You know that dealership live chat feature vendors are raving about? The one where you can ride in on a horse and shining armor to ‘save the day’? Yes, that one — the live chat feature that allows you to take over your provider’s conversation. It’s absolutely terrible.
Rescuing your live chat provider is ridiculous. Here are three reasons why you need to avoid doing it at all costs:
1. Your Customer Experience Suffers
“Why am I talking to multiple people? Why do I have to repeat myself? What is happening?!”
- A Confused Online Shopper
So many things can go wrong during a chat when your team has the power to jump into conversations. To name one example, the conversation length doubles during these chat transfers.
More often than not, your salesperson is going to play catch up in a chat transfer, or they will have to explain to the customer why they were talking to Jennifer one minute and starting over with Stuart the next. This is neither fun nor efficient for your shoppers. In fact, it can really hurt their experience and your chances of getting a sale.
The goal of every dealership interaction with consumers is to get them excited to visit your store and buy from you. Your dealership live chat solution needs to provide seamless, consistent interactions to get people in the showroom. Don’t let these seemingly ‘hot’ opportunities ruin your chances of getting the sale.
2. You’re Wasting Time and Money
Tying into the previous point, if your chat provider needs rescuing, what exactly are you paying for in your solution?
You’re paying to create more work for your team.
Because you’re paying a provider to get you POTENTIAL leads instead of actual leads, you’ll need more staff focused on helping your chat provider, which will lead to more multitasking. Fun fact: multitasking is shown to cause 50% more mistakes and 40% less productivity in the workforce — and it costs our economy around $450 million per year. The odds of closing these potential leads are slim, which means you're paying more money for less return.
So how do you protect your commission without doing your chat provider's job? Hire a provider who can set appointments and drive shoppers to your lot. At ActivEngage, we get online shoppers to your store. In fact, our largest auto group customer boasts a 26% closing rate from ActivEngage leads — proof that a dealership live chat solution can and should help you sell more cars with less effort.
3. It Says So Much About Your Vendor
Most other chat providers in automotive won't talk about their managed chat service because they don't have the necessary processes or expertise to represent you. Those that do tout having 'messaging experts' don't include their team's conversion results. Why? Because they want to entice you with shiny, new features that won’t take the place of effective conversation and won’t drive customers to your store.
Unfortunately, some vendors perpetuate the misconception that a chat provider cannot represent your dealership and hold its team to standards of excellence—which is simply untrue.
At ActivEngage, we have been representing car dealers for over a decade. Our best-in-class chat team is trained in customer service, chat, the automotive industry, and most importantly, your dealership. That’s why our average results are unmatched in the industry, even by dealers themselves:
- 80% chat-to-lead conversion
- 75% leads with phone numbers
- 20% leads with sales or service appointments
In Conclusion...
If your vendor offers a service that encourages you to watch over them, it's a clear red flag.
Look, I get it. Your dealership’s website is a digital extension of YOUR dealership. But there are managed chat services out there that can represent your business professionally and effectively. Why would you pay for anything less?
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Are you looking for a chat provider with a reliable team that actually gets shoppers into your dealership? If so, chat with us.
