Toyota Sunnyvale has been named one of the top internet dealerships in the nation for many years and has used a proven lead follow up system with much success. But the team is never satisfied and is always looking for ways they can improve their already exceptional response times and closing ratios.   That was why two years ago they looked at chat solutions as an enhancement to their existing sales process and a year later added chat to their service appointment setting process as well. The positive results were almost immediate for two reasons:   Prospects browsing from their work computer now had a discreet way to contact the dealership to get questions answered and to set appointments.   Prospects that may have hesitated to call or submit an online lead felt more comfortable due to the initial anonymity that chat affords.    Toyota Sunnyvale selected a “smart chat” solution that gave them the internal control to respon...

I often tell people that Google is my favorite website. I don’t think they understand what I am talking about when I make that statement. I like the design of the site because it is clean, easy to use, and you know exactly what they want you to do. I also love the technology behind the home page. Google has been doing an awful lot lately. With the merge of Bing and Yahoo search, Google is not sitting back. We have all heard about...

We are trained as sales people to sell ourselves and the dealership.  Have you ever put any thought into why dealerships train that way?  Because the dealer down the street has cars also.  The deciding factor is you, the sales person.  When presenting the car with your fine tuned walk around you share the features and benefits.  Have you ever put any thought into what is better, features or benefits?  I worked at a dealer that wanted to give a frequent shopping card to everyone who purchased a car.  On this card when activated was a certain amount of points.  Of course they made it big, something like 10,000 points.  Those 10,000 points equaled like $10.  Is that example a feature or a benefit?  It’s a benefit but it truly isn’t much of a benefit to the guy or girl who purchased the car.  I never had someone make a decision to buy a car because of the card.  I have had someone tell me that they would buy this car if it had a sunroof.  But what if you gave a free membe...

I have learned that some dealers misunderstand what chat really is.  Chat is the replacement for email in a world where everyone wants something "now".  Email is old school.  Chat is the more convenient way to converse.  More people communicate with chat on a daily basis than email or phone.  Chat is on Facebook, MySpace, Google, and some of the most brilliant businesses/websites in the world.  Chat is now used more frequently on cell phones.  So why are you waiting to add chat to your dealership's website?

In this post we cover some common dealer misconceptions about chat.

Ryan, you work at a chat company....why should we listen to you?  Great question and I will answer that by saying.....I am a car guy first.  I always will be.  If you don't know me, here's a video with my story.  My love for this business carries over into everything I do.  My passion is to help the car business move forward with technology and move away from the old school mentality.  I value you...