# Sixteen scenarios

Each one is a situation, a change, and what should happen. Walk it by hand first with a test customer. For a built workflow, the situation is the setup, the change is the step, and the expectation is the check. Keep the evidence listed; it is what the next conversation about the pilot will need.

Nothing here sends a real customer anything, books or changes a live appointment, or writes to a live system. Use test records.

## Website

### The chat window sits on the Book button

*For the website team.*

- **Start:** A shopper opens the site assistant on a phone.
- **Change:** They close it and tap Book service underneath.
- **Expect:** The button works, and the page it opens is the scheduler the service department actually uses.
- **Keep:**
  - A phone capture before and after closing the assistant
  - The page the button opened

### One booking link works. The other does not.

*For the service manager.*

- **Start:** Service booking works from the header.
- **Change:** The shopper books from the link on a service page instead.
- **Expect:** Both links reach a scheduler that takes the booking.
- **Keep:**
  - Both starting pages
  - Where each link landed
  - The confirmation, or the error

**What we saw at a store (October 11, 2026).** The booking link in the site header took a reservation. The second scheduler, linked from the service pages, opened to “This page is unavailable.” The capture is in the guide: https://www.drcanary.com/resources/dealership-service-booking-paths/#observed

## Sales

### The unit sells mid-conversation

*For the BDC manager.*

- **Start:** A shopper has a vehicle link and an invitation to visit.
- **Change:** The vehicle sells before the next message goes out.
- **Expect:** The next message says so and offers the closest units, instead of repeating the old link.
- **Keep:**
  - The sold timestamp
  - The next message
  - The alternatives it named

### The shopper switches vehicles

*For the BDC manager.*

- **Start:** A shopper asks about a used SUV and a follow-up is queued.
- **Change:** They reply about a different vehicle and ask for a walkaround.
- **Expect:** The next message is about the new vehicle, the walkaround plays on a phone without a login, and the first question is not asked again.
- **Keep:**
  - The thread
  - The queued message before and after
  - The link that was sent

### A reply lands between scheduled sends

*For the BDC manager.*

- **Start:** Three follow-ups are scheduled after an unanswered inquiry.
- **Change:** The shopper replies with a question an hour before the next send.
- **Expect:** The question gets an answer, the scheduled send pauses or changes, and the salesperson can see both.
- **Keep:**
  - The time of the reply
  - What went out next
  - Who answered

### The trade-in question needs more detail

*For the used-car manager.*

- **Start:** A shopper gives a vehicle, mileage and a description and asks what it is worth.
- **Change:** The condition details are too thin for a supported range.
- **Expect:** The reply says what can be estimated, asks for the missing detail, and explains what the appraisal checks. No invented offer.
- **Keep:**
  - The inquiry
  - What the valuation tool showed
  - The reply

**What we saw at a store (September 22 to October 9, 2026).** A trade-in inquiry named a 2020 Silverado. The first reply named it too and offered an appraisal. Seventeen days later a follow-up arrived with the subject “2026 Make Unknown Model Unknown.” The capture is in the guide: https://www.drcanary.com/resources/dealership-lead-follow-up-quality/#observed

### The advertised payment does not apply

*For the sales manager.*

- **Start:** A shopper asks about a payment shown on a vehicle page.
- **Change:** The offer has expired, or needs a credit tier the shopper has not shown.
- **Expect:** The reply states the current terms and their conditions. It does not present the advertised number as a quote.
- **Keep:**
  - The offer page and its expiry
  - The reply

### The follow-up loses the truck

*For the BDC manager.*

- **Start:** The inquiry names a year, make and model.
- **Change:** A later template gets empty vehicle fields after a handoff.
- **Expect:** The message holds for a person, or fills the fields from the inquiry. No placeholder reaches the inbox.
- **Keep:**
  - The original inquiry
  - The template’s inputs
  - Every message the shopper received

**What we saw at a store (September 22 to October 9, 2026).** A trade-in inquiry named a 2020 Silverado. The first reply named it too and offered an appraisal. Seventeen days later a follow-up arrived with the subject “2026 Make Unknown Model Unknown.” The capture is in the guide: https://www.drcanary.com/resources/dealership-lead-follow-up-quality/#observed

## Service

### The appointment moves. The reminder must too.

*For the service manager.*

- **Start:** A Friday appointment, with a reminder queued.
- **Change:** The customer moves it to Monday and mentions a warning light.
- **Expect:** The scheduler, the confirmation and the advisor’s notes all say Monday and mention the light. The Friday reminder is gone.
- **Keep:**
  - Both appointment records
  - The change receipt
  - The reminders that went out

### The customer declines the extra

*For the service advisor.*

- **Start:** A booked customer gets one relevant optional service with its price.
- **Change:** They decline it and ask about the shuttle.
- **Expect:** The booking is unchanged, the decline is recorded, the shuttle question is answered. Nothing later treats the extra as approved.
- **Keep:**
  - The suggestion
  - The reply
  - The work on the appointment
  - The later messages

### The cancellation comes by phone

*For the service manager.*

- **Start:** Booked online, confirmation sent.
- **Change:** A staff member records a phone cancellation before the reminder goes out.
- **Expect:** The reminder does not go out. No later message assumes the visit is still on.
- **Keep:**
  - The cancellation record
  - The reminder queue
  - What was sent after

### The work was done somewhere else

*For the service BDC.*

- **Start:** A follow-up is scheduled for work the customer declined last visit.
- **Change:** The customer replies that another shop did it.
- **Expect:** The reminder stops, the advisor hears, and nothing invents a repair order.
- **Keep:**
  - The reply
  - The stopped message
  - The record the advisor updated

## Across systems

### The same lead arrives twice

*For the lead provider and BDC.*

- **Start:** A form submission creates a lead.
- **Change:** The provider retries the same event after a timeout.
- **Expect:** One lead, one first contact, and a note that the retry happened.
- **Keep:**
  - Both payloads
  - The CRM records
  - The sends

### An opt-out while a message is queued

*For the whoever owns outreach.*

- **Start:** A campaign message is scheduled.
- **Change:** The customer opts out of that channel before it sends.
- **Expect:** It does not send, and every connected sender knows.
- **Keep:**
  - The opt-out event
  - The queue decision
  - The provider’s send log

### The CRM is down when the lead arrives

*For the lead provider.*

- **Start:** The site accepts an inquiry.
- **Change:** The CRM connection times out, then recovers.
- **Expect:** The inquiry is held, someone is told, and it arrives once when the CRM is back. The shopper’s confirmation never claimed more than the site could see.
- **Keep:**
  - The browser result
  - The held payload
  - The receipt after recovery

**What we saw at a store (October 29, 2026).** The general contact form came back “Unable to process.” The price inquiry on a vehicle page, the same day, went through. The capture is in the guide: https://www.drcanary.com/resources/dealership-lead-form-testing/#observed

### The parts link strands the customer

*For the parts team.*

- **Start:** The site links to a parts vendor.
- **Change:** The vendor page fails to load, or lands somewhere else.
- **Expect:** Someone owns the route, the customer has another way to the counter, and the link is checked again after the vendor fixes it.
- **Keep:**
  - The starting link
  - Where it landed
  - The time
  - The recheck

**What we saw at a store (October 28, 2026).** The Parts button in the site’s navigation opened a vendor page that could not make a secure connection. The browser showed its own error instead of the catalog. The capture is in the guide: https://www.drcanary.com/resources/dealership-vendor-link-checks/#observed

Dr. Canary, 2026-11-05. Part of Building AI at your store: https://www.drcanary.com/resources/building-ai-at-your-store/