- Apr 11, 2009
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- Todd
This topic has been coming up recently as more businesses move into the space of offering chat to dealerships. When I hear of companies that offer 24/7 service two thoughts comes to my mind: one is it is a "Call Center" and two is "too much of a good thing," a saying that first appeared in Shakespeare in the 1600's.
Offering chat 24/7 can actually do your dealership more harm than good. Now you might say that I am crazy but think about it for a couple of minutes and you might come up with the same conclusion we did.
I have to ask-does someone pick up your dealership's phone 24/7? 99% of dealerships will answer "no" to this question. There are a few reasons why dealerships aren't staffed 24/7. First, nobody calls in the middle of the night or there are so few calls it would not be worth staffing it. Second, the caliber of people you could hire to work the graveyard shift may not be qualified enough to actually help the person who called in to the dealership. Providing less than quality service would in essence diminish the value of the call for the caller and potentially do more harm than good. Think about it, by offering a service that can't be fulfilled at the same quality as it would be during regular business hours when the call could be transfered to the person that could really help or at least answer the question in its entirely, you are going to leave a potential customer with a negative impression of your dealership.
Let's think about chat in the same context. What might appear to be beneficial on the surface could actually do your dealership more harm than good. First, your shoppers will almost absolutely know the person they are chatting with at 3:30 a.m. is not someone who works at the dealership, which by itself could diminish the value of the application in the eyes of the shopper. Another key attribute is the quality of the chat itself. The chat agent can't call into the dealership to have the question answered by a manager, if necessary, again reducing the effectiveness of the tool and potentially leading to a chat that leaves the shopper with unanswered questions.
We have found offering chat to coincide with your dealership's normal business hours work most effectively to establish a link between the chat and your brick and mortar dealership. Also, this provides the chatters with the ability to answer more in depth questions by having access to your dealership staff, and, if necessary, the ability to transfer the chat to a dealership manager, increasing the overall effectiveness of the chat application.
The end game for using chat is to offer an additional way for shoppers to engage with the dealership in a comfortable medium for the shopper. But, the twist to it is that you have to be able to create that great first impression. The more "wow" factor your chat conversation can accomplish the more likely that conversation will turn into a sale.
We have compiled and analyzed hundreds of thousands of chats, and spent a great deal of time surveying chat shoppers, and have come to the conclusion that online chat is most effective if it provides the customer with efficient, accurate information and a experience most like those you strive to provide in your showroom. I thought I would pass along this information to help you make sure you create the best experience for your dealership shoppers like we do for ours.
Offering chat 24/7 can actually do your dealership more harm than good. Now you might say that I am crazy but think about it for a couple of minutes and you might come up with the same conclusion we did.
I have to ask-does someone pick up your dealership's phone 24/7? 99% of dealerships will answer "no" to this question. There are a few reasons why dealerships aren't staffed 24/7. First, nobody calls in the middle of the night or there are so few calls it would not be worth staffing it. Second, the caliber of people you could hire to work the graveyard shift may not be qualified enough to actually help the person who called in to the dealership. Providing less than quality service would in essence diminish the value of the call for the caller and potentially do more harm than good. Think about it, by offering a service that can't be fulfilled at the same quality as it would be during regular business hours when the call could be transfered to the person that could really help or at least answer the question in its entirely, you are going to leave a potential customer with a negative impression of your dealership.
Let's think about chat in the same context. What might appear to be beneficial on the surface could actually do your dealership more harm than good. First, your shoppers will almost absolutely know the person they are chatting with at 3:30 a.m. is not someone who works at the dealership, which by itself could diminish the value of the application in the eyes of the shopper. Another key attribute is the quality of the chat itself. The chat agent can't call into the dealership to have the question answered by a manager, if necessary, again reducing the effectiveness of the tool and potentially leading to a chat that leaves the shopper with unanswered questions.
We have found offering chat to coincide with your dealership's normal business hours work most effectively to establish a link between the chat and your brick and mortar dealership. Also, this provides the chatters with the ability to answer more in depth questions by having access to your dealership staff, and, if necessary, the ability to transfer the chat to a dealership manager, increasing the overall effectiveness of the chat application.
The end game for using chat is to offer an additional way for shoppers to engage with the dealership in a comfortable medium for the shopper. But, the twist to it is that you have to be able to create that great first impression. The more "wow" factor your chat conversation can accomplish the more likely that conversation will turn into a sale.
We have compiled and analyzed hundreds of thousands of chats, and spent a great deal of time surveying chat shoppers, and have come to the conclusion that online chat is most effective if it provides the customer with efficient, accurate information and a experience most like those you strive to provide in your showroom. I thought I would pass along this information to help you make sure you create the best experience for your dealership shoppers like we do for ours.
100% 