Justin, you must be very fortunate to have some very qualified trained sales professionals. If it were my decision from the start there is no way in hell I would allow the average sales people to chat but then again I wouldn't allow them answer the phone either, heck lets place Internet leads into the same bucket while we are at it.
I have too many experiences traveling from dealer to dealer, listening to phone ups, reading chat transcripts to know that the average untrained sales person is hindering more than helping your sales efforts during a chat session.
This is the main reason for my slow adaption back into chat arena. I love chat, And I firmly believe and know when done right can produce some of the best quailed "leads". But I also know that a chat session can turn bad really fast and can quickly give the customer a negative impression in going business with your business. Chat NEEDS to left to trained professionals.
In my opinion it's all to easy to say you want the customer to speak with a sales person because they "know the car". Fact is - most sales people don't even know their own inventory any more than an outsourced chat agent reading from the vehicle description page on your dealer website, but at least you get the benefit of someone that is trained to go after the information and appointment.
Perfect situation, you have a complete team of trained sales professionals that know exactly what to say and how to type it and are impeccable during every chat session. Hey, if you have these people hired on your sales floor, kudos to that dealer. You are a 2%'r.