Before an outside BDC takes a call, get nine things in writing: the scope of work, what counts as an appointment, service levels and hours, term and notice, who owns the data, access to recordings, who performs each compliance task, what triggers a price change, and how the exit works. Anything left vague will be read in the vendor’s favor later.
Scope of Work: Name the Calls, Channels and Hours
A scope that says “BDC services” is not a scope. The agreement, or a schedule attached to it, should list what the vendor handles and what it does not. This page is part of the Dealership BDC Guide.
- Call types. Inbound sales calls, inbound service calls, internet lead response, outbound follow-up, confirmations, recall or declined-service campaigns. Name each one that is in.
- Channels. Phone, text, email, chat. If texting is in, say whose platform and whose number.
- Hours. Days, times, time zone and holidays. “After-hours” means nothing until it has clock times.
- Who touches a lead first. In a hybrid, write the rule: your team during open hours, the vendor after a set number of rings or minutes.
- What is out. Price quotes, trade values, payment talk, anything the vendor must transfer to the store, and to whom.
Define an Appointment Before You Count One
Two parties can report the same month and disagree because they never defined the unit. Use the definition from our dealership BDC benchmarks: a firm appointment has a date and a time. Then add the details a contract needs.
- It is entered in your CRM or service scheduler, against the right customer, when it is set.
- “I will try to stop by Saturday” is not one.
- Duplicates, reschedules of the same visit and customers who already had an appointment are counted once.
- “Shown” means the customer arrived, as marked by the store, and the contract says how quickly the store must mark it.
- For service, an appointment is a booked time in the scheduler for a stated concern, inside the shop’s capacity rules.
If the vendor is paid per appointment or per show, this definition is the invoice. Add a short window to dispute a count. The billing structures and what each one rewards are in how outsourced BDC pricing works.
Service Levels: Answer Time, Response Time and Hours
A service level is a promise with a number, a measurement and a consequence. Ask for each of these in writing:
- Answer time on inbound calls, and where the clock starts: first ring at the store, or the moment the call rolls to the vendor.
- Response time on internet leads during covered hours, and what happens to leads that arrive outside them.
- Abandoned calls: how they are counted and whether they get a callback.
- Whose report decides. Your phone system and CRM, or the vendor’s dashboard. If the two disagree, the contract should say which governs.
- The remedy. A credit, a right to end the agreement early, or nothing.
Term, Notice and Price Changes
Read four dates: when the term starts, when it ends, the last day to give notice, and whether it renews on its own. Then read the money.
- Setup and minimums. Any setup fee, monthly minimum or charge for pausing.
- Volume. What happens when lead or call volume rises above the quoted tier, and whether a short spike (a sale, a mail drop) is treated differently from a new normal.
- Triggers. List every event that can change the price: added hours, an added store, a new lead source, an annual increase. If it is not on the list, it should not change the price.
- Ending early. For cause (missed service levels, a compliance failure) and without cause, with the notice each needs.
Few vendors publish terms, so the ones that do are a useful yardstick. eliteBDC, for example, advertises “Flexible month-to-month solutions” on its 2026 pricing page and says its Full Service tier includes a 10% lead-volume overage allowance over 90 days (eliteBDC pricing page, checked October 2026). The signed agreement is what counts.
Data Ownership and CRM Access
The contract should say plainly that leads, customer records, notes, appointment history and recordings belong to the dealership; that the vendor uses them only to do your work; and that nothing is resold, shared or reused for another client. If agents work in the vendor’s own platform, require every call, text and email to be written back to your CRM, and say how fast.
This is also a regulatory point. Under the FTC Safeguards Rule, a dealer must require its service providers “by contract to implement and maintain” appropriate safeguards for customer information, 16 CFR 314.4(f)(2) (16 CFR Part 314, eCFR). The practical side, including named logins and multi-factor authentication, is in giving a BDC vendor CRM access, and the clause list is in our FTC Safeguards Rule article.
Recordings: Access, Retention and the Announcement
Every call is recorded and available to you, and within how long. Recordings are kept for a stated period. You can download them, in bulk, during the term and at the end. And the vendor is responsible for announcing the recording on inbound and outbound calls, in wording you have approved. The reasons for that last line are in call recording laws for dealerships.
Compliance: Who Does What
This section is general information, not legal advice. It was checked against the linked sources in October 2026; have counsel review the actual clauses.
The FCC has said that a seller “may be held vicariously liable under federal common law principles of agency” for TCPA violations committed by third-party telemarketers (FCC 13-54), and the do-not-call rule itself says that when a third party records the requests, “the person or entity on whose behalf the call is made will be liable for any failures to honor the do-not-call request,” 47 CFR 64.1200(d)(3) (47 CFR 64.1200). Since McLaughlin Chiropractic v. McKesson (2025), courts weigh FCC interpretations for themselves (Supreme Court opinion), so do not treat the question as settled. Assume the calls are yours and assign each task:
- Calling hours. No telephone solicitation before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time at the called party’s location, 64.1200(c)(1). Some states stop at 8 p.m., including Washington and Maryland.
- National do-not-call scrub. The safe harbor needs a registry version obtained no more than 31 days before the call, with records, 64.1200(c)(2)(i)(D). Say who scrubs and who keeps the records.
- Your internal do-not-call list. A request must be honored within a reasonable time not exceeding 10 business days and for 5 years, 64.1200(d)(3) and (d)(6). Say how the vendor’s list and yours are kept in sync, and how often.
- Opt-outs. Under the rule in force today, 64.1200(a)(10), a consumer may revoke consent by any reasonable method, the request must be honored within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days, and a caller may not designate an exclusive means. The FCC adopted a rewrite on September 30, 2026 (FCC 26-67) that would let callers designate an exclusive method and makes a marketing opt-out apply to all future marketing calls and texts from that caller. It takes effect 30 days after Federal Register publication, and as of October 1, 2026 it is not yet effective. Require compliance with the rule in force on the day of the call.
- Identification. On telemarketing calls: the caller’s name, the entity on whose behalf the call is made, and a phone number or address, 64.1200(d)(4).
- AI voices. Outbound calls using an artificial voice need prior express consent, and prior express written consent for telemarketing (FCC 24-17). Require your written approval before a vendor uses one on your customers.
Statutory damages under 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3) are actual loss or $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and a court may increase that up to three times for a willful or knowing violation (47 U.S.C. § 227). Ask for an indemnity and proof of insurance, but an indemnity reimburses you. It does not keep the store from being sued. The wider rules are in our TCPA guide for dealer outreach.
The Exit Plan
- Phone numbers. Any tracking or local numbers used for your store are yours, or will be released to you.
- Routing. Call forwarding and lead routing to the vendor come off on a stated date, and someone at the store tests it.
- Logins. Vendor accounts in your CRM and scheduler are disabled the same day.
- Open work. Pending appointments and follow-up tasks are handed over as a list.
- Data. Records and recordings are returned in a usable format within a stated number of days, then deleted, with written confirmation.
Pinnacle does not publish BDC On Demand pricing; an engagement starts with a complimentary consultation and a custom plan. Ask us for everything on this page in writing, as you would anyone. If you are still comparing vendors, start with 30 questions to ask an outsourced BDC and our list of outsourced BDC companies for car dealerships. Our own outsourced BDC service is described on its page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should an outsourced BDC contract be?
Long enough to judge the work and short enough to leave if it fails. More important than the length are the notice period, whether the term renews automatically, and whether you can end early for missed service levels.
Who is liable if the outsourced BDC calls someone on the do-not-call list?
Potentially the dealership. The FCC has said sellers can be vicariously liable for a third-party telemarketer’s TCPA violations, and 47 CFR 64.1200(d)(3) places failures to honor do-not-call requests on the entity on whose behalf the call is made. This is general information; ask your counsel.
Who owns the leads and call recordings when the contract ends?
Whoever the contract says. It should state that customer records, notes, appointment history and recordings belong to the dealership, that they will be returned in a usable format within a set number of days, and that the vendor then deletes its copies and confirms it.
What should count as an appointment in a pay-per-appointment deal?
A firm date and time, entered in your CRM or scheduler when it is set, counted once per visit. Exclude duplicates and reschedules, define “shown” as the customer arriving, and give both sides a short window to dispute the count before the invoice is final.
Summary
An outsourced BDC agreement should fix nine things: scope, the definition of an appointment, service levels with a remedy, term and notice, data ownership, recordings, a task-by-task split of compliance duties, price-change triggers and the exit. The TCPA and the Safeguards Rule keep responsibility with the dealership, so the contract cannot be silent on them. This is general information, not legal advice; have counsel review what you sign.
