Running a pontoon rental business like Luthers Pontoon means the phone never stops.

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Every missed call is a missed booking and during peak season, no single operator can be available around the clock. 

Luther's Pontoon was already using Waverez for bookings and Yonder for chat, but inbound calls were still a bottleneck. Potential customers calling after hours, during tours, or on busy weekends (and often not calling back).

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"Previously, our phone system had a message saying go to our website to book after hours or if I didn't get to it. We also had a call queue, because we didn't want to deal with voicemails and we wanted customers to have the ability to talk to someone."— Luther's Pontoon

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Luther's Pontoon activated Yonder's AI Phone Agent — a purpose-built voice agent for tourism operators that answers calls, responds to customer questions, and sends personalized follow-up texts with direct booking links. Because Yonder connects natively with Waverez, the agent had real-time access to availability, pricing, and reservation details from day one.

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Setup was fast.

The agent was live within days and trained on Luther's business; from their boats, to their policies and their tone. No call scripts to maintain, no hold music, no voicemail. Being out on the water no longer means wondering what's being missed back on shore. The phone is covered; every call, every hour. Staff time that was spent answering repetitive questions is now freed up for the guest experience that actually matters.

Always-on availability: The AI answered every inbound call — early mornings, evenings, weekends — the moments when human staff simply can't be there.

Texts that convert: After each call, the agent sent a personalized booking link via text. A 79% click-through rate meant nearly 4 in 5 customers followed through.

Seamless Waverez integration: Live availability from Waverez meant the agent could confirm bookings in real time; no back-and-forth, no manual follow-up required.

Smart call handling: Half of all calls were fully resolved by AI, freeing the team to focus on the on-water experience rather than answering the same questions repeatedly.

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The Outcome

In just 60 days, Luther's Pontoon answered over 500 calls without missing a single one. 

The AI independently handled 50% of enquiries end-to-end. When customers did need a nudge, a follow-up text arrived immediately and a 79% click-through rate showed those messages were hitting the mark. With a 13% conversion rate from those interactions, real bookings followed (and with that, real revenue).

The headline number: a 12x return on the monthly Yonder subscription within the first month alone. 

For a seasonal operator where every booking counts, that's not a marginal improvement; it's a fundamental shift in how the business captures demand.

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The results in the first 60 days were immediate and measurable.

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• Over 500 calls answered — zero going unanswered
• 50% of all calls fully handled by AI, with no human handoff needed
• 79% click-through rate on follow-up texts sent by the agent
• 13% conversion rate from AI-initiated conversations
• 12x return on the monthly Yonder subscription

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"Hearing 12x ROI, this is huge; because of what I'm getting back and the fact that my staff doesn't have to work as hard."— Luther's Pontoon

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The call queue problem solved itself.

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One of the less obvious wins was what happened to the call queue. With the AI handling a significant portion of enquiries end-to-end, fewer calls needed to reach a human at all.

"It shortens the call queue, and sometimes eliminates it if and when customers want to actually talk to a real person."— Luther's Pontoon

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The team bought in quickly.

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Adoption wasn't a hard sell internally. When staff stopped fielding repetitive calls and saw the quality of interactions the agent was handling, the response was straightforward.

"My staff loves it. Less stupid questions and quality answers without us having to have the phone to our ear. If a customer states that it says something questionable online, we can go online and update what the agent says and gear it toward more of what I want."— Luther's Pontoon

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The system gets smarter over time.

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One feature Luther's team has found particularly useful is the ability to review AI interactions and fill gaps in real time. When the agent encounters a question it can't answer, the team gets notified and can add a new response — moving the business steadily toward fewer calls and more direct online bookings.

"It's kind of cool being able to review the interaction of the AI agent with customers. If a customer asks a question it doesn't know, we get notified and we can create a new answer. This is gearing toward the ultimate goal of having fewer phone calls and more online bookings."— Luther's Pontoon

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