Why Dealers Use Dealer Live Chat to Increase Auto Sales Leads

Your customers are living in and your business is operating in a Web 3.0 world. Creating the best customer service experience possible can mean the difference between taking your car dealership to the next level of success or leading it down the road to failure. If you’re not using automotive live chat software as part of you automotive Internet marketing efforts, then you’re not engaging visitors to your website as much as you could be. Worse than your lack of engagement is the fact that you’re probably losing up to 98% of your visitors every day because you’re not capturing the car leads of the visitors to your site.

Adding dealer chat software to your website means you’re accomplishing two goals with one interactive method. First, it gives you the ability to answer visitor questions immediately. SiteLive support chat provides immediate answers to your website visitors’ questions. This instant form of gratification helps you to generate automotive leads you can move along to converting into a sale at a faster rate.

Second, automotive live chat software offers a proven system to capture auto sales leads your sales force then has the opportunity to convert into sales. After the car chat operator answers the questions the visitor has, the next easy and logical step is for the operator to schedule a test drive of the vehicle. With a pre-scheduled test drive appointment, it allows you to bring your customer service to the next level because the vehicle can be prepared, ready and waiting for the customer when they arrive at the physical dealership location.

Generating a lead from dealer websites always has a higher quality and better chance of converting into a sale because visitors to your website are interested in what you are selling. Implementing an automotive lead generation tool such as Car Chat 24 allows you to capture the high quality lead without spending a lot of extra money.

Dealer marketing tends to focus marketing efforts on driving traffic to its physical lot. The executives or owners of a dealership tend to believe that sales of tangible items such as cars require face-to-face interaction. Considering that consumers do not make a sock purchase without conducting extensive online research, car dealers that think this way are missing out on a high volume of business online. According to recent studies, when a consumer is shopping for a product, their first stop is the company’s website.

What does this mean for dealer websites? It means the first impression your website makes on its visitors is equivalent to the first impression a potential buyer receives when they walk onto your physical car lot. You can create a lasting and positive first impression on your website visitors by offering stellar customer service. An interactive automotive marketing tool such as Car Chat 24 allows you to make a great first impression.

Then there are those car dealers that have a mentality that all they need to do to create an online presence is to throw up a static website—essentially an electronic brochure. Car dealers with these dealer websites do not know and understand their audience or the automotive marketing environment. Today’s consumer is a savvier shopper than ever before. They do not want to buy products from a company that talks at them rather than interacts with them.

The third group of dealer websites represents those dealers that understand the landscape of automotive Internet marketing. They understand that they must integrate their online marketing efforts with their offline tactics. These dealer websites are successful in attracting a huge volume of traffic and in providing information visitors find helpful, useful and relevant to them. There is, however, one problem. No matter how much traffic you get to your site, you’re only going to make money if your website converts the leads you capture into sales. If part of your dealer services isn’t collecting information on your visitors and offering Site Live interaction with these visitors, then your automotive Internet marketing is not as effective as it could and should be.

It’s a Soft-sell Approach that Works

One of the easiest ways to gathering qualified automotive leads is directly from your own website. The intention of adding an interactive approach to your website is not to sell to visitors right away, but rather your goal is to get them on your list. A car chat provides an opportunity to capture car leads information right away. This opens up the door to converting these leads into customers.

Even with massive amounts of traffic coming to your dealer website on a daily basis, if you’re missing the opportunity to capture, nurture and convert these visitors into customers, then you’re wasting opportunity after opportunity. It’s always more cost effective and easier to convert a qualified lead that you generate from your own website than it is to try to convert leads from a third party. Third party leads are more expensive and tend to be of low quality, which translates into a poor rate of return on your investment.

Visitors to your website are your target audience. They wouldn’t be there if they weren’t interested in your autos, auto services and parts. Use this opportunity to capture car sales leads by engaging visitors with dealer chat software. Automotive software provides your dealership with the platform for creating conversations with your website visitors—whether they are interested in buying a new automobile or servicing one they already own.

Don’t waste your time or your money buying high volume car sales leads when you can generate high quality leads from your own website using a low-cost Contact At Once live chat software. Third party car leads have a lower closing rate than self-generated leads because these consumers did not opt-in to receive information from you. This means they may or may not have an interest in what you have to offer. It’s a little like playing roulette. It may or may not pay off, but nine times out of ten, using third party leads ends up being a waste of your time and your money. To buy a lead list and spend money marketing to the leads to find out that nobody bites simply leaves you disappointed and with less money in your pocket.

Why Chat Sales Leads are Better than Form Leads on Your Dealer Website

Set aside your dealership hat for a moment and think about the last time you were shopping or searching for something online. Let’s say you were shopping for a book and you went to an online bookstore. You find the book you’re looking for, but when you read the description, you’re confused and have a question. It’s after business hours so you can’t pick up the phone and ask the question. They have a form you can complete, but you don’t want to wait for a response. In fact, if you get the response you’re looking for; you’re ready to buy right now. That’s when you see it. It is a live chat service, where you can chat online with a representative from the online bookstore, obtain an answer to your question and they even offer to help you place your order—all in a few minutes time.

This may have had a different outcome without the live chat option. You probably would have clicked away from the website, found another online bookstore selling the book, located the answer to your question and bought the book. The original bookstore wouldn’t have been the wiser because they would have no way of knowing you were even shopping on their site.

A book is a small ticket item, so it’s even more important to provide superior service, something automotive live chat can offer your auto sales leads, when they’re searching for bigger ticket items such as vehicles.

How Automotive Live Chat Software Changes the Landscape

There are several advantages to using automotive live chat as part of your dealer marketing. The three main benefits include enhancing your customer experiences, increasing the amount of high quality car leads generated and boosting sales.

Enhances customer experiences

Nothing is more frustrating to your website visitors than when they land on your website and have a question, but can’t find the answer. By implementing a Contact At Once live support chat on your website, you’re interacting with potential customers, solving their problem and capturing information on them simultaneously and immediately. Some profound sales person said, “Time kills all deals.” When you can immediately respond to online visitors, you have a much better chance of converting car leads into car sales.

Automotive live chat software can also enhance the experience of your existing customers that are coming to your website to schedule service appointments or purchase parts for their vehicles. When you provide quality customer service to existing customers, you’re saving your dealership money because it’s less expensive to sell to an existing customer than it is to find a new one. When you offer cutting-edge dealer chat software, you’re able to answer questions, provide immediate support and build a rapport with your visitors—something a static website that lacks automotive live chat access doesn’t accomplish. The interaction between your dealership and your customers provided by live chat support services exceeds visitor expectations, provides high quality service to help you make sales and ensures repeat business.

Increases Amount of Quality Leads

When it comes down to lead conversion, quality is much more important than quantity. Dealerships spend a ton of money on automotive marketing every year. The lucky ones turn their dealer marketing efforts into qualified leads about 2% of the time. By adding live chat software to dealer automotive Internet marketing, it more than doubles the amount of car sales leads. The more quality leads you have at your disposal, the increased chance you have to convert these leads into paying customers. Not only does it help you generate sales on the front end, but it can also help to create secondary finance leads for your internal finance department to provide the financing for the purchase of the vehicle. Automotive software can generate front end and backend leads for your business. The more you engage and connect with a client, the better chance you have of turning this into a repeat customer and a customer that’s going to send you referrals. Did you know that you have a 107% better chance of converting a referral into a client than a cold call or a prospect?

Increases Sales

Dealer chat software also helps you to convert a higher amount of your leads and website visitors into customers—into sales. Studies show that the primary reason a car shopper goes to your dealer website is to view vehicle inventory, determine pricing and find out where you’re located. Automotive live chat helps car shoppers turn their visit to your website into a productive search because your live chat operator can act as the guide that leads them to the answers to their questions. A live chat service is equivalent to having a GPS system in a car because the live chat service walks the customer step-by-step to the answers they are searching to obtain on your website.

Using a live chat solution allows you to take a more proactive approach to communicating with your potential customers by creating more interaction between you and your customers. Proven chat process services can convert six out of ten sales chats into car sales leads. These six leads typically become closed business at a rate that is two to three times higher than when dealerships purchase or obtain automotive leads from a third party.

The proof of how effective a live chat service can be is all in the sales numbers.According to the National Automobiles Dealers Association (NADA), dealer websites generate a minimum of 50 auto sales leads per month and approximately 15% of these automotive leads convert into sales. When a live chat service became a part of the dealer websites, it increased the number of the auto sales leads generated from the website by 50%. These figures reflect auto sales leads and conversions from the dealer website alone—without the added expense of buying third party leads. This proves it is more cost effective and you have the ability to generate higher quality leads from your own website than from outside lead sources.

Turns Your Automotive Internet Marketing Way Up

Car Chat 24 is one of the most cost and time effective ways to add value to your website visitors. When prospects find value in your online efforts, they equate this to a high value in your products and services. Everybody wants to work with the best car dealership to find the perfect automobile for him or her. Consumers demand high quality service and adding automotive software provides a valuable form of communication between you and them that integrates offline marketing efforts with your online efforts.

Makes You the Leader of the Pack

With the large number of dealer websites customers have to choose from, why should they turn to your website? With automotive live chat, your business continues operating long after your competition closes their brick-and-mortar car dealerships and their salespeople go home for the night. Car Chat 24 turns your dealership into a 24/7 business that engages and welcomes site visitors, helps visitors find specific information and expands your sales and service efforts to outsell and outperform your competition. Live chats also help to promote special sales events and provide post sales support. This service gives you a competitive advantage that has your dealership surpassing your competition long after they’ve closed up shop for the night.

Customers that purchase vehicles from you are still your customers. Remember, it’s much less expensive to turn an existing customer into a repeat customer than it is to find a new one. Automotive lead generation doesn’t stop contributing to your sales after the sale of the car, but can also work to garner repeat business. One option for interacting with your existing customers is to setup your car chat as a means to schedule a service appointment for their vehicle. This can be a money and timesaving tool for your dealership and for your customers. When you provide quality service pre- and post-sale, you’re gathering quality leads without spending more money, and then you’re nurturing these leads without any added expense. These types of leads and relationships are much more valuable than cold leads you obtain from sources outside of your business.

Build Your Own List to Achieve the Best Results

It’s so important that it’s worth repeating. Many dealers worry about the quantity of leads they have rather than the quality. Statements such as, “Our email list is small. There isn’t enough there to achieve the results we want,” or “We’d rather spend money on buying a list of leads than waiting to capture enough of our own,” are often heard.

Marketing professionals all over the world cringe at these statements because it is always better to focus your marketing efforts on gathering quality leads than it is to buy leads or worry about the quantity of subscribers you have on your mailing list. Think about it logically. Do you have a better chance of making a sale to someone that chats with one of your representatives online and hands over their name and email address or with a name and email address you bought from a list broker? The answer is you double your chances of making a sale to a qualified lead you generate from your own website than a lead from a list–every time.

Focus on Building a Quality List

Capturing quality auto sales leads and building a quality email list takes time, but you can speed up the process by adding automotive software to your website. The time and small investment required to add Car Chat helps to build your mailing list because it creates a high quality list that provides the most benefits with the least amount of risk.

3 Steps to Attract More Qualified Leads with Car Chat 24

Make ContactAtOnce between you and your visitors readily available. Announce the live chat service to your visitors on every page of your website, in your email messages, on the transactional pages of your website (forms pages) and on the invoices given to customers by your service and parts departments.

When you use your automotive live chat as a personal automobile shopper, it allows you to guide the online car shoppers to find the new and used vehicles they’re looking for based on the inventory you have. Not only does this allow you to gather high quality leads—consumers looking for the products you have to offer—but it also presents an opportunity to provide superior customer service to help car shoppers make educated decisions on the purchase of their next auto.

You can also put your automotive live chat and dealer services on autopilot. When visitors come to your website, you can set your live chat service up to automatically greet the visitor to let them know that a real, live person is available to assist them with their needs. It’s similar to inviting a guest into your home. When they knock on your door, do you open the door and greet them with a warm welcome or do you leave them standing on the porch?

Make your online visitors feel welcome by giving them the royal treatment. Use your Site Live service to offer exclusive online savings and deals. It’s a great way to gather information on the visitors to your site and it’s a great way to reengage existing customers that are visiting your site as well.

Reengage old customers. When you make a sale, your automotive marketing does not end there. You can also use a live chat service to reengage customers that haven’t conducted business with you recently. You can create a special campaign targeting previous customers to get them to come back and do business with you again. Send them a special offer on the purchase of a new vehicle or for a service on their existing vehicle. Encourage them to find out more by visiting your website and utilizing your online Car Chat 24 to schedule an appointment for service or get an answer to their question. Surveys are another great way to garner the attention of, obtain a response from and drive old customers back to dealer websites.

Existing customers that purchased a vehicle from you in the past, but are not in the market to buy another vehicle, are probably in the market to maintain and purchase parts for their existing vehicle. This is where CarChat24 can come in handy as well. When your live chat operator services extend to assisting do-it-yourself customers to find and order a part they need to repair or perform maintenance on their vehicle, in a few minutes time, you have reengaged the customer, made a sale and provided such a high level of customer service that you have probably ensured a customer for life.

You can use these three techniques to start building a higher quality lead list—organically and without having to turn to a third party to buy auto sales leads of poor quality. Quality beats quantity because it creates better conversion rates when you’re communicating with visitors to your website that have an interest in what you have to offer.

Why Car Dealer Websites and Live Chat Support Go Hand in Hand

While purchasing a vehicle is a tangible purchase, it tends to be a very emotional decision for customers to make. Site Live chat services help connect your sales people with customers—allowing the consumers to connect emotionally with the person behind the sale. When a visitor lands on your website, they are your target market, which means they are a high quality lead for your business. It’s a prime opportunity for you to capture this lead and then work toward converting it into a sale, which is business and money for your dealership. Dealer chat software works to engage visitors to your website right way. It allows you to capture valuable information about the visitor and their needs so you can then funnel them into the correct line of business—a vehicle purchase, to schedule a service appointment or buy a part.

The bottom line is car dealerships use live car chat to stop losing 98% of their website visitors by capturing a higher quality lead and to boost sales.

You can use live chat for a variety of reasons:

• Offer a higher level of service than your competitors—out sell your competition
• Double you website car sales leads and auto sales
• Offer more to your customers for less time and less money

In the end, automotive live chat software is an automotive lead generation, customer service and sales tool all wrapped up into one cost-effective automotive Internet marketing tactic.