Adding Live Chat software or a hosted chat option to your website doesn’t mean you have to think outside of the box - in fact it is another way to get more buyers INTO THE BOX! I’m sure in the 1930s having a phone was ‘new’ thinking, just like adding a website or dealership email address in the late 1990s was a revolutionary idea.
The debate about whether or not to have chat on your website is pretty much over. You really just have to focus on which chat software or service vendor you would like to use. Here are a few keys to success:

• 24/7 Coverage: Avoid the 'sorry, we're offlin' message: Often as many as 20 to 30 percent of opportunities occur after business hours. Business people travel and military personnel may not have phone access but still appreciate a two-way conversation  - you know, high-quality prospects. Tuesday and Thursday mornings can be slower on the lot, but you still have salespeople scheduled, right?
• Fully Hosted / Managed Option: If you are completely happy with the way all your phone ups are handled AND have someone with the available time to handle the chats and savvy enough to master the software, you have a shot at successful self-hosting. Otherwise be sure to look at either a backup option or fully hosted service.
• Automotive Exclusive: A one-size-fits-all chat option is like a website or CRM solution from a company that serves all kinds of businesses. What stores really need is internet technology that is developed from the ground up to mesh with both automotive shoppers, as well as processes within the dealership environment. What's more, you want automotive professionals with experience in a variety of dealer roles and settings on the development team.
• Proactive Invite: This is the popup that greets your dealership website visitors and gives them a chance to chat. It should be on page one, and timing is critical - how long before it pops up and the duration it is on the screen are important.

There are dozens of other details that are important when you are choosing a chat software or managed / hosted chat option, but these major factors will help guide your choice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom LaPointe CarChat24 CHAT EXPERT

Tom has an MBA in Marketing and is an automotive writer and author with more than 15 years experience in virtually every aspect of the retail auto industry. He began working with the internet building websites at Johns Hopkins University in the 90's, and has been a performance leader in nearly every dealer role, from sales and service, to web development and viral marketing.

"...you can't just throw it on there and expect it to generate more sales leads or help you sell more cars"

When the internet began to commercialize in the late 90's, you could throw up a website with a few nice pictures and you were ahead of the competition. Then you had to add your inventory just to be competitive. The same is true with live chat on your website - you can't just throw it on there and expect it to generate more sales leads or help you sell more cars.

Success with live chat requires more planning than you probably put into your website, especially if you plan to self-host instead of contract with a managed chat provider. The good news is that leading chat providers have the benefit of handling thousands of successful leads from hundreds of dealerships, and can offer a chat success formula, instead of a chat mystery. These five points can help you be a star for both your customers - and your bottom line:
◾Include a proactive invite on EVERY landing page
◾Ensure response to chat requests is 5-10 seconds
◾Train operators to know all the facets of their chat dashboard
◾Ensure chat leads end up in CRM - these are warm sales opportunities
◾Have a plan for non-sales chat inquiries (CSI / service / parts / collision center)

Auto dealers with live chat on their website join a growing number of businesses that take advantage of the opportunities this technology offers, including retail department stores, travel companies, and the computer industry.  By choosing the right chat partner and carefully planning processes and lead flow, live chat can not only boost your amount of quality leads and increase car sales, but build stronger relationships with your customers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom LaPointe
CarChat24 Interactive Media Manager / Industry Analyst

Tom has an MBA in Marketing and is an automotive writer and author with more than 15 years experience in virtually every aspect of the retail auto industry. He began working with the internet building websites at Johns Hopkins University in the 90's, and has been a performance leader in nearly every dealer role, from sales and service, to web development and viral marketing.

CarChat24 receives its third “Top Rated” Award for Dealer Satisfaction in the Chat Products Category

PALM HARBOR, Fla. - Jan. 24, 2014 -  CarChat24 - 24/7 Fully Staffed Chat & Advanced Dealer Chat Software is the recipient of a “Top Rated” Chat Product award in the fifth annual DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards, presented at a special event today in conjunction with the 2014 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention & Expo.

“We are extremely proud to accept this third award and we are very grateful to our dealers who took the time to rate us on DrivingSales.com,” said CarChat24 President and CEO, Shereef Moawad, who started the industry-leading dealer live chat software company seven years ago to help auto dealers generate more quality sales leads through their websites. “The real winners are our dealers, who not only appreciate the value of a quality live chat product, but trust us to help them sell more cars.”

He explained that his extensive management experience taught him the value of an effective chat product and he is determined to provide his dealer clients with the best cutting-edge web technologies and expertise. “Live Chat software is hands-down the best way for dealerships to increase volume and profit by starting the sales process the moment a visitor lands on their website, and we are proud that our efforts at CarChat24 to create a proven live chat solution and provide a world-class dealership chat support service led to this coveted award,” Moawad continued. CarChat24 previously received a “Top Rated” award in the Chat Products category in the 2nd and 4th annual DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards, announced at NADA 2011 and 2013.

“We congratulate CarChat24 on winning a ‘Top Rated’ Chat Product Award and for being recognized by its dealer customers for high levels of excellence and customer satisfaction,” said DrivingSales CEO and Founder Jared Hamilton. “In our fifth year of presenting these awards, we feel especially proud that DrivingSales Vendor Ratings continues to help dealers make smart and informed decisions through thousands of peer reviews that lead them to service providers such as CarChat24.  We congratulate CarChat24 on being recognized for top notch performance by the people to whom their services count the most: the dealer community.”

The DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards measure dealer satisfaction with vendor products and services, and are based on cumulative ratings tallied and verified over the calendar year (January – December) at DrivingSales.com Vendor Ratings.  DrivingSales.com Vendor Ratings is the industry’s only neutral, comprehensive vendor rating forum featuring real-time peer reviews and honest competitor comparisons, and provides dealerships with important information from actual customers who have hands-on experience using vendor products / solutions in their stores. Each rating is verified as coming from an actual dealership employee.

Full award results are available online at http://dealersatisfactionawards.com/. Award winners are showcased in the Q1 2014 issue of the DrivingSales Dealership Innovation Guide which, in addition to being distributed at the 2014 NADA Convention and Expo, is delivered to every new car dealership nationwide, as well as to the top 100 used car dealerships. For more information on the Dealership Innovation Guide, please visit: http://drivingsalesinnovationguide.com/.
About CarChat24.com (http://www.carchat24.com)
CarChat24 provides 24/7 hosted Live Chat Support & Dealer Chat Software for new and used car dealership websites. CarChat24 helps dealers sell more vehicles by converting a higher percentage of their website visitors into quality leads. Since 2007, CarChat24 has been helping car dealers improve their sales and customer service on the Internet. Our mission is to empower car dealers with cutting edge live chat technology, and provide the professional staff and superior processes needed to obtain the best possible results. We are committed to helping our clients get the best return on investment from their websites. We strive to make our support service the very best and are always looking for innovative ways to give our dealers the edge over their competition. Follow CarChat24.com on http://www.twitter.com/CarChat24  and fan CarChat24.com on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/CarChat24 and Google+ http://www.google.com/+CarChat24PalmHarbor

For more information visit http://www.carchat24.com or call Jeff Sterns or Jason Good at 1-800-510-7567

About DrivingSales
DrivingSales is a professional network serving the auto industry with dealer-driven news and information, online training, and performance data, all to enable dealers to make critical business decisions at their dealerships.  DrivingSales’ mission is to connect progressive dealership professionals to the people and information they need to maximize their success.  Founded by a third-generation car dealer, and opened up to the industry in 2008, today DrivingSales has registered users in over 50% of new car dealerships in the US and is active in several other countries around the globe.  To learn more about the DrivingSales community, training or performance analytics visit DrivingSales.com, DrivingSalesUniversity.com and DrivingSalesData.com

Media contact for CarChat24 / ChatLead.com, Inc:
Jason Good
Jason.good@carchat24.com
1592 Lago Vista Blvd. Palm Harbor, Florida 34685
800-510-7567
www.CarChat24.com

DrivingSales Media Relations:
Melanie Webber (melanie@mwebbcom.com), mWEBB Communications, 949.307.1723

Five reasons chat wins the battle

Just like the early days of the commercial internet, when many auto dealerships were slow to recognize the potential a website held for helping them sell more cars, adding a live chat option is a concept that seems to cause principals and general managers some consternation as a new technology that adds value to their existing internet marketing portfolio. Here are five substantial differences between a hosted live chat service or self hosted live chat software and a static dealer website form:

As you can see, the difference between a contact form and live chat is that chat is, well, LIVE. Much more than a virtual answering service for your phones, a good chat operator can guide visitors through the website (including inventory), set appointments, provide Edmunds.com data about vehicles or CarFax reports up to twenty-four hours a day (with participating dealers and select live chat providers), and much more. The live chat operator becomes a car shopper's 'concierge in the cloud'.

The best time to implement a live chat option is NOW, so be sure your live chat software or live chat hosted service has the experience and portfolio to meet your needs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom LaPointe CarChat24  Interactive Media Manager / Industry Analyst

www.carchat24.com/ 24/7 Interactive Automotive Dealer Website LIVE CHAT Solutions Hosted or In-House Options – FREE web chat software 727-638-0195

Tom has an MBA in Marketing and is an automotive writer and author with more than 15 years experience in virtually every aspect of the retail auto industry. He began working with the internet building websites at Johns Hopkins University in the 90's, and has been a performance leader in nearly every dealer role, from sales and service, to web development and viral marketing.

Strong relationships are similar to spider webs, especially in the auto industry. Multiple threads are must to build an effective web for business – or spiders. If you want to build long-term success in car sales, you have to recognize that these relationships start with one tiny thread, and by creating additional threads through rapport and nurturing with quality customer care, additional threads and then loyalty can follow.

Loyalty is a fickle mistress in the modern era. No longer do buyers automatically return again and again to purchase their cars like the Buick and Lincoln buyers of old because that is part of their identity. Today’s buyers tie their identity more to a class of car, rather than a particular brand, and their connection to their dealer is even weaker. But as long as I have been around motor vehicles, the dealers that work the hardest to strengthen that bond stand the greatest chance to retain their customers.

The key is to make the most of the first thread. A relationship typically begins one of five ways:

• Floor traffic
• Dealer Website (contact form, phone call, or live chat)
• Third party lead
• Referrals
• Events and Prospecting

Each contact with a customer is a chance to make or break a thread. Whether each contact is through sales, service, parts or the BDC, it is an opportunity for a new thread to be created. Successful dealers ensure their staff is trained to treat each interaction as an opportunity to help or hurt future business. Even the best dealers end up breaking a thread once in a while, so building webs with new customers is a must, and in this day of online reviews, how you treat someone who DOES NOT end up buying can affect your business as much as someone who did. Just like a spider’s web, sometimes forces beyond our control can break those bonds, from a vehicle breakdown to someone moving out of the area, so you have to continue the web-building process.

Even though the internet can create more stress by transforming the buying process and allowing online reviews, it can benefit the dealership’s web-building through both social media and email campaigns. Carefully executed, both these communication methods can be a key part of a dealer’s ability to strengthen and create new threads to connect the customer to the store. Additionally, during and after the buying process, website live chat link on a dealership website is a valuable tool (especially after hours) to see to a customer’s needs with a real-time response to a sales, service or parts inquiry.

Faux spiders and goblins adorn our neighborhoods for Halloween, but dealers who view every client interaction as a chance to strengthen the web of their relationship, can increase sales throughout the year.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom LaPointe CarChat24  Interactive Media Manager / Industry Analyst

www.carchat24.com/ 24/7 Interactive Automotive Dealer Website LIVE CHAT Solutions Hosted or In-House Options – FREE web chat software 727-638-0195

Tom has an MBA in Marketing and is an automotive writer and author with more than 15 years experience in virtually every aspect of the retail auto industry. He began working with the internet building websites at Johns Hopkins University in the 90's, and has been an performance leader in nearly every dealer role, from sales and service, to web development and viral marketing.

It may seem a bit counterintuitive, but if an auto dealership wants to establish a successful website live chat program in-house, it is wise to position your chat staff as online operators, and NOT as internet salespeople. There are three reasons this strategy will help create live chat success:

Allows the operator an excuse to gather lead information. Shoppers have an aversion to salesperson that is nearly encoded into DNA. When you position your staff as ‘operators’, their role is merely to provide information for the shopper and earn enough trust to gather lead information and hopefully, even an appointment.

Stops 30-minute live chats that have salespeople reading numbers off tires on used cars. If your chat staff are operators, the shopper won’t have the power to demand that they run from car to car worrying about speed rating on tires, or transmission ratios. They can stay on script moving toward a quality lead or car sales appointment.

Less likely to prejudge or sell the car online. As sales managers, we have all had sales people who ‘knew’ whether a prospect was going to buy, or avoided an appointment because they ‘knew’ the shopper couldn’t get a loan approved. Chat operators won’t have all this ‘expert knowledge’. Additionally, they won’t be focused on scheduling appointments around a shift or day off, as a salesperson might be tempted.

Numerous factors affect the success or failure of an in-house dealership website live chat program, and having proper fundamentals and training in place can make a huge difference. What is your live chat success (or lack of) story?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom LaPointe CarChat24  Interactive Media Manager / Industry Analyst

www.carchat24.com/ 24/7 Interactive Automotive Dealer Website LIVE CHAT Solutions Hosted or In-House Options – FREE web chat software 727-638-0195

Tom has an MBA in Marketing and is an automotive writer and author with more than 15 years experience in virtually every aspect of the retail auto industry. He has been a performance leader in everything from sales and service, to web development and viral marketing.

It makes sense, and many dealers might suspect, that buyers are willing to travel farther for their car deal than in years past, and those suspicions have been confirmed - again.

A follow-up study by Autotrader.com to their 2012 White Paper, Have Internet, Will Travel, confirmed this month that “two and a half times more car buyers traveled distances of 30+ miles to purchase a vehicle when the Internet was used during the shopping process”. This information was reported in Automotive News.

Autotrader.com identified several factors that influenced a buyer to travel for their car-buying experience. These include:

• Multiple custom (not stock) photos of the actual vehicle – for both new AND used
• Seller’s comments / description of vehicle
• Video
• Dealership merchandising / value proposition

This isn’t the first time these recommendations have popped up, and because more and more buyers embrace the internet as their preferred shopping tool, they continue to rise in importance. Other key factors to consider when planning your online marketing are:

• Mobile-friendly website
• Live chat option on dealer websites
• Rapid and effective inquiry response strategy

What have you done in your store to become more desirable to internet shoppers?

IMAGES: Autotrader.com, Automotive News

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom LaPointe CarChat24  Interactive Media Manager / Industry Analyst

www.carchat24.com/ 24/7 Interactive Automotive Dealer Website LIVE CHAT Solutions Hosted or In-House Options – FREE web chat software 727-638-0195

Tom has an MBA in Marketing and is an automotive writer and author with more than 15 years experience in virtually every aspect of the retail auto industry. He has been a performance leader in everything from sales and service, to web development and viral marketing.

This is just a really cool photo! Submitted to AutoWeek.com by one of their readers.

"A dealership website without 24/7 live chat is a scary thought!" www.CarChat24.com

It may not come as a surprise, but paying extra bucks to “go green” in a hybrid car may pay off in self-esteem and image for older drivers, as well as give a healthy boost to the environment, according to a Baylor University study.

This may help fuel cynics' view that people are far from green when they park a hybrid in front of their 3,000-5,000 square-foot home with an Olympic pool and Lexus SUV in the garage. But at least the trend has money moving through the economy...

PRESS RELEASE:

Newswise — Paying extra bucks to “go green” in a hybrid car may pay off in self-esteem and image for older drivers, as well as give a healthy boost to the environment, according to a Baylor University study.

The finding is significant because some segments of the older-consumer population control a considerable share of the discretionary income in the United States, and the population size of the “mature market” is growing rapidly, researchers said.

The study is published in the journal Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing and Service Industries.

“If I want to pay $5 for a ‘green’ detergent or sponge, I’ll know that I’m helping the environment. But those things aren’t highly visible. Other people aren’t going to notice,” said Jay Yoo, Ph.D., an assistant professor of family and consumer sciences in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences.

Researchers analyzed a national cross-sectional survey of 314 consumers age 60 and older who had bought hybrid cars. The study showed that their satisfaction was influenced by social values — including pride and prestige — as well as quality and price, not only in vehicle purchase but in future savings on gasoline expenses.

Those three variables — social value, price and quality — are significant in building senior citizens’ customer loyalty as shown by repurchase intention and positive word-of-mouth, Yoo said.

Emotional values — such as excitement – did not significantly influence their purchase intention or satisfaction, according to the study.

“The findings suggest that elderly consumers are concerned about how they appear to others when driving a hybrid car,” the researchers wrote. “They believe that driving a hybrid car builds a positive self-image of the people who drive them.”

“This knowledge can help as a marketing tool,” Yoo said. “Hybrid cars have increased in visibility because of their environmental consciousness. So people may be willing to pay an extra $5,000 or so in order to think, ‘I’m great, and this is good for the environment.’” Previous research has shown that older consumers are more inclined to behave in a pro-environment way than younger people are, he said.

Other researchers were Won-Moo Hur of the School of Business Administration in Pukyong National University in Busan, South Korea; and Jin Hur of the Yonsei School of Business, Yonsei University, in Seoul, South Korea.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom LaPointe CarChat24  Interactive Media Manager / Industry Analyst

www.carchat24.com/ 24/7 Interactive Automotive Dealer Website LIVE CHAT Solutions Hosted or In-House Options – FREE web chat software 727-638-0195

Tom has an MBA in Marketing and is an automotive writer and author with more than 15 years experience in virtually every aspect of the retail auto industry. He has been a performance leader in everything from sales and service, to web development and viral marketing.

The cross promotion ad, It Comes Standard produced by Will Ferrell, touts all the great features of the glove box, and has been picked by AdWeek as one of their top ten for the week. I'm still partial to the ad that picks on the horse. Great marketing campaign!