What if you could spot engaged and ready-to-buy shoppers as they browse your dealership website in real-time?  How would that transform your Internet Business?

More and more auto dealers are finding automotive live chat to be one of the most valuable assets to their dealership’s Internet business.  Dealers using full service, managed chat solutions tend to experience the largest boost in leads generated from their websites. On the other hand, many dealers believe that their BDC and Sales staff are the most qualified individuals to handle their dealership chat.

Both categories of automotive live chat solutions deliver an increase in website lead generation, yet this increase is primarily achieved as a result of intuitive behavioral targeting by solutions utilizing real-time business intelligence reporting.  In simplified terms, some chat solutions come with supercharged website analytics to deliver you the most high quality leads possible.

Still, chat vendors that lack a deep understanding of retail automotive sales or live chat best practices and trends put their dealership clients at a competitive disadvantage.

A study recently conducted by ActivEngage, the most trusted brand in automotive live chat, analyzed data from more than 4,000,000 chat conversations to understand which specific variables determine the maximum success of live chat technology.

From our findings, we are able to target prospective customers and likely chat participants based on the criteria listed below.

The Average Chat Participant:

• Is a unique website visitor

Unique visitors that land on your site are in the exploratory phase of their purchasing process.  This is your opportunity to make a positive first impression, which is sometimes referred to as the “Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).”  Proactive live chat invitations replicate your showroom “meet and greet,” creating the positive first impression your sales team give “ups” at your physical dealership.

You may find it interesting that unique visitors are more likely to engage in a chat conversation than returning visitors.  This trend is due to a unique visitor’s unfamiliarity with your site navigation and content.  Live chat serves as a means of instant communication to assist visitors in finding the information they seek.  At the same time, dealers are able to engage these visitors in an online sales process with the goal of gathering lead information.

• Views an average 5 to 7 Web pages

A visitor that views more than 5 pages on your website can indicate one of two things: anengaged online shopper or a confused online shopper.  In either instance, the visitor is likely to engage in a chat conversation.  Dealers or chat professionals monitoring an automotive shopper’s website activity can step in and provide visitors in this situation the right message at the right moment using customizable proactive chat invitations.

• Stays on the site between 12 and 14 minutes

Visitors that delve deep into your website content for long periods of time are most likely serious online shoppers.  At this point, these shoppers will either submit a form lead because they’ve found what they’re looking for or they will engage in a chat conversation to request more information.

Dealer Takeaway:

Auto dealers using ActivEngage live chat and real-time business intelligence reporting have the ability to  automatically identify and engage prospective customers on their dealership websites.  Progressive dealers using this proprietary chat technology achieve double the lead volume generated from their websites than those without chat.

Only ActivEngage offers dealers live chat solutions with real-time business analytics specifically designed to maximize the amount of leads delivered from dealership websites while reducing the overall cost of lead generation for dealerships.