use case | What STELLA Catalyst says | Lokam | What the call is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recall | Maintenance and recall notifications that drive customers to book service | Not a Lokam use case | Book an appointment |
| Declined service | Declined service outreach | Not a Lokam use case | Book the declined work |
| Maintenance due | Maintenance reminders | Not a Lokam use case | Book an appointment |
| Lead follow-up | STELLA says Catalyst calls new leads and follows up by text | Not a Lokam use case: sales follow-up covers people who came in, not no-shows | STELLA: re-engage the lead |
| How-was-your-visit check | Not stated as a Catalyst use case; STELLA says Catalyst improves with proactive communication | Your store's call with Lokam's AI assistant the day after the closes; the assistant asks how the visit went and for a 0-10 score | Hear what went wrong |
| Why didn't you buy | Lost-sold or unsold follow-up to revive opportunities | Your store calls visitors your team marks unsold in your the next day, using Lokam's AI assistant; managers get the main reasons visitors didn't buy | STELLA: revive the opportunity. Lokam: hear why they didn't buy |
What it tells you: both sides place outbound calls, and the last column shows what each call is for.
STELLA describes Catalyst's outbound work in booking and sales terms: "Outbound calls and text messages that book appointments", aimed at recall, maintenance and declined service, new leads and lost-sold opportunities. A STELLA case study describes "hyper-targeted outbound customer engagement across both voice and text messages" to bring customers back. Give that job to whoever owns the schedule.
With Lokam, your store's outbound call, made with Lokam's AI assistant, is a follow-up conversation after a service visit or an unsold showroom visit, with the aim of getting what went wrong in front of the people on your escalation list, while promising sales leads go to your sales team. A booking call can surface a complaint, and a listening call can end with an appointment. The purpose still matters when you write the script, set the goal and decide which manager gets the customer and the reason.
Takeaway
Write the goal of each outbound call your store makes on a single sheet, booking or listening. Your managers will know which calls to judge on appointments and which on problems found.
When to choose STELLA
STELLA fits well in these situations, going by STELLA's own pages.
- You need the phones covered around the clock. STELLA says Reception answers "on the first ring, 24/7/365" and Service handles inbound service calls "24/7". For a store that loses calls at lunch, after close and on Saturdays, that is the problem STELLA describes solving.
- You want campaigns that fill bays. STELLA says Catalyst works recall, maintenance and declined service by voice and . If hours sold is your goal right now, Catalyst's declined-service and recall campaigns are aimed at it.
- You want new and lost-sold sales leads chased by voice and text. STELLA says Catalyst calls new leads and follows up by text, and runs lost-sold or unsold follow-up.
- Your customers call in Spanish or Canadian French. STELLA says it responds in English, Spanish and Canadian French.
- You run a Ford or Lincoln store. STELLA announced its FordDirect selection, and its FordDirect page describes the offer as co-op eligible. Ask your FordDirect contact how that applies to you.
- Your systems are on STELLA's list. STELLA names Affinitiv, Reynolds & Reynolds, Xtime, CDK Global, Dealer-FX and myKaarma.
- You want chat, voice and text from the same vendor.
If you need appointments on the board and phones answered at night, STELLA's pages describe a product aimed at exactly that.
Takeaway
If bays are your gap, ask STELLA to walk a declined-service campaign from the outbound call to the booked appointment in the demo.
When to add Lokam, or run both
Running both makes sense when the booking side is handled and nobody is asking customers how the visit went.
Say a customer declined a brake job on an last month. Catalyst's declined-service outreach is built to bring that work back. Now say the same customer left angry because the car came back unwashed and nobody called when it was ready. A booking call is the wrong opener for that customer. That visit is what your store's follow-up calls with Lokam's AI assistant are for. After the call, the people on your store's escalation list get the customer, a short summary and the main issue.
If you run both, write a contact rule before launch:
- A customer with an open complaint comes off the campaign list until the complaint is closed.
- Both lists go in front of the same manager each week.
- Both programs check your store's do-not-call list before dialing, and a customer who asks not to be contacted goes on it for calls and texts.
Plan how often your store calls the same customer, since some customers screen calls from numbers they don't know. With Lokam, the default is up to three attempts, and a customer who has been reached isn't called again for 60 days. Those calls come from a local number set up for your dealership; our piece on why dealership calls get labeled Spam Likely covers the wider question of unknown numbers. Which customers your store may call, and how, is a question for your store's own counsel.
Inbound is the other question to settle. STELLA describes inbound answering as a core product; Lokam is not an inbound answering bot. Ask which each reads from (STELLA lists its integrations; Lokam reads unsold-visit records from VinSolutions and closed repair orders from your DMS, usually through a data integration provider) and which languages each handles (STELLA; Lokam, English and Spanish).
Comparing other vendors too? See Lokam vs Numa(/lokam-vs-numa), or our comparison with a dealer messaging platform. On the sales side, read about unsold lead recovery software; for Lokam's own details, see the Lokam facts page.
Takeaway
Write the contact rule before launch and give it to the manager who sees both lists. A customer with an open complaint then stays off the campaign until someone has fixed it.
Where Lokam fits
Cut churn at the source: fix the problems before customers leave. Lokam is post-visit follow-up for US dealerships. Service follow-up and unsold-visit follow-up can be used separately or together. Each open issue has an owner, notes and a status.
FAQ
Does STELLA do outbound calls?
Yes. STELLA says Catalyst makes "Outbound calls and text messages that book appointments" and "uses conversational AI to contact your customers via voice and ". Its FordDirect page says STELLA can "make outbound customer calls, texts, and emails".
What is STELLA Catalyst?
Catalyst is STELLA's outbound product. STELLA lists declined service outreach and maintenance and recall reminders among its uses, along with new-lead and lost-sold follow-up, and says it "Improves with proactive, helpful communication".
Which does STELLA work with?
STELLA says "Integrations include Affinitiv, Reynolds & Reynolds, Xtime, CDK Global, Dealer-FX, and myKaarma." Lokam reads unsold-visit records from VinSolutions. Lokam reads closed repair orders from your DMS, usually through a data integration provider. Tell us your DMS and we'll confirm.
How is STELLA priced?
STELLA says it "has a low setup fee and a monthly subscription". Its pages archived on 27 Oct 2026 show no public price or trial. Ask for a quote.
Can you run STELLA and Lokam together?
Yes, if you set ownership before launch. Let STELLA handle inbound calls and booking campaigns and your store make its post-visit follow-up calls with Lokam's AI assistant, with the same manager seeing both lists and a rule that pulls a customer with an open complaint off campaigns.
What are the alternatives to STELLA?
That turns on the job you need done. For inbound calls and text campaigns with a satisfaction score on each conversation, Numa is one option(/lokam-vs-numa). For a dealer messaging platform, see our comparison. For follow-up after the visit, which your store runs using Lokam's AI assistant, that is the job Lokam is built for.
Before you go
What you can do with this
- Judge each outbound call by its job: booking or listening.
- Keep customers with an open complaint off campaign lists.
- Put both lists in front of the same manager every week.
Where Lokam helps
- Next-day feedback that shows you exactly what to fix for customer satisfaction.
- Free your team from the follow-up list: they call back the customers who need it.
- Every open issue has an owner, and a reminder when it sits.
Sources
Competitor facts on this page come from STELLA's own website and press releases, retrieved 27 Oct 2026.
- https://stellaautomotive.com/ (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://stellaautomotive.com/stella-catalyst/ (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://stellaautomotive.com/stellareception/ (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://stellaautomotive.com/stella-service/ (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://stellaautomotive.com/resources/frequently-asked-questions/ (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://stellaautomotive.com/ford-direct/ (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://stellaautomotive.com/forddirect-selects-stella-automotive-ai-as-strategic-vendor-to-help-ford-dealers-and-lincoln-retailers-drive-revenue-and-customer-retention/ (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://stellaautomotive.com/how-the-maroone-auto-group-drove-new-service-revenue-with-ai-powered-outreach/ (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/stella-automotive-ai-partners-with-forddirect-and-the-launch-of-the-shop-302042086.html (STELLA-issued release, retrieved 27 Oct 2026)