There has been a lot of posts online and in forums on the best practices of car dealer livechat. While those best practices are legit, there is one thing that some chatters lack: common customer service skills.

I give you this chat for example:

Dealership: Thank you for choosing [dealership name]

System: We have alerted the online representatives that you are waiting. Someone should be with you momentarily.

System: A representative has joined the conversation. Compose your message below and then press Enter to send.

Leticia Geer: Hello, How may I help you?

You: Español? [Right after this she should have said something to me, like one moment please, while she was finding someone that spoke Spanish.]

You: ?

You: no spanish??????  [waited for 3 minutes for someone to respond to me]

Leticia Geer: Hola

You: Hola! Me puedes decir mas sobre el Malibu? --Los especiales   [Hi! Can you tell me more about the Malibu, the specials?]

Leticia Geer: Si, con quien hablo? [Yes, whom am I speaking with?]

You: Veronica

Leticia Geer: Veronica, 2013 CHEVROLET Malibu $2,500 Consumer Cash -OR- 0% APR for 60 months for qualified buyers [THEY COPIED AND PASTED IN ENGLISH]

You: 2,500 discuento y que?  [2,500 discount and what?]

Leticia Geer: como y que? Los $2,500 descuento, si no, 0% hasta 60 meses [What do you mean, what?  it’s ,$2,500 off or 0% apr for 60 months]

You: como y que? tu me dijiste en ingles [What do you mean? You told me in English]

I ended the chat after that. Frankly, I was a bit disturbed that someone questioned why I didn’t understand what they were saying when I had been speaking in Spanish the entire time and they responded in English. It was rude and off putting. The best part is that this dealership is located in Los Angeles, California, where there is a huge hispanic population.

This chat could have ended differently if the dealership’s chat software had the means to translate into Spanish. I also would not have waited 3 minutes for someone to answer my question.

Bilingual chat matters, whether its Spanish, French, or Russian. Get to know your demographics. You wouldn’t refuse to hire a salesperson that’s fluent in Spanish if you live in an area where a majority of Hispanics reside, would you? So, it should be the same case with your website’s live chat service. Partner with a car dealer live chat company that can meet your dealership’s needs and expectations.

And, don’t EVER have a chat like this.

There has been a lot of posts online and in forums on the best practices of car dealer livechat. While those best practices are legit, there is one thing that some chatters lack: common customer service skills.

I give you this chat for example:

Dealership: Thank you for choosing [dealership name]

System: We have alerted the online representatives that you are waiting. Someone should be with you momentarily.

System: A representative has joined the conversation. Compose your message below and then press Enter to send.

Leticia Geer: Hello, How may I help you?

You: Español? [Right after this she should have said something to me, like one moment please, while she was finding someone that spoke Spanish.]

You: ?

You: no spanish??????  [waited for 3 minutes for someone to respond to me]

Leticia Geer: Hola

You: Hola! Me puedes decir mas sobre el Malibu? --Los especiales   [Hi! Can you tell me more about the Malibu, the specials?]

Leticia Geer: Si, con quien hablo? [Yes, whom am I speaking with?]

You: Veronica

Leticia Geer: Veronica, 2013 CHEVROLET Malibu $2,500 Consumer Cash -OR- 0% APR for 60 months for qualified buyers [THEY COPIED AND PASTED IN ENGLISH]

You: 2,500 discuento y que?  [2,500 discount and what?]

Leticia Geer: como y que? Los $2,500 descuento, si no, 0% hasta 60 meses [What do you mean, what?  it’s ,$2,500 off or 0% apr for 60 months]

You: como y que? tu me dijiste en ingles [What do you mean? You told me in English]

I ended the chat after that. Frankly, I was a bit disturbed that someone questioned why I didn’t understand what they were saying when I had been speaking in Spanish the entire time and they responded in English. It was rude and off putting. The best part is that this dealership is located in Los Angeles, California, where there is a huge hispanic population.

This chat could have ended differently if the dealership’s chat software had the means to translate into Spanish. I also would not have waited 3 minutes for someone to answer my question.

Bilingual chat matters, whether its Spanish, French, or Russian. Get to know your demographics. You wouldn’t refuse to hire a salesperson that’s fluent in Spanish if you live in an area where a majority of Hispanics reside, would you? So, it should be the same case with your website’s live chat service. Partner with a car dealer live chat company that can meet your dealership’s needs and expectations.

And, don’t EVER have a chat like this.

Your digital showroom is the best source for quality leads and lead generation. Your consumers are not going to third party sites to search for your dealership, they are going to search engine sites like Google. And in those search engine sites, your potential customer is usually typing in the model of the vehicle they are looking for or they use search terms like service specials, car specials, or cars with good warranty.  

Once your prospects reach your site that is when you have toWOW them. Great web designers know that visitors will leave a site if they can’t find what they’re looking for in 5 seconds. This is especially true of dealership websites.

It’s time to stop guessing about the effectiveness of your website and learn the best practices behind making it a gold mine for engagement and leads. We created this eBook:Your Website is a Gold Mine, in order to discuss the tools available to you so you can use your website as the ultimate powerhouse of information, quality conversation, and connecting with your online shoppers. Just by making a few changes, it will be a gold mine for your investments too!

This eBook includes:

- Best practices for SEO and website content

- How to effectively design your website's layout for online shoppers

- How to manage your data to increase ROI

And more!

Download our free eBook and start using your website to its fullest potential!

Your digital showroom is the best source for quality leads and lead generation. Your consumers are not going to third party sites to search for your dealership, they are going to search engine sites like Google. And in those search engine sites, your potential customer is usually typing in the model of the vehicle they are looking for or they use search terms like service specials, car specials, or cars with good warranty.  

Once your prospects reach your site that is when you have toWOW them. Great web designers know that visitors will leave a site if they can’t find what they’re looking for in 5 seconds. This is especially true of dealership websites.

It’s time to stop guessing about the effectiveness of your website and learn the best practices behind making it a gold mine for engagement and leads. We created this eBook:Your Website is a Gold Mine, in order to discuss the tools available to you so you can use your website as the ultimate powerhouse of information, quality conversation, and connecting with your online shoppers. Just by making a few changes, it will be a gold mine for your investments too!

This eBook includes:

- Best practices for SEO and website content

- How to effectively design your website's layout for online shoppers

- How to manage your data to increase ROI

And more!

Download our free eBook and start using your website to its fullest potential!

ActivEngage, the most trusted brand in automotive live chat brings the top ten blogs and news stories right to you! We monitor industry trends, current events, and the auto dealer community every week to bring you the top ten blogs and stories from around the globe. In this weekly edition-- DD14, self driving cars, and playful whales.

10. Going to DD14?

Don’t forget to register for the Blue Martini After Party.

9. Cars.com Responds to Dealer Community

Linda Barman, Cars.com CMO, responded to the dealer community with an open and direct account of what has transpired over the past month with regards to the test email campaign.

8.  Facebook Graph Search...What’s Next?

Even though Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized that Graph Search is “not Web search,” many would agree that this is Facebook’s attempt to compete with Google. Unlike Google’s current search algorithm, Graph Search relies on social interactions to build its search database.

7. Facebook Ad Boss: Clicks and Engagement Are Not Important As Exposure

Facebook's Rajaram suggests that companies should focus less on engagement and clicks, and more on how people are being exposed to ads because "there's really no correlation between clicks and whether people actually convert."

6.  Chinese Girls Poisoned Over School Rivalry

The head of a rival kindergarten is reported to have confessed to lacing the yogurt with rat poison because the two schools were both trying to attract children

5. Bangladesh Building Collapse Death Toll Tops 500

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith spoke as the government cracked down on those it blamed for the disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar

4.YouTube Case Study - BMW

See how BMW turned to digital media – notably Google and YouTube – to deliver engagement and promote their 1series launch in Germany.

3. In the Future, Dogs Will Work Car Deals

Within your dog’s nose…Imagine a maze the size of (if you will) the Universe. Within your dog’s nose, all things are possible. Everything that can happen will, and everything that has happened did. In a space so large, ALL things are possible!

2. This is What Google’s Self Driving Car Sees

Google's self-driving car soaks in a staggering amount of information about its environment as it drives, gathering 750MB of data every second, claims Idealab founder and CEO Bill Gross.

1. Watch These Whales Chase a Boat

This is TOO awesome! Happy Friday!

_

Did we miss anything important? Like our top ten blogs this week? Leave us a comment below! Or if you really can’t wait for your automotive fix, follow @activengage on Twitter for daily updates on auto industry news!

ActivEngage, the most trusted brand in automotive live chat brings the top ten blogs and news stories right to you! We monitor industry trends, current events, and the auto dealer community every week to bring you the top ten blogs and stories from around the globe. In this weekly edition-- DD14, self driving cars, and playful whales.

10. Going to DD14?

Don’t forget to register for the Blue Martini After Party.

9. Cars.com Responds to Dealer Community

Linda Barman, Cars.com CMO, responded to the dealer community with an open and direct account of what has transpired over the past month with regards to the test email campaign.

8.  Facebook Graph Search...What’s Next?

Even though Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized that Graph Search is “not Web search,” many would agree that this is Facebook’s attempt to compete with Google. Unlike Google’s current search algorithm, Graph Search relies on social interactions to build its search database.

7. Facebook Ad Boss: Clicks and Engagement Are Not Important As Exposure

Facebook's Rajaram suggests that companies should focus less on engagement and clicks, and more on how people are being exposed to ads because "there's really no correlation between clicks and whether people actually convert."

6.  Chinese Girls Poisoned Over School Rivalry

The head of a rival kindergarten is reported to have confessed to lacing the yogurt with rat poison because the two schools were both trying to attract children

5. Bangladesh Building Collapse Death Toll Tops 500

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith spoke as the government cracked down on those it blamed for the disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar

4.YouTube Case Study - BMW

See how BMW turned to digital media – notably Google and YouTube – to deliver engagement and promote their 1series launch in Germany.

3. In the Future, Dogs Will Work Car Deals

Within your dog’s nose…Imagine a maze the size of (if you will) the Universe. Within your dog’s nose, all things are possible. Everything that can happen will, and everything that has happened did. In a space so large, ALL things are possible!

2. This is What Google’s Self Driving Car Sees

Google's self-driving car soaks in a staggering amount of information about its environment as it drives, gathering 750MB of data every second, claims Idealab founder and CEO Bill Gross.

1. Watch These Whales Chase a Boat

This is TOO awesome! Happy Friday!

_

Did we miss anything important? Like our top ten blogs this week? Leave us a comment below! Or if you really can’t wait for your automotive fix, follow @activengage on Twitter for daily updates on auto industry news!

Headquarter Toyota Closes 12% of Chat Sales Leads

Cindy Rosado, Internet Director for Headquarter Toyota has been in the industry for 18 years. To keep up with the demand of today’s online shoppers as well as the ability to communicate with the mix of nationalities in Miami, Rosado knew she needed to start looking for a chat solution. What drew Rosado to ActivEngage is their ability to chat in 16 different languages along with the fact that 34% of the ActivEngage VSA staff is bilingual, “We have a lot of Spanish speaking customers so having bilingual chatters is very important to us.”

Implementing Chat

When the idea of chat came up four years ago, Rosado didn’t think it would be a good idea stating, “We kind of shied away from chat in the beginning because of the habit of the sales people. They would walk away from the desk, couldn’t keep up with the typing speed of the customer, and misspelled words a lot. But its 2013 now and our shoppers are looking online to communicate with us so we must fulfill that need.”

Rosado did her research, narrowed down her options and after a sales demo of ActivEngage’s managed chat service Rosado was sold, “It’s incredible that ActivEngage effectively manages our chat and any lead information captured by their team is served into our CRM in real-time.”

First-Class Service

Naturally, when electing to outsource your chat you will read a couple of the chat transcripts from time to time. Rosado reads most transcripts from the ActivEngage staff and is blown away with the first-class service ActivEngage gives Headquarter Toyota’s online shoppers. “All the chat transcripts are very professional. Actually, during the first month of having chat, we ended up with a 12% closing ratio for vehicle sales. I’m sure with parts and service we did very well too. ActivEngage’s managed chat has been a great investment,” Rosado stated.

----

If you are a client of ActivEngage and wish to participate in a My Chat Story, please comment below!

Headquarter Toyota Closes 12% of Chat Sales Leads

Cindy Rosado, Internet Director for Headquarter Toyota has been in the industry for 18 years. To keep up with the demand of today’s online shoppers as well as the ability to communicate with the mix of nationalities in Miami, Rosado knew she needed to start looking for a chat solution. What drew Rosado to ActivEngage is their ability to chat in 16 different languages along with the fact that 34% of the ActivEngage VSA staff is bilingual, “We have a lot of Spanish speaking customers so having bilingual chatters is very important to us.”

Implementing Chat

When the idea of chat came up four years ago, Rosado didn’t think it would be a good idea stating, “We kind of shied away from chat in the beginning because of the habit of the sales people. They would walk away from the desk, couldn’t keep up with the typing speed of the customer, and misspelled words a lot. But its 2013 now and our shoppers are looking online to communicate with us so we must fulfill that need.”

Rosado did her research, narrowed down her options and after a sales demo of ActivEngage’s managed chat service Rosado was sold, “It’s incredible that ActivEngage effectively manages our chat and any lead information captured by their team is served into our CRM in real-time.”

First-Class Service

Naturally, when electing to outsource your chat you will read a couple of the chat transcripts from time to time. Rosado reads most transcripts from the ActivEngage staff and is blown away with the first-class service ActivEngage gives Headquarter Toyota’s online shoppers. “All the chat transcripts are very professional. Actually, during the first month of having chat, we ended up with a 12% closing ratio for vehicle sales. I’m sure with parts and service we did very well too. ActivEngage’s managed chat has been a great investment,” Rosado stated.

----

If you are a client of ActivEngage and wish to participate in a My Chat Story, please comment below!

Earlier this year I wrote a blog on how to make your dealership’s website mobile friendly, however a recent survey (based on an analysis of 1 million websites worldwide last year) found that 93.3% of websites are not mobile-compatible andwill not render successfully on mobiledevices, including smartphones. As Internet-content consumption is quicklymoving away from desktops to portable devices, ensuring your website is optimized for the smaller screens of tablets and smartphones is critically important. Commercial emails opened on mobile devices are on pace to surpass PC opens by the end of 2013, according to recent research from digital messaging solutions provider Knotice.

I cannot stress how important it is that your dealership’s website needs to be mobile friendly. If you don’t have a mobile friendly website - immediately get with your WSP to start working on one! Below are some tips to follow when you are creating your dealership’s mobile site:

• Make text larger for readability. Bonus tip: Consider offering a text resizing control.

• Increase padding and line-height of densely packed links to increase touch accuracy. This applies especially to form elements and calendar dropdowns.

• Remove mouse hover interactions wherever possible. If you want to keep them, extend them to support tap-and-hold interactions as well as mouse hover.

• Consider making your design resize-friendly to cover the full range of tablet screen sizes — from 600px to 1000px wide — instead of fixing page widths in stone.

• Beware of the Flash. With iPads such a big portion of the tablet market, Flash elements need to be removed.

• Remove elements using the declaration (real or simulated) "position: fixed" because they slow down page scrolling on tablets to a much greater extent than on desktop.

• Consider cutting some HTTP requests, as you would on mobile. While tablets have screen area close to that of laptops, their processing power is closer to that of phones. Additional on-page elements like Facebook Connect and Google +1 might fit into a tablet-sized wireframe but real-world performance and user experience can quickly suffer.

If you want more help on making your website tablet friendly, this eBook is a great resource.There are best practices, layouts, and case studies on effective mobile designs. If you have any additional tips, feel free to comment below!

Earlier this year I wrote a blog on how to make your dealership’s website mobile friendly, however a recent survey (based on an analysis of 1 million websites worldwide last year) found that 93.3% of websites are not mobile-compatible andwill not render successfully on mobiledevices, including smartphones. As Internet-content consumption is quicklymoving away from desktops to portable devices, ensuring your website is optimized for the smaller screens of tablets and smartphones is critically important. Commercial emails opened on mobile devices are on pace to surpass PC opens by the end of 2013, according to recent research from digital messaging solutions provider Knotice.

I cannot stress how important it is that your dealership’s website needs to be mobile friendly. If you don’t have a mobile friendly website - immediately get with your WSP to start working on one! Below are some tips to follow when you are creating your dealership’s mobile site:

• Make text larger for readability. Bonus tip: Consider offering a text resizing control.

• Increase padding and line-height of densely packed links to increase touch accuracy. This applies especially to form elements and calendar dropdowns.

• Remove mouse hover interactions wherever possible. If you want to keep them, extend them to support tap-and-hold interactions as well as mouse hover.

• Consider making your design resize-friendly to cover the full range of tablet screen sizes — from 600px to 1000px wide — instead of fixing page widths in stone.

• Beware of the Flash. With iPads such a big portion of the tablet market, Flash elements need to be removed.

• Remove elements using the declaration (real or simulated) "position: fixed" because they slow down page scrolling on tablets to a much greater extent than on desktop.

• Consider cutting some HTTP requests, as you would on mobile. While tablets have screen area close to that of laptops, their processing power is closer to that of phones. Additional on-page elements like Facebook Connect and Google +1 might fit into a tablet-sized wireframe but real-world performance and user experience can quickly suffer.

If you want more help on making your website tablet friendly, this eBook is a great resource.There are best practices, layouts, and case studies on effective mobile designs. If you have any additional tips, feel free to comment below!