I visited a lot of sites today.

[JohnScott]

Many were links I got from profiles here.

I visited as an objective, and right now outsider to this industry who has been in customer service for 15 years.

I was primarily interested in the Chat application. What I found were a lot of Becky's, Betty's, Danielle's and Marias's to name a few that were able to help me with what I already knew. The make, model, year, and mileage of my trade in. I was then asked for my phone number, and email, so that they could have someone contact me.

I tried to get more involved, more in depth information, I asked if they were "real people" or bots.
Im not trying to be too cynical about this because I actually embrace this technology, not only for sales, but service and technicians, but if its going to be used, it needs to be little more than a phone and email harvester.

Just my input, maybe it was just a bad day, or the websites I visited

 

[Alex Snyder]

How would you suggest it be used John?

 

[JohnScott]

How would you suggest it be used John?

To sell cars.

To answer actual questions a customer might have, to have a little personality so that visitors dont think they are just entering information into another database that is going to spam their email and text inbox.

You dont really need a chat application to get someones email and phone info.

Of all the sites I visited today, this is the only one that went further than "give us your info"

Forgive the length, and remember this is just a discussion, and Im giving you my impressions,

> Operator: Hello
> Operator: Welcome to our website!
> Operator: I am here to provide live assistance. How may I help you?
> Visitor: hello, is this a live operator
> SYSTEM: One moment please.
> SYSTEM: You are chatting with 'Danielle'.
> Visitor: Danielle who?
> Danielle: Yes
> Danielle: I am the Online Operator for our dealership.
> Visitor: Are you a person
> Danielle: Yes I am a live person
> Danielle: Are you looking for a New or Pre-Owned vehicle?
> Visitor: OK, Ive just been visiting a lot of sites and get a lot of bots
> Visitor: do you have cash for clunkers?
> Danielle: Do you have a vehicle that you will be trading?
> Visitor: yup, of course, thats why im interested in cash for clunkers
> Danielle: May I know the Year, Make, Model, and Miles of your trade?
> Visitor: 1999 Ford taurus
> Danielle: Thank you.
> Danielle: Please hold while I access this information.
> Visitor: where are you
> Danielle: Thank you for holding.
> Danielle: I am not sure of all the details. May I have the appropriate person contact you with information regarding your Trade?
> Visitor: hold on one sec, I have a phone call
> Danielle: Please take your time
> Visitor: do you have chat for service as well?
> Danielle: Unfortunately I don't have information on Service or Parts.
> Danielle: For more information, please contact our Service Department.
> Danielle: Service Dept. Service 850-574-6600
> Visitor: Ok, thanks for the info, when does clunkers end?
> Danielle: I'd be happy to have the appropriate person contact you with information for your specific request via email or phone if you'd like.
> Visitor: you dont know?
> Danielle: Cash for Clunkers Program will be ending on Monday, August 24th
> Visitor: Im not big on handing out my phone # to salespeople
> Visitor: nothing personal,
> Danielle: I'd be happy to have the appropriate person contact you with full details via email or phone.
> Visitor: I'll stop by tomorrow morning, thanks for your help
> Danielle: If you are planning to visit our dealership, may I schedule a VIP Appointment for you?
> Visitor: No thanks, Im not sure of my schedule.
> Danielle: On behalf of our sales and management team, "Thank You for visiting our website"!
> Danielle: Please enjoy your stay on our website.
> SYSTEM: Operator has ended this chat.


I got the info I needed, but it was a little COLD, again, thats my impression, and the impression of someone who approaches this technology enthusiastically, not trying to attack it.

 

[danoneil]

This is one way chat can work against a dealership. You immediately became a lost opportunity & the dealership did not get an email or phone # out of the inquiry..

I worked as a salesperson for a dealership that all calls went directly to a central internet department. Salespeople who knew the immediate answers would stand around in the showroom for a week and get 2 phone call all week long only by people who dialed the dealership with a local area code vs. the 866- # .... Poor

 

[JohnScott]

This is one way chat can work against a dealership. You immediately became a lost opportunity & the dealership did not get an email or phone # out of the inquiry..

I worked as a salesperson for a dealership that all calls went directly to a central internet department. Salespeople who knew the immediate answers would stand around in the showroom for a week and get 2 phone call all week long only by people who dialed the dealership with a local area code vs. the 866- # .... Poor

I agree, not only that it turned me off to the dealer, now granted I wasnt a real customer, and I did have an agenda so take my perception with a grain of salt.

What amazed me was how it ended, there was no follow up on the cash for clunkers bait I threw out, just a thanks, and have a nice day.

Had it been someone wanting to sell a car they would have pursued me, given me a ballpark estimate on my imaginary 99 taurus, and started asking me what kind of cars I was interested in.

Nothing like that, just give me your info, thats all they wanted. "She" , could have even done more when I asked about a CHAT for service, "she" could have asked me what kind of problem I had, and given me a service advisors name.

That would have impressed me.

 

[umer.autojini]

Sometimes operators can sound like bots... via canned responses...
too bad service department was not sold into the chat add-on.

 

[JohnScott]

Sometimes operators can sound like bots... via canned responses...
too bad service department was not sold into the chat add-on.

I agree, had they had a service chat she could have transferred me over, found out I also had a 2007 Ford Escape with squeaky brakes and gotten me in to do a 60,000 service and pre-approved to replace the brake pads should that be the problem.

So they lost a sale, and possibly a customer for the service department. Had I been "real" I might have gone down the virtual street, and had they been better online they would now have my business.

 

[Brent Palen]

Thanks for your input. Its good to have a third partie's input. Sounds to me like the person you were chatting with was pre-occupied and used the canned responses to keep you on the line.

I would estimate that I am able to capture over 90% of my chat leads email addresses. I do this by giving the customer answers and then finding a valid reason to ask for their email address. Example.

Customer - Does that Malibu have the remote start provisions?
Me - I would be happy to find that out for you. What I will do is pull up the original factory build sheet direct from GM's system. Since I will already be in there should I email you the entire list?

You can guess how it goes from there. To me getting the feel for chat was a no brainer due to the years of experience I had with phone training.

By the way, I would recomend Contact at Once to everyone who is looking to add a chat feature to its website. I went with Dealer.com's application not realizing that they require the customer to give an email before they chat. To me that ruins the anonymity a customer expects from chat and probably turns them away. I get many more chat leads from Cars.com (Contact at Once app) then I do our own website. I think they are a little more money but you get what you pay for.

 

[JohnScott]

Thanks for your input. Its good to have a third partie's input. Sounds to me like the person you were chatting with was pre-occupied and used the canned responses to keep you on the line. .

The sad thing is that was one of the best chats out of all of them, and Ive visited a lot of dealership sites all over the country the past few weeks.

I agree with you about Contact at once, I pay attention to the chat being used. The above chat was CarChat24.

Im a "3rd party" right now, but I hope not to be soon.

edit-
Nice cat!

 

[ryanlucia]

Thanks for your input. Its good to have a third partie's input. Sounds to me like the person you were chatting with was pre-occupied and used the canned responses to keep you on the line.

I would estimate that I am able to capture over 90% of my chat leads email addresses. I do this by giving the customer answers and then finding a valid reason to ask for their email address. Example.

Customer - Does that Malibu have the remote start provisions?
Me - I would be happy to find that out for you. What I will do is pull up the original factory build sheet direct from GM's system. Since I will already be in there should I email you the entire list?

You can guess how it goes from there. To me getting the feel for chat was a no brainer due to the years of experience I had with phone training.

By the way, I would recomend Contact at Once to everyone who is looking to add a chat feature to its website. I went with Dealer.com's application not realizing that they require the customer to give an email before they chat. To me that ruins the anonymity a customer expects from chat and probably turns them away. I get many more chat leads from Cars.com (Contact at Once app) then I do our own website. I think they are a little more money but you get what you pay for.

Thanks for the plug