On the surface, one might think that website chat systems are very straightforward, that they're all pretty much the same. They're not the same and with one of the three most important components, the differences can be huge.

When analyzing the effectness of your chat system, it's easy to see if something is working or not. It's harder to determine what to do to make it work other than to pick a different dealer chat provider. Here are three things to consider in your chat strategy when making decisions:

1. Placement Counts - There are personal preferences about where to place chat buttons and calls to action. Some like going big with prompts that encourage interaction and buttons available throughout. Others like to put a little button at the top of the page and leave it at that. We believe strongly in encouraging website visitors to chat with you. They'll fill out a form or call you based upon their escalating needs, but sometimes getting them to talk to you in the first place takes prompting.
2. Scripts and Integration Help - Most of the questions that come over chat have been asked many, many times before. There are certain talk tracks that can be inserted into a chat box that has been shown to be most successful to help your website visitors and encourage further interaction. Also, having the ability to quickly send them a CarFax or an Edmunds vehicle report gives you the ability to be exceptional for your website visitors above and beyond the last website they visited or a competitor they'll go to in the future.
3. Be Present at All Times - The most appealing part of chat for most of your website visitors is the real-time interaction. It's not like a form that can take time to respond. Having your chat available 24/7 has been shown to dramatically improve how your website visitors perceive your ability to serve them, not to mention it increases leads.

It's in this last one that chat companies differ in opinion. It's easy for me to say that 24/7 is important since that's what's offered by my company, but the data has shown that beyond a shadow of a doubt people are using the internet at night. They're on your website at all hours. They're on your website on weekends. Don't fall for the pitch that people only go to your site around business hours.

If you know these three things, you'll be able to determine how to make your chat service more productive and efficient. It's all about results.

On the surface, one might think that website chat systems are very straightforward, that they're all pretty much the same. They're not the same and with one of the three most important components, the differences can be huge.

When analyzing the effectness of your chat system, it's easy to see if something is working or not. It's harder to determine what to do to make it work other than to pick a different dealer chat provider. Here are three things to consider in your chat strategy when making decisions:

1. Placement Counts - There are personal preferences about where to place chat buttons and calls to action. Some like going big with prompts that encourage interaction and buttons available throughout. Others like to put a little button at the top of the page and leave it at that. We believe strongly in encouraging website visitors to chat with you. They'll fill out a form or call you based upon their escalating needs, but sometimes getting them to talk to you in the first place takes prompting.
2. Scripts and Integration Help - Most of the questions that come over chat have been asked many, many times before. There are certain talk tracks that can be inserted into a chat box that has been shown to be most successful to help your website visitors and encourage further interaction. Also, having the ability to quickly send them a CarFax or an Edmunds vehicle report gives you the ability to be exceptional for your website visitors above and beyond the last website they visited or a competitor they'll go to in the future.
3. Be Present at All Times - The most appealing part of chat for most of your website visitors is the real-time interaction. It's not like a form that can take time to respond. Having your chat available 24/7 has been shown to dramatically improve how your website visitors perceive your ability to serve them, not to mention it increases leads.

It's in this last one that chat companies differ in opinion. It's easy for me to say that 24/7 is important since that's what's offered by my company, but the data has shown that beyond a shadow of a doubt people are using the internet at night. They're on your website at all hours. They're on your website on weekends. Don't fall for the pitch that people only go to your site around business hours.

If you know these three things, you'll be able to determine how to make your chat service more productive and efficient. It's all about results.

The automotive industry is really starting to come around to the idea that they must have chat on their websites. It has moved from being a luxury to becoming a requirement due to the increased use of mobile and the trend towards real-time communication.

Now, the debate has been shifting to an old question: manged or self-serve? There are advantages and disadvantages to each that we've discovered and we'd love to hear from the DrivingSales community about their opiinon.

As we covered on a recent blog post, the reasons for managed are plentiful:

• 24/7 Coverage
• Professional, Consistent Responses
• Experience of Managing Chat Constantly
• Proven Scripts Over Off-The-Cuff Replies

For every argument, there's a counter-argument. Self-serve chat software has its own advantages:

• Live Answers to Inventory Questions
• Direct Appointments Instead of Inquiries
• Dealership Personality

Again, we offer both so we have all of the horses in this race. We simply want to know what you guys think. What results have you seen from either or both? What would you like to see from a chat provider that you haven't seen yet?

The key to a strong chat service, whether it's self-serve or managed, is getting feedback from the people in the trenches. What have you seen in your travels?

The automotive industry is really starting to come around to the idea that they must have chat on their websites. It has moved from being a luxury to becoming a requirement due to the increased use of mobile and the trend towards real-time communication.

Now, the debate has been shifting to an old question: manged or self-serve? There are advantages and disadvantages to each that we've discovered and we'd love to hear from the DrivingSales community about their opiinon.

As we covered on a recent blog post, the reasons for managed are plentiful:

• 24/7 Coverage
• Professional, Consistent Responses
• Experience of Managing Chat Constantly
• Proven Scripts Over Off-The-Cuff Replies

For every argument, there's a counter-argument. Self-serve chat software has its own advantages:

• Live Answers to Inventory Questions
• Direct Appointments Instead of Inquiries
• Dealership Personality

Again, we offer both so we have all of the horses in this race. We simply want to know what you guys think. What results have you seen from either or both? What would you like to see from a chat provider that you haven't seen yet?

The key to a strong chat service, whether it's self-serve or managed, is getting feedback from the people in the trenches. What have you seen in your travels?

As website communication tools go, chat has grown at the fastest rate of adoption on car dealer websites for years. It’s not new, but more dealers are embracing what chat can do for them to engage with people visiting their website.

There are two primary reasons that it wasn’t a fad that died away like so many other website addons over the years. First, it is an ideal method of communication for the expanding number of people who prefer to use their phones for texting rather than calls. Our society is shifting towards testing as more people embrace it and chat is the closest thing to that type of communication available on a dealer’s website.

Forms and emails do not have the real-time dialogue abilities that text and chat have. Scientific research has shown that many people avoid calling a dealership (or any business) as much as possible because they no longer possess the pacing control. With chat or texting, they determine when and how they reply. On the phone, it’s more direct. In essence, website visitors have more control over chats and texts than they do with phone calls.

The second reason that chat continues to grow is because in most cases and with some providers like CarChat24, chat is the only way for dealers to have a conversation with a website visitor late at night or early in the morning. Despite what some would have you believe, today’s consumers do their research and shopping at all hours of the day or night.

One of the best things about the internet is that it has empowered us to not be restricted based upon time of day. For many, the best time to get online and do serious research like shopping for a car is off business hours. The idea that people only shop for cars during daytime hours is incorrect. The number show that there are plenty of people visiting and chatting even after midnight. You can see this for yourself by checking your analytics and breaking down visitors to your website by hour.

With these two pieces of information, let’s now discuss why 24/7 is so important.

The Power of Being Always Open

It all comes down to differentiation. For most dealers, they either have no method of communication on their website late at night or the communication is not working properly. That’s how you should look at it. If your chat says “Offline” at night, then it’s not working properly. It’s not accomplishing what your website visitors expect from a chat box.

Late night visitors are not “weird” or any less likely to buy. They aren’t visiting for fun. If anything, the fact that they’re up late at night investigating your dealership is a sign that they’re truly serious about it.

Chat offers the only way for your website visitors to get answers immediately. Through managed chat with CarChat24, you’ll have an “always open” presence that your competitors are missing.

If you’re selling the same vehicles at approximately the same price, you have to differentiate yourself. Sometimes, the ability to contact you is all of the differentiation you’ll need to start to earn their business.

As website communication tools go, chat has grown at the fastest rate of adoption on car dealer websites for years. It’s not new, but more dealers are embracing what chat can do for them to engage with people visiting their website.

There are two primary reasons that it wasn’t a fad that died away like so many other website addons over the years. First, it is an ideal method of communication for the expanding number of people who prefer to use their phones for texting rather than calls. Our society is shifting towards testing as more people embrace it and chat is the closest thing to that type of communication available on a dealer’s website.

Forms and emails do not have the real-time dialogue abilities that text and chat have. Scientific research has shown that many people avoid calling a dealership (or any business) as much as possible because they no longer possess the pacing control. With chat or texting, they determine when and how they reply. On the phone, it’s more direct. In essence, website visitors have more control over chats and texts than they do with phone calls.

The second reason that chat continues to grow is because in most cases and with some providers like CarChat24, chat is the only way for dealers to have a conversation with a website visitor late at night or early in the morning. Despite what some would have you believe, today’s consumers do their research and shopping at all hours of the day or night.

One of the best things about the internet is that it has empowered us to not be restricted based upon time of day. For many, the best time to get online and do serious research like shopping for a car is off business hours. The idea that people only shop for cars during daytime hours is incorrect. The number show that there are plenty of people visiting and chatting even after midnight. You can see this for yourself by checking your analytics and breaking down visitors to your website by hour.

With these two pieces of information, let’s now discuss why 24/7 is so important.

The Power of Being Always Open

It all comes down to differentiation. For most dealers, they either have no method of communication on their website late at night or the communication is not working properly. That’s how you should look at it. If your chat says “Offline” at night, then it’s not working properly. It’s not accomplishing what your website visitors expect from a chat box.

Late night visitors are not “weird” or any less likely to buy. They aren’t visiting for fun. If anything, the fact that they’re up late at night investigating your dealership is a sign that they’re truly serious about it.

Chat offers the only way for your website visitors to get answers immediately. Through managed chat with CarChat24, you’ll have an “always open” presence that your competitors are missing.

If you’re selling the same vehicles at approximately the same price, you have to differentiate yourself. Sometimes, the ability to contact you is all of the differentiation you’ll need to start to earn their business.

We all love to focus on leads. That's the name of the game in pretty much everything you do on your website. Many dealers are starting to understand that it's not all about leads since many people, particularly mobile visitors, are not filling out forms as they were in the past. Still, it's a big focus.

One thing we've seen over the years is that sometimes a happy potential customer can be earned by simple customer service. When people come to your website, it can take a quick answer to an easy question that can be the difference in making a sale or not.

Chat is the easiest way be there for your website visitors. Many people don't want to make a phone call and filling out a form to get a quick answer is not appropriate. Maybe they just want to see if a vehicle is available before they hop int he car. Perhaps they want to know if you take trade ins (yes, there are people who aren't sure). Whatever their need is, the presence of a chat operator to answer their questions is necessary.

It can take the form in more detailed questions as well. They might want to see the CarFax. They might want to get information about the car from Edmunds. Using a chat service that interfaces with the right partners can be a huge win, especially if they've already visited one of your competitors' sites and did not get the information they needed.

Chat is about leads, but it can be so much more. In some cases, it can be less, and it's in these little details that you have the opportunity to make a new customer.

We all love to focus on leads. That's the name of the game in pretty much everything you do on your website. Many dealers are starting to understand that it's not all about leads since many people, particularly mobile visitors, are not filling out forms as they were in the past. Still, it's a big focus.

One thing we've seen over the years is that sometimes a happy potential customer can be earned by simple customer service. When people come to your website, it can take a quick answer to an easy question that can be the difference in making a sale or not.

Chat is the easiest way be there for your website visitors. Many people don't want to make a phone call and filling out a form to get a quick answer is not appropriate. Maybe they just want to see if a vehicle is available before they hop int he car. Perhaps they want to know if you take trade ins (yes, there are people who aren't sure). Whatever their need is, the presence of a chat operator to answer their questions is necessary.

It can take the form in more detailed questions as well. They might want to see the CarFax. They might want to get information about the car from Edmunds. Using a chat service that interfaces with the right partners can be a huge win, especially if they've already visited one of your competitors' sites and did not get the information they needed.

Chat is about leads, but it can be so much more. In some cases, it can be less, and it's in these little details that you have the opportunity to make a new customer.

You can and probably should call this a no-brainer, but it's still an important message to deliver. Results are the only thing that really matter. Everything else is a nuance.

That's not to say that the ways the results are achieved aren't important. We all know that there's a right way and a wrong way to get results in the car business through many of our marketing channels and getting more leads to sell more cars falls squarely into that category. All I want to make sure we all understand is that a method or style might sound great, but the results have to match.

In the world of chat, we're faced with the challenge of an ever-changing environment. Consumer habits change. Website features change. Best practices change. Any one hot concept can become very cold very quickly. It's not just about getting results today. It's about getting results sustainably over time.

My advice to dealers: compare apples to apples. Results always vary, but getting a baseline from a company about the results they're achieving can help dealers make the right decisions about many things, not just chat. Here are some examples of things dealers should look at when comparing any marketing companies:

1. Define the Lead - Different providers consider different forms of interaction a lead. Make sure that if one company is claiming something that's much higher than all of their competitors that it's not just a manipulation of the term "lead."
2. Look for Averages, Not Optimal Situations - Every vendor has great examples of their work, but they also have examples of failures. Of course, nobody will show you these. That's fine. What you want in order to make an educated decision is to request examples of their average customers. You want to know what to expect as a client, not what the best case scenario might be.
3. Find the Same Numbers in Reports - Everyone has different reports. When comparing them, just as when comparing leads, make sure that the numbers are speaking on the same terms and in the same language. If you can't find the common language, ask one or both of the vendors to generate reports that truly make it an apples to apples comparison.

There are other things that dealers can do when comparing, but I cannot stress enough that the most important factor is pure results.

Are you getting more leads? Are the leads of a high quality? Are you selling more cars? Those are the real questions you should be asking when looking at different vendors, including chat.

You can and probably should call this a no-brainer, but it's still an important message to deliver. Results are the only thing that really matter. Everything else is a nuance.

That's not to say that the ways the results are achieved aren't important. We all know that there's a right way and a wrong way to get results in the car business through many of our marketing channels and getting more leads to sell more cars falls squarely into that category. All I want to make sure we all understand is that a method or style might sound great, but the results have to match.

In the world of chat, we're faced with the challenge of an ever-changing environment. Consumer habits change. Website features change. Best practices change. Any one hot concept can become very cold very quickly. It's not just about getting results today. It's about getting results sustainably over time.

My advice to dealers: compare apples to apples. Results always vary, but getting a baseline from a company about the results they're achieving can help dealers make the right decisions about many things, not just chat. Here are some examples of things dealers should look at when comparing any marketing companies:

1. Define the Lead - Different providers consider different forms of interaction a lead. Make sure that if one company is claiming something that's much higher than all of their competitors that it's not just a manipulation of the term "lead."
2. Look for Averages, Not Optimal Situations - Every vendor has great examples of their work, but they also have examples of failures. Of course, nobody will show you these. That's fine. What you want in order to make an educated decision is to request examples of their average customers. You want to know what to expect as a client, not what the best case scenario might be.
3. Find the Same Numbers in Reports - Everyone has different reports. When comparing them, just as when comparing leads, make sure that the numbers are speaking on the same terms and in the same language. If you can't find the common language, ask one or both of the vendors to generate reports that truly make it an apples to apples comparison.

There are other things that dealers can do when comparing, but I cannot stress enough that the most important factor is pure results.

Are you getting more leads? Are the leads of a high quality? Are you selling more cars? Those are the real questions you should be asking when looking at different vendors, including chat.