Re-evaluate Your Dealer Chat This Fall

As car sales slump, there’s never been a better time to change the way that you reach out to potential new customers, improve your lead generation strategy, and aim to get more conversions out of your website. Dealer chat is a proven technology for improving both lead generation and sales, and it can help you thrive despite slowing car sales in 2017.

During the auto sales boom of the last couple of years, a lot of dealers invested in dealer chat because they had money to spare, but they weren’t all finding the best technology to improve lead generation and sales. Now that dealers are going to depend on online conversions more than ever to keep their sales up, it may be time for many to re-evaluate what they purchased. Better chat auto sales are achieved by a combination of ingredients: 24/7 independent operators, dealer sales team integration, behavioral analytics, and new avenues of communication.

A fully managed dealer chat uses 3^rd party operators in a call center, preferably one that’s US-based and that extensively trains its staff. Dealer chat offered by the company Gubagoo also makes extensive use of inventory integration and custom campaigning. Operators have your inventory list, prices, and resources like videos related to those models at their finger tips. You can also develop a custom script for overflow calls when you want to push a particular promotion or model. Managed dealer chats don’t have to be generic, they can offer campaigns and talking points tailored to your business.

While 24/7 support is crucial to reaching customers at all hours, dealer integration is another important feature of successful auto dealer chat. Pioneered by the company Gubagoo, ResQ is an app that puts live monitoring of your dealer chat in your sales team’s pockets. It notifies your team when there’s a live chat going on, so they can see live how it’s progressing, whisper information about credit qualifications and discount pricing to operators, or jump into the conversation themselves. Often, dealer intervention can be the last push that converts someone using a live dealer chat, but 24/7 support doesn’t mean your sales representatives have to drop everything (like customers in the flesh) to respond.

Behavioral analytics don’t just give you more information about the people visiting your website, they can also be used to personalize the promotions you advertise. For example, the publisher used by Gubagoo, a menu at the top or bottom of your page where you list specials, rewards plan, and links to contact you via text or live chat, is designed to change depending on user behavior. Let’s say you’re offering two promotions one month: $1000 off a new vehicle and 25% off oil changes at your service center. If the user searches for your service center, they’re going to see the 25% off oil changes promotion first when they look at your promotions, and vice versa for those looking at new cars.

Finally, to optimize your promotional outreach, look for dealer chats that integrate multiple modes of communication with prospects. Email newsletters and personalized emails from dealers are always a great outreach strategy, but while email has a 22 percent open rate, SMS has a 98 percent open rate. Almost no other mode of outreach has a higher open rate and your message is bound to be seen. Dealer chat is all about finding new avenues to talk to customers; find a software that maximizes your opportunities and your results.