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Could Facebook Messenger Replace your Live Chat Plugin?

todd.smith

CSI Bandit
Apr 11, 2009
53
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First Name
Todd
Has anyone been experimenting with using Facebook Messenger instead of a typical live chat vendor on your dealership's website? I have been watching this area of communication closely and with how messenger works beyond Marketplace I was interested in everyone's thoughts on the subject. I wrote a blog about this recently and I wanted to share it with you here as well.

Using messenger has a few advantages over the current live chat providers in the automotive industry. A big one is it is a FREE messaging platform and connected to one of the largest automotive marketplaces to display and market your dealership inventory also for FREE. Those are two great reasons to continue reading.

Advantage #1

Facebook messenger offers instant personalization since Facebook will already recognize your shopper if they are logged into their Facebook account and on your website. Personalization matters in today’s competitive automotive landscape and this is a FREE advantage over your competitors who are stuck in the past having to ask the shopper to enter their name to begin a chat.

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This means shoppers don’t have to enter there name to start a conversation on your dealership website, and you never have to ask for their name since you have it from the start. This type of friction reduction helps to create more conversations with better data from the start.

Bonus you can create a Facebook audience to include everyone who chats with your dealership using messenger for continuous conversational marketing.
Advantage #2

Facebook Messenger for automotive also enables you and your shopper to continue the conversation after leaving the dealership website. Please think about the competitive advantage of that especially when a leads ghosts you. We all know that happens far more than we want it too.

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You can reach back out to anyone who started a chat with you on Facebook Messenger. You can't do that via a standard live chat on your dealership website.

When you have an automotive live chat on your website, and the shopper leaves without engaging or even if they did submit their information, the follow up has to happen in an alternative channel like email, call, or text.

This continuity break always hurts conversion by adding another level of friction. By keeping it on Facebook within messenger you can keep the conversation alive and moving towards a test drive and sale.

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Advantage #3

You can leverage bot technology to enable your Facebook Messenger account to work after-hours for your dealership conversations. The best part you can do all of this using an omnichannel messaging platform for your dealership. Now is the best time to put conversational commerce to work for your dealership in my opinion.

I would like to hear from anyone using Messenger as their primary chat tool on their website to see first hand how it is working and if it would drive the results I believe can be accomplished if executed correctly.