Proactive Chat is Best for Consumers

There are many people who do not like the “annoying chat box” that appears on dealer websites. Salespeople, managers, and many at the dealership who visit the website tend to not like them. There’s another group of people who do like them: your website visitors.

Most dealer websites are loaded with buttons, menus, links, and banners that all lead to different pages. A common practice is to hide the chat button somewhere in the mix with the thought that people will find it if they want to chat. Some people at dealerships do not like the proactive approach because they feel that it distracts from other components on the page, but this is only true for regular website visitors. The people who are not negatively affected by proactive chat are the people who are not regular visitors, namely those who are looking for vehicles every 1.7 years.

There are certain messages that a proactive chat box sends to people.

• “We’re here to help.” – Demonstrating a proactive willingness to answer your website visitors questions is an extremely positive message that your potential customers will see.
• “You can interact on your terms.” – So many buyers today prefer to make contact through texting or chat rather than giving their personal data up front on a contact form or calling and talking directly to the dealership.
• “We stand behind our vehicles, service, and parts.” – Chat like ours prompts people to interact, then allows them to get the information they want such as Edmunds data or CarFax reports.
• “We want to earn your business.” – As much as people say they do not like “pushy car sales” tactics, the numbers prove otherwise. You’re not being pushy when you have proactive chat, though. You’re being aggressive. You’re telling them that you’re wanting to communicate with them to show how you’re better than your competitors.

We see what happens when dealers switch from passive or no chat on their website to proactive chat. Their leads go up. It’s not just their chat leads that go up. Their total lead counts from their website go up dramatically.

Dealers who want to get aggressive in 2015 and make an impact on their leads and sales should let us show you how our proactive chat services can help dramatically.