You signed up with a live chat provider because you believed it would be beneficial to your dealership’s business. So how often do you check to ensure they are delivering the results you were told to expect from the beginning? We recommend that you evaluate your live chat provider or your internal chat team every month. Below, are relevant benchmarks you should be consistently measuring so that you can accurately assess your current live chat results.
How to Evaluate Your Live Chat Provider
First, let’s refresh your memory on a few factors you should be keeping track of:
Pick-Up Time: the amount of time it takes to begin a chat conversation - from the moment a shopper clicks to chat to the time when the chat representative sends the first greeting.
Response Time: the amount of time it takes to respond to a shopper’s question/statement during the chat.
Test Drive Appointments: the number of appointments set during a chat for a customer to visit your dealership to test drive a vehicle.
Lead Conversion: the number of conversations that turn into leads with a name, email address, AND phone number.
Chat Conversion: the average number of unique visitors per month that request to chat with your team.
Live Chat Benchmarks
Pick-Up Time: Your team should be answering chats in 6 seconds or less because consumers do not want to wait. They are impatient. Chat should be an INSTANTANEOUS way for shoppers to get their questions answered.
Response Time: 30 seconds or less is the amount of time your team has to respond to a shopper during the chat. Whether or not the shopper asked a question, your reps should be continuing the conversation to move the shopper further down the sales funnel. Again, car buyers are impatient so don’t make them wait...ever!
Test Drive Appointments: On Average, your team should be setting appointments with 20% of the consumers they engage. They should always ask for your shoppers to schedule a visit to the dealership just like you expect them to set an appointment on a phone call.
Lead Conversion: 80% of chats should convert into a lead. If your team continues to miss this benchmark, then take a good look at the quality of the conversations in the transcripts. This benchmark is the best indicator of the type of customer service your online shoppers are receiving.
Chat Conversion: 1-2% of unique visitors should be clicking to chat. This benchmark is solely based on the graphics used on the website. If they aren’t grabbing attention, switch them up. Also, your provider should be able to A/B test graphics and suggest the most effective graphic to use on YOUR website.
How Live Chat Impacts Customer Satisfaction
There’s one thing you cannot measure, but it plays a significant role in how you should evaluate your live chat provider: Customer satisfaction. Do the shoppers who use your live chat service say they are happy with the experience they received? Do they give you comments about how helpful the service is? Customer satisfaction will either lead to an increase in the other factors mentioned above, or the factors above will impact your customer satisfaction.
Ways live chat increases customer satisfaction:
- Timely responses
- Personalized conversation (No scripts! No robots!)
- Answering questions/being helpful
- Correct spelling and punctuation
- Ability to respond to inquiries about your dealership (hours, management, services available, etc.)
- Directing shoppers to the pages they are looking for on your website
- Offering vehicle suggestions based on the shopper’s interests or needs
- Informing customers about vehicle and service specials
