Cars.com chat - anyone seeing anything?

[Billfred]

We're using Cars.com's chat feature now at our Buick/GMC/Cadillac store, and our local rep had us pretty psyched up for it. Problem is, over the past week we've had some 545 "present impressions" (read: we have salesmen online and ready to chat when the page loads) but only two chats back-to-back with each other that were both abandoned without the customer saying anything to us.

Without tipping your hand any further than you care to, is anyone having better/worse/similar numbers from Cars.com chat?

 

[Neil Frutuoso]

We have been using it for a while now and get minimal people chatting on cars.com. We are single point Buick store which may attribute to some of the low numbers but we do a good amount of leads from cars.com. I would love to know why no one uses it.

 

[yagoparamo]

Chat works so... maybe Cars.com in your area is abit weak?

 

[Billfred]

I've got my theory as to why. I went onto Cars.com and searched for certified used Pontiacs. (Now with two years of free maintenance!)

Bear in mind, I'm on a 21.5" iMac--plenty of room to get down to that second circle (actually trimmed a bit for me, but I scrolled for the screenshot). Most people on their cheap work monitors are likely to see just the upper circle. Does the icon in that circle jump out at you?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Bill, you beat me to the punch..screen shot and all!

I'm going to throw in a few screen shots with my mirrored opinion.

We have photo, data and links but NO clear Call to Action. AutoTrader is guilty of this as well. There is no way they spend a lot of money on A/B testing on their VDP's, if so their pages would convert higher and they wouldn't have to spend so much effort in convincing us that customers are walking through the door after seeing your vehicle on one of these sites. I bet Cars.com would DOUBLE their chats if they would only make it an actual Primary Call to Action.

Take it another step and allow the dealer or some data to determine what primary call to action to highlight. If the dealer loves to chat and has a process for it, have the Chat button as the primary call to action. If the dealer prefers email leads or phone calls, makes these the primary call to actions. Of course each one would yield different results but I bet the results would double.

Screen shot below. The ad at the top is pushing down the second chat button but in the end I'm not sure how much it matters. It's not like either one is getting the job done.



Again - here are the call to actions. Neither is primary. Both are sorta "part of the page"... #fail



I have all my dealers plugged into the Cars.com chat with Contact At Once and the chat opportunities are at a minimum. I'd welcome more though!

 

[joe.pistell]

I told the excited AutoTrader reps that Cars.com chat has dropped 90% and their faces looked like I took their balloon away.

Yet another example of how much opportunity there is in split testing page layouts.

 

[Shereef]

Hi Guys

Icon placement is important for sure, but the icon itself has a lot to do with it. It needs to stand out and have a strong call to action. Unless they make the icon pop or add a proactive greeting, the amount of chats will continue to be low for all dealers. The proactive invite we use for our clients accounts for over 80% of our chat activity (even with strong icons and placement). If they allowed the proactive greeting it would be a whole new ball game....Their chat software provider has a proactive feature available, my guess is that it is not being allowed by the third party vendors (Cars.com/Autotrader.com). As those of you that are utilizing proactive chat know, it is an excellent way to increase lead conversion and sales. Hopefully as chat is adapted at a higher percentage and further understood, the third party vendors will allow proactive greetings, so the aggressive dealers can gain more sales.

 

[CAORYAN]

Just to inform everyone, your guesses are correct. The 3rd party providers we power chat for decide how they implement hat on their websites. As for the drop in chats, without looking I couldnt explain without looking up an account and doing a review. Cars decided to use a text link to launch chat and Autotrader decidedtot use the drop-in greeting. It's totally up to the preference. I can tell you there are dealers getting a TON of chats on both cars and at. Just my two cents! By the way jeff, i am posting via your mobile site. Nice to have while at the airport.

 

[joe.pistell]

Ryan,

Is there a hosted chat option for AT/Cars?

 

[CAORYAN]

Joe, if by hosted you mean we answer, yes. We have recently upgraded our bdc and it's been a huge success. Still 24/7.