Service as the edge: selling around the clockService as the edge: selling around the clock

Neumáticos LAF has been selling tires in Córdoba, retail and wholesale, for more than 40 years. When Marcos Dania took over the family business five years ago, he found an operation that worked but couldn't scale: pencil, paper and, with luck, an Excel spreadsheet.

The first step was going digital: a website, social media, a company WhatsApp line. But the shift created a new problem: the entire customer service load landed on the team's phones. With a catalog of more than 700 brand and size combinations and separate price lists for each channel, every answer meant checking stock, confirming the right price and not making mistakes. If the team was busy, the customer waited. If they waited too long, they left.

The problem wasn't a lack of demand or product quality: it was the friction between the customer and the answer. In a market where import competition has leveled prices, service had become the only real differentiator.

Neumáticos LAF deployed a conversational AI agent built by Atendium, running simultaneously on its website, a dedicated WhatsApp number and its Instagram posts. The agent works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and answers questions about availability and pricing in real time.

The technical core is as simple as it is effective: the agent reads directly from the Google Sheets files Neumáticos LAF was already using to manage stock and price lists. There was no system migration and no hardware purchase. The AI was built on top of the existing infrastructure.

The agent automatically identifies who it's talking to by phone number and applies the right price for that channel. Beyond answering questions, it collects behavioral data the company uses to optimize its inventory.

The most immediate impact was ending lost sales due to slow responses. Reseller customers now check stock whenever they want, build their order throughout the day and confirm it when they're ready. Neumáticos LAF receives the customer with everything already sorted out.

The team freed up time once spent answering WhatsApp and put it into strategic work: finding new markets, managing inventory, negotiating with suppliers. After-hours inquiries stopped being a problem.

The data generated by the agent began to reveal patterns that were invisible before: which sizes are in highest demand in each period, when inquiries peak and which customer profiles buy the most.

With the conversational foundation in place, Neumáticos LAF and Atendium are working on integrating a CRM so the agent can act proactively: reaching each customer segment with personalized messages and sending stock updates or promotions without manual work. The goal is for the agent not only to answer when asked, but to generate demand on its own.