It’s been over 30 years since Australia first connected to the internet, made at the University of Melbourne. It was touched only by computer scientists back then. Ten years later, the automotive industry was slowly beginning to adopt computers and set up websites.
Picture this: It’s early 2000, and the showroom manager is saying we had 7 visitors to our website last week. Fresh, just-out-of-college brains were trying to go back into the website, travel through the cables, and find a way to reach the computer screens of those 7 people, pop up and ask them what they needed. We’re standing right in the middle of an empty showroom and badly wanted to reach those visitors. Sales numbers were already looking crappy for the month, but this could be the way out.
Fast forward twenty years, and we’re right back at that time of helplessness and despair trying to understand what our customers think and need. The good news is that there’s a solution in sight.
Dealer Live Chat
As an Auto Dealer, Live chat has become a no brainer. Adding a managed live chat service to your website is like killing two birds with one stone. Firstly, it gives you the ability to answer questions immediately. It works as instant gratification for the website visitors when they are looking for answers. Secondly, live chat is a very successful tool for capturing sales leads.
Visitors who come to your website are interested in what you’re selling. They are specific, higher in quality and have a better chance of conversion. Having a managed live chat service helps you capture the leads without spending a fortune.
Why, as an Auto Dealer, you need Live Chat Right Now
Some Automotive dealerships still think that they just need to build a website to create an online presence, and customers will flock to them. What they fail to understand is that today’s customer is a savvy shopper and looking for value in everything. They are impressed with a dealership who interacts with them rather than talks at them.
Automotive dealers now understand the internet marketing landscape a little better. They realise that they should integrate their online marketing with offline strategies. Their websites attract a lot of traffic and are successful in providing information relevant to the visitors.
But there’s still hidden landmines waiting to go off. No matter how much useful information your visitor gets or the amount of digital footfall on your website, you need to convert your leads into sales. If there’s no live chat service offering real-time interaction with these visitors, then you must rethink your online marketing strategies.
Engage with Online Visitors
Whether buying a new car or used car or any car service, people will most likely visit your website before arriving at your dealership. They may also visit your competition’s websites. So, if you want the business, being available is the first crucial step.
Studies indicate that loyalty is built quickly if the customers feel that the dealership understands their needs and can answer their questions.
A managed live chat service on your dealership website means you are available to quickly respond to any questions the visitor might have. You can proactively reach out to that visitor just like you would if the customer actually visited your dealership.
Sell More Cars
Starting to interact with your visitors quickly is key to turning them into loyal customers. With features like proactive live chat, engaging and interacting with potential customers is easy and provides a platform for personal and professional advice for customers. A managed live chat service simply helps you convert more leads into sales.
24/7 managed live chat connects instantly with a customer visiting your website from any mobile device. Whether iOS or Android, live chat enables customers to contact you and ask any question they might have.
Data from NADA (National Automobiles Dealers Association) indicates that dealership websites generate a minimum of 50 sales leads per month and around 15% of them are converted to sales. When a live chat service became a part of those websites, it increased the number of leads from those sites by 50%. We are talking about the leads from the websites alone. So there’s no contest to the fact that a dedicated live chat helps sell more cars.
Competitive Edge
Buying a car tends to be an emotional decision for most customers. Live chat helps connect an agent with the customers allowing an emotional connection between the two. The live chat system works to engage the website visitors instantly.
You can use a managed live chat service to offer a higher level of customer service than your competitors and eventually outsell your competition. It also helps you to offer more to your customers for less time and money. By using live chat, a customer can easily get answers about specific sales, promotions, discounts and compare products of interest.
Live chat is a powerful tool to get the insights we desperately wanted when automotive dealerships had their first tryst with the internet. You don’t want to waste a golden opportunity to know exactly what your customer thinks.
Managed live chat services are evolving with new insights and technologies. Get ready for the next-gen customer service and increased sales with live chat.