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!

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!

What if you could spot engaged and ready-to-buy shoppers as they browse your dealership website in real-time?  How would that transform your Internet Business?

More and more auto dealers are finding automotive live chat to be one of the most valuable assets to their dealership’s Internet business.  Dealers using full service, managed chat solutions tend to experience the largest boost in leads generated from their websites. On the other hand, many dealers believe that their BDC and Sales staff are the most qualified individuals to handle their dealership chat.

Both categories of automotive live chat solutions deliver an increase in website lead generation, yet this increase is primarily achieved as a result of intuitive behavioral targeting by solutions utilizing real-time business intelligence reporting.  In simplified terms, some chat solutions come with supercharged website analytics to deliver you the most high quality leads possible.

Still, chat vendors that lack a deep understanding of retail automotive sales or live chat best practices and trends put their dealership clients at a competitive disadvantage.

A study recently conducted by ActivEngage, the most trusted brand in automotive live chat, analyzed data from more than 4,000,000 chat conversations to understand which specific variables determine the maximum success of live chat technology.

From our findings, we are able to target prospective customers and likely chat participants based on the criteria listed below.

The Average Chat Participant:

• Is a unique website visitor

Unique visitors that land on your site are in the exploratory phase of their purchasing process.  This is your opportunity to make a positive first impression, which is sometimes referred to as the “Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).”  Proactive live chat invitations replicate your showroom “meet and greet,” creating the positive first impression your sales team give “ups” at your physical dealership.

You may find it interesting that unique visitors are more likely to engage in a chat conversation than returning visitors.  This trend is due to a unique visitor’s unfamiliarity with your site navigation and content.  Live chat serves as a means of instant communication to assist visitors in finding the information they seek.  At the same time, dealers are able to engage these visitors in an online sales process with the goal of gathering lead information.

• Views an average 5 to 7 Web pages

A visitor that views more than 5 pages on your website can indicate one of two things: anengaged online shopper or a confused online shopper.  In either instance, the visitor is likely to engage in a chat conversation.  Dealers or chat professionals monitoring an automotive shopper’s website activity can step in and provide visitors in this situation the right message at the right moment using customizable proactive chat invitations.

• Stays on the site between 12 and 14 minutes

Visitors that delve deep into your website content for long periods of time are most likely serious online shoppers.  At this point, these shoppers will either submit a form lead because they’ve found what they’re looking for or they will engage in a chat conversation to request more information.

Dealer Takeaway:

Auto dealers using ActivEngage live chat and real-time business intelligence reporting have prospective customers on their dealership websites automatically identified and engaged.  Progressive dealers using this proprietary chat technology achieve double the lead volume generated from their websites than those without chat.

Only ActivEngage offers dealers live chat with real-time business analytic solutions specifically designed to maximize the amount of leads delivered from dealership websites while reducing the overall cost of lead generation for dealerships.

What if you could spot engaged and ready-to-buy shoppers as they browse your dealership website in real-time?  How would that transform your Internet Business?

More and more auto dealers are finding automotive live chat to be one of the most valuable assets to their dealership’s Internet business.  Dealers using full service, managed chat solutions tend to experience the largest boost in leads generated from their websites. On the other hand, many dealers believe that their BDC and Sales staff are the most qualified individuals to handle their dealership chat.

Both categories of automotive live chat solutions deliver an increase in website lead generation, yet this increase is primarily achieved as a result of intuitive behavioral targeting by solutions utilizing real-time business intelligence reporting.  In simplified terms, some chat solutions come with supercharged website analytics to deliver you the most high quality leads possible.

Still, chat vendors that lack a deep understanding of retail automotive sales or live chat best practices and trends put their dealership clients at a competitive disadvantage.

A study recently conducted by ActivEngage, the most trusted brand in automotive live chat, analyzed data from more than 4,000,000 chat conversations to understand which specific variables determine the maximum success of live chat technology.

From our findings, we are able to target prospective customers and likely chat participants based on the criteria listed below.

The Average Chat Participant:

• Is a unique website visitor

Unique visitors that land on your site are in the exploratory phase of their purchasing process.  This is your opportunity to make a positive first impression, which is sometimes referred to as the “Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).”  Proactive live chat invitations replicate your showroom “meet and greet,” creating the positive first impression your sales team give “ups” at your physical dealership.

You may find it interesting that unique visitors are more likely to engage in a chat conversation than returning visitors.  This trend is due to a unique visitor’s unfamiliarity with your site navigation and content.  Live chat serves as a means of instant communication to assist visitors in finding the information they seek.  At the same time, dealers are able to engage these visitors in an online sales process with the goal of gathering lead information.

• Views an average 5 to 7 Web pages

A visitor that views more than 5 pages on your website can indicate one of two things: anengaged online shopper or a confused online shopper.  In either instance, the visitor is likely to engage in a chat conversation.  Dealers or chat professionals monitoring an automotive shopper’s website activity can step in and provide visitors in this situation the right message at the right moment using customizable proactive chat invitations.

• Stays on the site between 12 and 14 minutes

Visitors that delve deep into your website content for long periods of time are most likely serious online shoppers.  At this point, these shoppers will either submit a form lead because they’ve found what they’re looking for or they will engage in a chat conversation to request more information.

Dealer Takeaway:

Auto dealers using ActivEngage live chat and real-time business intelligence reporting have prospective customers on their dealership websites automatically identified and engaged.  Progressive dealers using this proprietary chat technology achieve double the lead volume generated from their websites than those without chat.

Only ActivEngage offers dealers live chat with real-time business analytic solutions specifically designed to maximize the amount of leads delivered from dealership websites while reducing the overall cost of lead generation for dealerships.