Communication software disruptor that gives businesses a quantum customer experience upgrade welcomes industry veteran to help drive mission to modernize auto service departments with AI

Numa – the superpowered AI-driven communication service for businesses that catches missed calls and enables texting with customers – is pleased to announce the appointment of Derek Simonds as executive vice president of its rapidly expanding automotive division. An auto industry veteran with decades of experience, Simonds will oversee the division’s operations, partnerships, OEM relationships, customer success and go-to-market strategy.

“We knew from our first meeting with Derek that he was the right person at the right time to help propel our growing automotive business,” said Numa Founder and CEO Tasso Roumeliotis. “His deep experience in go-to-market and operations combined with more than 25 years working directly with dealerships gives him a rare 360 view of the industry’s past and present that provides him with unique insight into its future. We could not feel more fortunate to have him on the team.”

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“His deep experience in go-to-market and operations combined with more than 25 years working directly with dealerships gives him a rare 360 view of the industry’s past and present that provides him with unique insight into its future. We could not feel more fortunate to have him on the team.”

Prior to joining Numa, Simonds was Chief Operations Officer of Zeigler Automotive Group, one of the largest privately owned dealer groups in the U.S. His successful career includes serving more than 17 years as national sales manager at The Cardone Group, which helps hundreds of retail automotive dealerships and automobile manufacturers develop sales, marketing, technology and training strategies to improve the customer experience and increase dealership ROI. Simonds is a board member at Webinarinc, the leading automotive training enterprise bringing tailored, innovative solutions and technologies to maximize every aspect of today’s dealerships. He is also an ultra-marathoner and a World Champion Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt.

“I am really excited to work with such an amazing team and bring a game-changing communications product to an industry truly ready for a quantum customer experience upgrade,” says Simonds. “The struggle to handle call volumes at dealerships, particularly service departments, is industry-wide, and I believe Numa‘s solution is the answer. With some of the brightest programmers in the industry and a visionary CEO, it is one of the most disruptive companies for dealerships I have seen in the more than 30 years I’ve been in the industry, and I couldn’t think of a better place to land.”

Numa uses conversational AI to respond instantly to common questions, ensuring businesses never miss a call or text. Enabling its users to answer calls 24/7, exchange text and Facebook messages with customers, and even advance company communications among employees, Numa’s automotive customers are able to answer 100 percent of incoming calls, achieve 5x faster customer approvals on repair orders (RO), reduce business development center (BDC) costs by 22 percent, and improve their customer satisfaction index (CSI) scores by 16 percent through faster customer response times. Because Numa’s cloud-based software overlays existing phone systems, there is no downtime or new hardware to install; Auto dealers can be up and running within just 15 minutes.

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