Chatbots are Here, They’re Necessary, and They’re Surprisingly Inexpensive …oh, and for car dealers, chatbots are moving metal!

Time for some quick level-setting with the car dealer readers out there:

1. Facebook is not going away;
2. Most of your customers are already there;
3. Your kitten pictures and inventory vomits aren’t being read; and
4. Facebook Ads work, but you need to start communicating with these prospects!

Because you have a dealership Facebook page, you already have Facebook Messenger – that’s a given. Every Facebook account has access to Messenger and everyone on Facebook can message you via this application.

In fact, most would love to communicate with your team via Messenger, but you’re not likely creating your ads in ways that encourage Messenger chats. You need to start… after you’ve added a great chatbot partner.

But I Already Have Online Chat, Why Messenger?

Your online chat is fine; and as we’ve written before, online chat is no longer an option on your dealership website. But, with all of chat’s pluses, it’s not Facebook Messenger. Unlike online chat, which allows the prospect to remain virtually anonymous, Facebook Messenger gives your team instant access to all of the prospect’s publicly available Facebook information as soon as they start communicating with you!

This means you can stop asking those annoying questions that feel so personal to the prospect like “Hi, I’m Steve. Can I get your First and Last Name, please?” (Ugh, they just wanted to know if a vehicle was still in stock!)

With Facebook Messenger, you can actually answer their questions and begin to build rapport, since you don’t have to get personal with them in order to create a lead in the CRM.

Okay, But Why Do We Need a Chatbot?

Chatbots can answer your Facebook Messenger communications instantly, correctly, and can do so 24/7/365. Chatbots never get sick, they’re never late to work, and they can handle a nearly infinite number of conversations simultaneously.

Oh, and chatbots can cost you a whole lot less than a BDC agent. In fact, for what most dealers pay a single BDC agent for eight hours work, they can buy over 2,000 hours of great chatbot service. (Great car dealer chatbots can cost as little as $50 per month for round-the-clock coverage.)

Wait, what is a Chabot again?

A chatbot is like an answering service that works with virtually any major provider of chat-like applications and/or products (Facebook Messenger is the most famous of these). Chatbots are most often driven by rules and scripts, though sometimes can be powered by artificial intelligence.

Just like an answering service, the best car dealer chatbots act like an extension of your team. The only difference is that the chatbots do all or most of the work that a human would normally do when communicating with a prospect or customer.

In fact, great chatbots are basically decision trees that can answer customer questions faster and with more accuracy than an expensive salesperson or live BDC agent. When necessary, based on the rules created, chatbots can even “warm transfer” a customer to a live agent who can assist with anything requiring human intervention.

Car dealer chatbots provide instant two-way communications between your dealership and your customers. They help you build trust while maintaining a single communication thread that includes the lifetime history of messages. Facebook Messenger chats become sales leads your team can follow up with, because you’ll immediately have access to your customer’s Facebook public profile information.

Are there Chatbot partners you recommend?

I'm glad you asked this one! I like this car dealer chatbot so much that I partnered with them. I did this not because of the small referral fee I can earn, but because they’re effective, inexpensive and there’s no long-term commitment.

Moreover, their team can help you get the most out of your chatbot and Facebook Messenger by working with you on everything from importing your inventory to easily creating Messenger icons on your own website that allow you to use Facebook Messenger instead of online chat where you need it most: on your inventory pages!

So… the only question left is this: At $50 per month and no long-term commitment, what’s keeping you from employing chatbots right now?