For more than 100 years,PepsiCo. and Coca-Cola have waged one of the fiercest corporate brand wars in the history of marketing. The two soft drink companies have long vied for the top spot in the global market for brown, fizzy, sugar water. Some consumers claim they can taste a difference between the two colas (and maybe they can), while others see soda as a commodity (and simply buy the cheapest option) – but shoppers actually choose their soft drink brand because of something much deeper than price or taste.

In an environment where the price of two similar products is identical, a brand’s identity can be the driving force behind a purchase decision. Buyers form serious relationships with brands, and some of these bonds are just as strong as those that we form with other people. That might sound a little far-fetched, but think about it: Whether you own a PC or a Mac, you probably have some kind of opinion of Apple computers, simply because you are familiar with the brand’s personality. Love it or hate it, you know the characteristics of the Apple image – as if the company was a living, breathing human being.

Consumers have similar attachments to almost every product imaginable – including something as simple as soda. Coca-Cola has formed an image as the essential American product – their ad campaigns generally depict a survey of Americana or the festivity of a traditional Christmas. Coke regularly releases “retro” editions of older product lines, such as the iconic glass bottle and the experimental New Coke flavor. Pepsi, on the other hand, has struggled to find itself, and has often been forced to follow Coke’s leadership (see Pepsi’s Coke-inspired callback of old-school, cane sugar soda). The soda pop has never had a consistent brand identity of its own.
But Pepsi may have found a formula that works for them. The company seems to have recently realized that if Coke is “timeless,” then Pepsi can be “timely,” as the modern, edgy cola brand. The new Pepsi “Live for Now” campaign features plaid hipsters living life to the fullest as Nikki Minaj croons her hit “Moment 4 Life.” While this branding strategy isn’t the most original concept, it stands in stark contrast with Coca-Cola’s antiquated Santa Claus.

Leonard Buchholz posted about the subject of advertising earlier this week on an ADM blog. This excellent post exposes how poor customer service can completely eliminate the benefits of advertising, but we disagree on one small point: Leonard opines that “customers don’t make a connection with an ad.” However, I believe that a vast majority of consumer relationships are developed through marketing campaigns – before the customer ever purchases.

Auto dealers should constantly be asking themselves, “What kind of personality do I want my store to have? Who are we?” Your shoppers form relationships with you long before they meet you – through your marketing campaigns, from something a friend told them, or from your website – and these impressions collectively make up your brand identity. Can you describe your dealership’s personality?
_
Stephen is a social media specialist at ActivEngage, Inc. – the most trusted name in automotive live chat. Stay on top of our team’s marketing insights by subscribing to our blog.

For more than 100 years,PepsiCo. and Coca-Cola have waged one of the fiercest corporate brand wars in the history of marketing. The two soft drink companies have long vied for the top spot in the global market for brown, fizzy, sugar water. Some consumers claim they can taste a difference between the two colas (and maybe they can), while others see soda as a commodity (and simply buy the cheapest option) – but shoppers actually choose their soft drink brand because of something much deeper than price or taste.

In an environment where the price of two similar products is identical, a brand’s identity can be the driving force behind a purchase decision. Buyers form serious relationships with brands, and some of these bonds are just as strong as those that we form with other people. That might sound a little far-fetched, but think about it: Whether you own a PC or a Mac, you probably have some kind of opinion of Apple computers, simply because you are familiar with the brand’s personality. Love it or hate it, you know the characteristics of the Apple image – as if the company was a living, breathing human being.

Consumers have similar attachments to almost every product imaginable – including something as simple as soda. Coca-Cola has formed an image as the essential American product – their ad campaigns generally depict a survey of Americana or the festivity of a traditional Christmas. Coke regularly releases “retro” editions of older product lines, such as the iconic glass bottle and the experimental New Coke flavor. Pepsi, on the other hand, has struggled to find itself, and has often been forced to follow Coke’s leadership (see Pepsi’s Coke-inspired callback of old-school, cane sugar soda). The soda pop has never had a consistent brand identity of its own.
But Pepsi may have found a formula that works for them. The company seems to have recently realized that if Coke is “timeless,” then Pepsi can be “timely,” as the modern, edgy cola brand. The new Pepsi “Live for Now” campaign features plaid hipsters living life to the fullest as Nikki Minaj croons her hit “Moment 4 Life.” While this branding strategy isn’t the most original concept, it stands in stark contrast with Coca-Cola’s antiquated Santa Claus.

Leonard Buchholz posted about the subject of advertising earlier this week on an ADM blog. This excellent post exposes how poor customer service can completely eliminate the benefits of advertising, but we disagree on one small point: Leonard opines that “customers don’t make a connection with an ad.” However, I believe that a vast majority of consumer relationships are developed through marketing campaigns – before the customer ever purchases.

Auto dealers should constantly be asking themselves, “What kind of personality do I want my store to have? Who are we?” Your shoppers form relationships with you long before they meet you – through your marketing campaigns, from something a friend told them, or from your website – and these impressions collectively make up your brand identity. Can you describe your dealership’s personality?
_
Stephen is a social media specialist at ActivEngage, Inc. – the most trusted name in automotive live chat. Stay on top of our team’s marketing insights by subscribing to our blog.

In the ActivEngage blog, and in much of our other content, we describe the power of automotive live chat has to transform your dealership website into a lead-generating machine.  It is common knowledge that automotive chat opens a communication channel between automotive shoppers and your dealership that enables you to capture website visitor lead information and move prospective customers forward in your sales process.  Yet, the full potential of dealer chat has yet to be realized by a majority of auto dealers.

With more than 80% of today’s automotive consumers conducting part of their vehicle shopping process online, your website’s ability to engage automotive shoppers and convert them to leads is critical to the success of your dealership. To help auto dealers realize that optimizing the conversion rate of their website can easily be accomplished by deploying an automotive chat solution, we at ActivEngage created the new ebook The Power of Live Chat.

In this ebook, you will learn:

• One of the most valuable and effective features of automotive live chat is its ability to convert your anonymous website visitors into highly qualified leads.  Essentially, automotive chat solutions have the power to double the volume of leads generated from your website.
• How chat conversations build trust, rapport and relationships with your website visitors before they step foot in your physical dealership. The information gathered from chat conversations helps your dealership move the chat participants forward in the sales process and onto your showroom floor.
• How automotive chat satisfies your website visitors’ desire for immediate answers and personalized service. Automotive shoppers visit your dealership website to review available inventory, pricing information, and ultimately decide if they want to do business with your dealership. Chat is the only technology that allows your dealership to have instant communication with customers while they shop.

Stop losing thousands of potential sales.  Start leveraging the powerful lead generation of automotive live chat.

Download your free copy of The Power of Live Chat today!

In the ActivEngage blog, and in much of our other content, we describe the power of automotive live chat has to transform your dealership website into a lead-generating machine.  It is common knowledge that automotive chat opens a communication channel between automotive shoppers and your dealership that enables you to capture website visitor lead information and move prospective customers forward in your sales process.  Yet, the full potential of dealer chat has yet to be realized by a majority of auto dealers.

With more than 80% of today’s automotive consumers conducting part of their vehicle shopping process online, your website’s ability to engage automotive shoppers and convert them to leads is critical to the success of your dealership. To help auto dealers realize that optimizing the conversion rate of their website can easily be accomplished by deploying an automotive chat solution, we at ActivEngage created the new ebook The Power of Live Chat.

In this ebook, you will learn:

• One of the most valuable and effective features of automotive live chat is its ability to convert your anonymous website visitors into highly qualified leads.  Essentially, automotive chat solutions have the power to double the volume of leads generated from your website.
• How chat conversations build trust, rapport and relationships with your website visitors before they step foot in your physical dealership. The information gathered from chat conversations helps your dealership move the chat participants forward in the sales process and onto your showroom floor.
• How automotive chat satisfies your website visitors’ desire for immediate answers and personalized service. Automotive shoppers visit your dealership website to review available inventory, pricing information, and ultimately decide if they want to do business with your dealership. Chat is the only technology that allows your dealership to have instant communication with customers while they shop.

Stop losing thousands of potential sales.  Start leveraging the powerful lead generation of automotive live chat.

Download your free copy of The Power of Live Chat today!

Auto dealers eager to boost website conversion and Internet leads are increasingly using dealer chat solutions to engage visitors on dealership websites.  Automotive chat is an effective and proven method for growing the volume of a dealership’s online leads but thesuccess of chat largely depends on specific qualities of the automotive chat vendor and the dealership’s Internet department.

There are a variety of automotive chatsolutions available to dealerships today, but the most important chat decision with which auto dealers are faced is whether to manage chat in-house at the dealership or outsource it to a full-service vendor.  In this blog, we identify the most important things auto dealers need in order to successfully answer chats and manage their own dealer chat solution.

Mindset

First and foremost, auto dealers must put on their customer service hats.  Automotive chat is a communication channel used by website visitors seeking quick answers to questions.  The job of the dealer managing automotive chat in-house is to assist chat participants in their decision-making process while providing personalized service and developing a relationship with them.

Rob Campbell, eCommerce Director at Harnish Auto Family, has been successfully managing his dealership’s automotive chat for over two years.  Rob offers the following advice to auto dealers just starting off with in-house managed chat.  “It took us a little while to get our heads around how to leverage live chat. We realized that chats must be viewed as somewhere between an email lead and phone-up. Chatters are in a different phase of the sales process and taking them very seriously helped us to start closing more sales from chat.”

Rob has been so successful because he went with a vendor that has years of live chat and automotive retail sales experience.  Experienced chat vendors help auto dealers understand the intricacies and best practices of automotive chat conversations.  Vendors without extensive chat or automotive sales expertise will leave you on your own to discover success through trial and error.

Resources

Successfully self-managing automotive chat requires a dedicated staff.  In order to deliver significant results, a team of salespeople must commit to only answering chats.  Multitasking won’t cut it.  Dealership employees handling chats must be solely focused on answering automotive chat requests and moving website visitors forward in the sales process.

You will also need cutting-edge technology.  There are many different variations of automotive chat software on the market, but auto dealers experience the best return on investment if they choose technology specifically designed for automotive dealerships.  Additionally, live chat that comes with real-time business intelligence reporting is a must.  Thedetailed analytics of real-time business intelligence reporting show you website visitor:

• Click paths
• Geo-location
• Keywords

This information helps you understand the specific interests of each website visitor so you can better assist during their online shopping experience and craft a more thorough chat conversation.  Without these analytics, your website visitors control the conversation while you struggle to move them forward in your sales process.

Benchmarks

So, how will you know if you’re doing a good job managing your own dealer chat solution?  Are you getting contact information from online conversations with prospective customers?  Are automotive chat participants annoyed that you’re not answering their questions in a timely manner? How many chats on average do you miss each day?  Are your salesmen following upwith live chat leads with personalized emails?

Your answers to those questions will give you an idea of whether or not you’re achieving success with handling the management of your automotive chat.  The following benchmarks, developed by the most trusted brand in automotive live chat, are best practices off of which you can base your success.

• 6 seconds - The maximum time it should take for sales associates to answer chats
• 80% – The percentage of chat conversations that convert into leads, complete with name, phone number and email address.
• 9 minutes – The average length of each live chat conversation.  Auto dealers must be aware that automotive chat conversations are time consuming.  The time it takes to convert a chat conversation into a lead is more than 4 times that of converting a phone up.

Download Your Free Guide Today!

Feeling confident you have what it takes to manage your own dealer chat solution? Download this new ebook, “7 Reasons Live Chat Fails,” and learn how to avoid the most common causes of automotive chat failure.

Download your free guide today!

Auto dealers eager to boost website conversion and Internet leads are increasingly using dealer chat solutions to engage visitors on dealership websites.  Automotive chat is an effective and proven method for growing the volume of a dealership’s online leads but thesuccess of chat largely depends on specific qualities of the automotive chat vendor and the dealership’s Internet department.

There are a variety of automotive chatsolutions available to dealerships today, but the most important chat decision with which auto dealers are faced is whether to manage chat in-house at the dealership or outsource it to a full-service vendor.  In this blog, we identify the most important things auto dealers need in order to successfully answer chats and manage their own dealer chat solution.

Mindset

First and foremost, auto dealers must put on their customer service hats.  Automotive chat is a communication channel used by website visitors seeking quick answers to questions.  The job of the dealer managing automotive chat in-house is to assist chat participants in their decision-making process while providing personalized service and developing a relationship with them.

Rob Campbell, eCommerce Director at Harnish Auto Family, has been successfully managing his dealership’s automotive chat for over two years.  Rob offers the following advice to auto dealers just starting off with in-house managed chat.  “It took us a little while to get our heads around how to leverage live chat. We realized that chats must be viewed as somewhere between an email lead and phone-up. Chatters are in a different phase of the sales process and taking them very seriously helped us to start closing more sales from chat.”

Rob has been so successful because he went with a vendor that has years of live chat and automotive retail sales experience.  Experienced chat vendors help auto dealers understand the intricacies and best practices of automotive chat conversations.  Vendors without extensive chat or automotive sales expertise will leave you on your own to discover success through trial and error.

Resources

Successfully self-managing automotive chat requires a dedicated staff.  In order to deliver significant results, a team of salespeople must commit to only answering chats.  Multitasking won’t cut it.  Dealership employees handling chats must be solely focused on answering automotive chat requests and moving website visitors forward in the sales process.

You will also need cutting-edge technology.  There are many different variations of automotive chat software on the market, but auto dealers experience the best return on investment if they choose technology specifically designed for automotive dealerships.  Additionally, live chat that comes with real-time business intelligence reporting is a must.  Thedetailed analytics of real-time business intelligence reporting show you website visitor:

• Click paths
• Geo-location
• Keywords

This information helps you understand the specific interests of each website visitor so you can better assist during their online shopping experience and craft a more thorough chat conversation.  Without these analytics, your website visitors control the conversation while you struggle to move them forward in your sales process.

Benchmarks

So, how will you know if you’re doing a good job managing your own dealer chat solution?  Are you getting contact information from online conversations with prospective customers?  Are automotive chat participants annoyed that you’re not answering their questions in a timely manner? How many chats on average do you miss each day?  Are your salesmen following upwith live chat leads with personalized emails?

Your answers to those questions will give you an idea of whether or not you’re achieving success with handling the management of your automotive chat.  The following benchmarks, developed by the most trusted brand in automotive live chat, are best practices off of which you can base your success.

• 6 seconds - The maximum time it should take for sales associates to answer chats
• 80% – The percentage of chat conversations that convert into leads, complete with name, phone number and email address.
• 9 minutes – The average length of each live chat conversation.  Auto dealers must be aware that automotive chat conversations are time consuming.  The time it takes to convert a chat conversation into a lead is more than 4 times that of converting a phone up.

Download Your Free Guide Today!

Feeling confident you have what it takes to manage your own dealer chat solution? Download this new ebook, “7 Reasons Live Chat Fails,” and learn how to avoid the most common causes of automotive chat failure.

Download your free guide today!

Download Your FREE Copy Today!

ActivEngage has found the number one cause of automotive live chat failure is the misconception that simply adding a chat application to a dealership website will produce results.  Last week we released a new ebook to help auto dealers learn how to use automotive live chat correctly and generate more high quality leads than ever before.

The ebook, which outlines the evolution of chat technology as a communication channel and sales engagement tool, presents the seven most common reasons live chat fails for auto dealers.  Additionally, the ebook highlights how smart auto dealers avoid the common pitfalls and use automotive live chat to take their websites to the next level of lead generation.

Seven Reasons Live Chat Fails arms dealers with the knowledge to plan, implement and manage a chat strategy that effectively doubles the volume of leads generated from their dealership websites.

In this powerful 11 page guide, you will learn:

• How to use live chat to create dynamic conversations on your website and stand out from your competitors.
• How to make chat a successful lead generation tool for your dealership.
• Why all invitations to chat are not the same and how some might even reduce your conversion rate.

There is no doubt information presented in this ebook might prompt you to rethink your chat strategy and digital marketing mix.  Do you have the resources to manage your own automotive live chat? Does your chat service come with real-time business intelligent reporting to target prospective customers? Do you or your chat provider have years of chat experience as well as a deep understanding of automotive retail sales?

There is plenty of food for thought here. To start engaging the thousands of visitors who abandon your website each month, grab your free copy of the ebook today!

Which reason surprised you the most? Let us know in a comment below.

Download Your FREE Copy Today!

ActivEngage has found the number one cause of automotive live chat failure is the misconception that simply adding a chat application to a dealership website will produce results.  Last week we released a new ebook to help auto dealers learn how to use automotive live chat correctly and generate more high quality leads than ever before.

The ebook, which outlines the evolution of chat technology as a communication channel and sales engagement tool, presents the seven most common reasons live chat fails for auto dealers.  Additionally, the ebook highlights how smart auto dealers avoid the common pitfalls and use automotive live chat to take their websites to the next level of lead generation.

Seven Reasons Live Chat Fails arms dealers with the knowledge to plan, implement and manage a chat strategy that effectively doubles the volume of leads generated from their dealership websites.

In this powerful 11 page guide, you will learn:

• How to use live chat to create dynamic conversations on your website and stand out from your competitors.
• How to make chat a successful lead generation tool for your dealership.
• Why all invitations to chat are not the same and how some might even reduce your conversion rate.

There is no doubt information presented in this ebook might prompt you to rethink your chat strategy and digital marketing mix.  Do you have the resources to manage your own automotive live chat? Does your chat service come with real-time business intelligent reporting to target prospective customers? Do you or your chat provider have years of chat experience as well as a deep understanding of automotive retail sales?

There is plenty of food for thought here. To start engaging the thousands of visitors who abandon your website each month, grab your free copy of the ebook today!

Which reason surprised you the most? Let us know in a comment below.

Auto dealers know the follow-up process is one of the most critical elements of lead conversion.  This is especially true for leads generated through automotive live chat.  To be successful in this business and build trust with consumers, dealers must follow-up with leads quickly and be precise and specific in their communication.  For leads generated from automotive live chat, the chat transcript holds vital information about the prospect’s desires and how far along he or she is in the conversion funnel.

But, how can auto dealers be specific, personal and build trust in a timely manner?

Understandably, auto dealers hate to email out a price without first talking to someone.  Dealers should simply focus on continuing to build the relationship with the prospective customer that was initiated by the live chat conversation while providing information that move the customer forward in the sales process.

In this blog, we analyze a real-life situation in which a dealer failed to follow-up appropriately with a chat lead.  Then, we discuss appropriate and effective ways to follow-up with chat leads (and all Internet leads) so that they convert into sales and move forward in the sales process.

Below is an example of a failed follow-up process, straight from the chatter’s mouth…er, their fingers.

“Hello. Not too sure if you can answer my question. But how long does it usually take to get the bottom line price on a car? I originally inquired on 1.26.12 and then again yesterday. I have received the same auto reply/generic email thanking me for my interest.

Its okay. I just wanted to know if the manager would take the time to reply or if I should just forget about it and move on.”

Nothing is worse than spamming your leads with robotic, impersonal auto-replies.  Something we stress to our auto dealer clients is to always be personal in your follow-up responses.  As you can see from the last sentence of the chat, this ready-to-buy prospective customer has lost all trust is on the verge of giving up on the dealership.

So dealers, how would you salvage this situation and prevent it from happening in the future?  Here are a few tips:

Send a personal email

A personal touch is all your prospects are looking for.  It doesn’t have to be long – both you and the customer live busy lives – 3 to 5 sentences addressing the situation will salvage the sales process.  Using the phrase, “My online sales assistant let me know you were interested in ______,” can be very effective.  Fill in the blank and take it from there.  Also, don’t forget to include a call to action.  Never end an email with a statement!  Conclude your email with a question to prompt a response.

Follow-up with relevant and specific information

• Confirm special features/options on the vehicle ( something as simple as leather seats or advanced options like Bluetooth)
• Confirm availability (and interior color and condition if it is pre/owned)
• Send a pic of the actual vehicle and offer to send more
• Give a bullet point of what the next steps are in the buying process
• Explain advantage of buying from you
• Remind the prospect of what is needed for the test drive( license, and whatever else they may want)
• Provide info on what services or reconditioning on the pre-owned vehicle has been done

Read what is given to you

Read the chat transcript, form lead or any other consumer insights you have.  Know what the customer wants and give it to them.  It’s that easy!  Remember that the chat conversation has already developed a relationship between your dealership and the prospective customer.  An impersonal auto-response removes the customer entirely from the sales process and ruins your rapport.

By acting as an advocate in the follow-up process, auto dealers can provide consumers with  information and then ask questions to assist them in moving forward through the sales process.  Keep in mind that consumers don’t buy a car every day, week, month or year.  Every “inside” tip you give prospects builds upon the trust already established by the live chat conversation.

Remember, the leads received through automotive live chat are a product of a two-way conversation.  A template email saying thanks for your interest just stalls customers and erodes any trust built during a live chat conversation.

Remember, the leads received through automotive live chat are a product of a two-way conversation.

In addition to these tips, ActivEngage CEO Todd Smith offers additional advice that will not only help ensure auto dealers successfully transform chat conversations into leads, but will help them stand out in the marketplace during the critical follow-up process.

Watch Todd’s video for more ideas:

How do you follow-up with leads?  Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation as the dealer above?  How did you salvage the relationship?

Let us know in a comment below!

Auto dealers know the follow-up process is one of the most critical elements of lead conversion.  This is especially true for leads generated through automotive live chat.  To be successful in this business and build trust with consumers, dealers must follow-up with leads quickly and be precise and specific in their communication.  For leads generated from automotive live chat, the chat transcript holds vital information about the prospect’s desires and how far along he or she is in the conversion funnel.

But, how can auto dealers be specific, personal and build trust in a timely manner?

Understandably, auto dealers hate to email out a price without first talking to someone.  Dealers should simply focus on continuing to build the relationship with the prospective customer that was initiated by the live chat conversation while providing information that move the customer forward in the sales process.

In this blog, we analyze a real-life situation in which a dealer failed to follow-up appropriately with a chat lead.  Then, we discuss appropriate and effective ways to follow-up with chat leads (and all Internet leads) so that they convert into sales and move forward in the sales process.

Below is an example of a failed follow-up process, straight from the chatter’s mouth…er, their fingers.

“Hello. Not too sure if you can answer my question. But how long does it usually take to get the bottom line price on a car? I originally inquired on 1.26.12 and then again yesterday. I have received the same auto reply/generic email thanking me for my interest.

Its okay. I just wanted to know if the manager would take the time to reply or if I should just forget about it and move on.”

Nothing is worse than spamming your leads with robotic, impersonal auto-replies.  Something we stress to our auto dealer clients is to always be personal in your follow-up responses.  As you can see from the last sentence of the chat, this ready-to-buy prospective customer has lost all trust is on the verge of giving up on the dealership.

So dealers, how would you salvage this situation and prevent it from happening in the future?  Here are a few tips:

Send a personal email

A personal touch is all your prospects are looking for.  It doesn’t have to be long – both you and the customer live busy lives – 3 to 5 sentences addressing the situation will salvage the sales process.  Using the phrase, “My online sales assistant let me know you were interested in ______,” can be very effective.  Fill in the blank and take it from there.  Also, don’t forget to include a call to action.  Never end an email with a statement!  Conclude your email with a question to prompt a response.

Follow-up with relevant and specific information

• Confirm special features/options on the vehicle ( something as simple as leather seats or advanced options like Bluetooth)
• Confirm availability (and interior color and condition if it is pre/owned)
• Send a pic of the actual vehicle and offer to send more
• Give a bullet point of what the next steps are in the buying process
• Explain advantage of buying from you
• Remind the prospect of what is needed for the test drive( license, and whatever else they may want)
• Provide info on what services or reconditioning on the pre-owned vehicle has been done

Read what is given to you

Read the chat transcript, form lead or any other consumer insights you have.  Know what the customer wants and give it to them.  It’s that easy!  Remember that the chat conversation has already developed a relationship between your dealership and the prospective customer.  An impersonal auto-response removes the customer entirely from the sales process and ruins your rapport.

By acting as an advocate in the follow-up process, auto dealers can provide consumers with  information and then ask questions to assist them in moving forward through the sales process.  Keep in mind that consumers don’t buy a car every day, week, month or year.  Every “inside” tip you give prospects builds upon the trust already established by the live chat conversation.

Remember, the leads received through automotive live chat are a product of a two-way conversation.  A template email saying thanks for your interest just stalls customers and erodes any trust built during a live chat conversation.

Remember, the leads received through automotive live chat are a product of a two-way conversation.

In addition to these tips, ActivEngage CEO Todd Smith offers additional advice that will not only help ensure auto dealers successfully transform chat conversations into leads, but will help them stand out in the marketplace during the critical follow-up process.

Watch Todd’s video for more ideas:

How do you follow-up with leads?  Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation as the dealer above?  How did you salvage the relationship?

Let us know in a comment below!