(as featured on the CarChat24 Blog today)

If you’re anything like me, you know the wonderfulness that comes with a weekend. Now, of course some dealerships are open on Sundays, but in some states (Hi, New Jersey!) it is illegal for car dealers to be open. Or, at least the car lot. Thankfully, there isn’t a restriction on websites being open, yet. It’s doubtful that that will ever be regulated.

So, on Sunday, when your dealership is closed, or when you’re off, or your BDC is empty, or it’s overnight hours, I want to know…who is watching your website? I can assure you people are visiting your site, even when your dealership doors aren’t open. That’s one of the appeals of the internet, your online showroom doors are always open.

When it comes to Automotive Live Chat options, your choices are vast.  That being said, with all of the options out there for Automotive Live Chat, who do you go with? There are 24/7 live chat solutions, there are companies that will do the chatting for you, there is automotive dealer chat software that enables you to have one of your employees do the chatting, there are flat rate monthly billing cycles, there are ‘by the chat’ billing options, there is software with pre-loaded scripts, My fingers are a bit tired after typing all of those. I can imagine how your brain feels now that you’re considering it.

Some of these options are really based on your personal preference. I won’t try to tell you one type of billing is better than the other. There are two features, however, that you want to think about:

Keep this in mind, as I mentioned in the beginning of this post: Even when you don’t have any physical salesmen in your dealership when your lot is closed, there are still people coming to your dealership. Your website is such an important tool, and it becomes more and more important everyday. As more and more people become more savvy with the internet, the more people will use it. My 80 year old Grandmother Googles everything….and I mean ev-ery-thing. Having your website open 24/7.

That being said, if you realize that your website needs to be manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, then you probably will wonder which of your staff will be willing to come in for those kinds of hours. What if they call out? Can you really afford to have someone at your dealership all night, all day, everyday, all year? I’d imagine not.  This is why having a fully-staffed live chat solution is typically the best bet. This way, you have trained professional live chat representatives keeping an eye on your website for you.

No matter how much of a business person you are, you still need to sleep. Isn’t it great knowing that while you sleep, we’re generating leads for you?

Rest assured, we’re here to help you sell more cars. It’s what we’re best at.