Why Dealer Chat is Getting Hotter

There have been many shifts in the ways that people communicate. The digital age has made given us options and the last few years have seen people across North America selecting their preferred method of communication.

It starts with the phone, of course. Today, texting is about as popular as making phone calls for millions with a strong percentage of people preferring it. Most businesses, including car dealers, have not mastered the art of texting for various reasons, most notably being that we simply aren’t allowed to text people with messages that do not fall into certain criteria. It’s also challenging to have the website visitors initiate a text through the dealer’s website. The technology is spotty at best and there’s a barrier many people encounter when they do not want to give their cell phone number to the dealership in the early- and mid-stages of their car buying research. As dealers know, it’s becoming more challenging to get them to contact you even when they’re at the bottom of the buying funnel.

This is where chat comes in and it’s why dealers across the continent are learning that proactive chat prompting is an ideal method of compelling communication with the dealership. Unlike all other forms of communication with a smartphone, chat offers consumers a way to interact with a dealership without giving their personal information. Some dealers see this as a negative, but with the right software and response scripts, dealers are able to generate leads that they would have never been able to generate otherwise as a result of the chat anonymity.

Chat gives the consumers the ability to get a feel for the dealership before they give their contact information. This is extremely important because in a world where privacy and security are at the top of mind for many, a degree of initial separation is necessary to get a lot of people to make contact.

Dealer chat is getting hotter because it’s what millions of people want out of their business conversations. Some simply won’t give you their email, phone number, or even their name before knowing that you’re a company they would truly consider doing business with, making chat their ideal method of communication.

This trend is not going away. We’re seeing increases in both chat frequency and leads generated. This tells us two things: not only are more people desiring to communicate in this manner, but they’re also willing to be contacted by dealers that pass their initial chat “litmus test.”

If you do not have a proactive chat prompt on your website, consider making that change today. It’s working better than ever before.