Instant Messaging on dealer websites

[alexhart]

I wanted to see what types of successes and challenges stores are having with dealer website Instant Chats. Has it increased quality leads, closing ratios, total gross? If you have any opinions, please post.

[tinymalone]

We have had pretty good results with our website chat. As we all know, the Golden Moment is to catch the customer on the website somehow. This provides another opportunity to do so. The biggest issue that I have delt with so far is that it seems like it is hard to get a phone number. But at the end of the month, our chat leads are roughly 20% of our sold internet customers. One area where this has not been exploited well is in fixed ops.

[Karen Ann]

We found chat to be less than successful. It just wasn't the return on investment it could be. In six months we ended up with one sales appointment - not sold (upside down buyers) and one part (bumper) sold.

[jholtzman]

I think that a realtime chat/messenger could work very well, provided that it is managed appropriately.

Here's the catch. If you provide online customers with the ability to anonymously chat with your organization, someone indeed needs to be available to sell at all times. They also need to be available immediately.

Many Websites make promises to customers such as "chat with a live representative." But often times, when these features are offered no one is there to service the customer. The customer gets the message "we are not available to chat now." Or even worse, they waste their time waiting for a response only to find that no-one is at the other end of the chat. What kind of credibility does this build for your dealer? That's right, you know the answer. None!

Messenger/chat can be helpful, but it requires that the dealer fills their end of the promise and has someone on the other end. There is a good chance that peak usage time for such a feature is after hours, when the customer is home after the work day. Will someone be available to chat then?

I've seen this work extremely well for one company (not a auto dealer). How do I know it worked? Because I bought!

After a user has been using their Website for a few minutes, a chat dialoge appears on the portion of a screen. A live representative offers assistance. The customer then can ask questions or simply close the chat feature.

In my case, this turned into a phone call and ultimately a purchase. Still, three years later, I do business with that same salesperson.

If you are going to offer a messenger/chat feature it can help to increase leads and drive sales, but you've got to man it at all times, or publish the hours of operation appropriately. If the available hours are not the same hours of your peak website usage, I suggest you don't waste your time.

Feel free to contact me at jholtzman@americandatacompany.com if you would like to discuss further.