Online Chat. Love it. Hate it. Understand it?

I am a litte miffed. Why would a dealer not want 100% engagement of their web site visitors in real time? It's like having a salesperson on your lot 24 hrs a day seven days a week "upping" every customer and getting vital sales info from them. Are dealers afraid of the cost? Do they think it works? had a bad experience? I don't know. And that is the reason for this post. I really would like everyones opinions and thoughts (even if not the most glowing recommendations or comments) Don't get me wrong online chat providers are doing very well with all the new advancements in technology. But still there is only about a 28% penetration so that leaves about 27 thousand dealerships in the U.S. and Canada without it...Why?

You know, 45 years ago dealers were afraid of TV oh how times have changed...We all know that the internet is no longer the "wave" of the future it is the present and without it, dealers may as well lock the doors and turn off the lights. That being said it's not whether or not you have or use the internet it's what you do with the internet that counts. Now dealers spend thousands of dollars to drive visitors to their website(s) what do they do with them when they get there? Well that's the million dollar question, the truth is even with a great solution in place only dealers still only capture 1-3% of their visitors information. WHAT! Yes it's true if a dealer has 5000 unique visitors per month only 50 to 150 visitors actually leave enough information for their sales staff to use to try and sell them a car. How can they [dealers] get more information from them you ask? Well the answer is proactivley "ask for it" their are a number of solutions available that will do just that one that is near and dear to my heart which is live chat. Imagine your visitor is on your website "kicking tires" and he/she is upped while live on your site well that's what happens!! And 50-60% of the time that upped visitor leaves his/her contact information along with other pertinant information so one of dealers salespeople can get to work selling them a car. Sounds easy right? Well the model is easy but implimenting the process, utilizing state of the art software along with coordinating live (flesh and blood) operators can be a logistical nightmare best left for a quality solution provider. So when choosing a provider make sure that you choose one that demonstrates a proficiency in all aspects of online chat.

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Comment by Ryan Thompson on August 4, 2010 at 3:28pm: Mark,

I totally agree with you. Some of my dealers have dismissed chat because of this fear "who is going to respond to the leads???"

What a problem to have :)

Comment by Mark Tewart on August 4, 2010 at 11:43am: I have noticed that current trends show that many dealer websites have a number that goes directly to the Internet Director. The problem with that is when the customer does not reach that person and is asked to leave a message. Often a customer will not leave a message and the opportunity is lost. In retail, time is critical. I think all inquiries whether calls or emails should have as close to a fail safe process as possible. As we all know retail customers leave little chance for a second chance. Chat offers a live possibility to engage the customer and create a relationship that would lead to a call or eventual appointment. Dealers with an effective chat program and routing process have an advantage over dealers that do not.

Comment by Rick Wuest on August 2, 2010 at 7:59pm: Thanks Ryan! Those numbers are the reason why we do what we do. How goes it in the Great White North?

Comment by Ryan Thompson on August 2, 2010 at 7:52pm: dE - great write up !! you hit the nail on the head for sure. Here is some results from the Case Study we ran with " Toyota of Irving "

Hello! Here are the final numbers for Toyota of Irving 2 month case study:

July 2010 Case Study Results (Final)
Total Unique Visitors: 4207
Total Website Leads without Chat Leads: 154
Lead Conversion % without Chat Leads: % 3.66
Total CarChat24 Leads/Appointments/Queries: 92
Total Conversion % with Chat Leads: % 5.84
Total Lead Conversion % increase: % 59.56
Total Website Sales without Chat Leads: 32
Total Chat Lead Sales: 14
Total Sales: 47
Website Sales % increase: 43.75

As you can see the addition of a chat service (CarChat24) has yielded great results. At Toyota of Irving we are converting more visitors into valid leads and increasing guest satisfaction. It truly is amazing that we are actually capturing visitors as they are live on our site 24 hrs a day!! Some of them even get a response from the us while they are still online after their chat!
I will say however, this study only focused on sales leads but I can't tell you how many service leads came over as well and I know that we enjoyed some pretty good tickets from those leads! I hope this data is helpful to you.