TAKE POLL How many offers to CHAT would frustrate YOU?

[joe.pistell]

Funny & True Story for ya'll.

I've got a close friend that is a GSM, he's up visiting me in VT. The new month had started and he's having coffee doing his 'digital walk around', checking prices and incentives on his new units. He cusses "DAMN IT, this chat box keeps getting in my way!!!!" I smile and shake my head and give him a snarky reply "gee your shoppers love it too". Just 3 minutes pass... "ARRGGG this F**kin' chat box!! It slows me down!!" I raise my voice from a 3 to a 7 and shout at him "Dude, shoppers got a job to do and they hate wasting time... think about it!!!!"

Result?
Nothing came of it.

Why?
Car guys work long hours and are up to their eye balls in chaos. They look to us vendors to partner with them to handle the zillions of little details help them sell more cars.

--Not one shopper ever goes to a dealer site thinking "gee, i hope I can submit a lead today"

The evidence is everywhere. I've written about it all over DR forums. 80% of your sales come from the invisible shoppers on your site. We must STOP obsessing about leads and start looking at engagement stats (e.g. time on page, time on site, #of VDPs viewed, # of pics viewed, scroll depth, widget use, etc...).

--We must build solutions for our "silent majority"
--They came to our site to prepare for the store visit.

HTH
Joe

 

[Chris Leslie]

I like to think that our customers are pretty good at the internet. Which is why I choose to use Tawk.to for chat. I get everything I need on the back end but the chat prompt lives at the bottom right where a lot of chat prompts live.

http://www.hendersonchevy.com/

 

[craigh]

I like to think that our customers are pretty good at the internet. Which is why I choose to use Tawk.to for chat. I get everything I need on the back end but the chat prompt lives at the bottom right where a lot of chat prompts live.

http://www.hendersonchevy.com/

You don't put chat options on your VDPs?
I'm looking at a pre-owned vehicle and there's nowhere to open a chat.

 

[Chris Leslie]

@craigh : thanks for the heads up. It should be there. Fixed now. =)

 

[Seamus Curley]

The chat invites on mobile can be especially intrusive and can absolutely get in the way of the shopper's experience. Similar to Uncle Joe's GSM friend, I find myself cursing the mobile chat window every time I do my mobile "digital walk around". It's like that fly you can never swat!

 

[joe.pistell]

The chat invites on mobile can be especially intrusive and can absolutely get in the way of the shopper's experience. Similar to Uncle Joe's GSM friend, I find myself cursing the mobile chat window every time I do my mobile "digital walk around". It's like that fly you can never swat!

Seamus,
I'll dbl down on your mobile observations. If the chat window opens another browser and buries the dealer site, it forces the user needs to be sophisticated enough to get back to the dealer's site.

#FAIL.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Funny & True Story for ya'll.

I've got a close friend that is a GSM, he's up visiting me in VT. The new month had started and he's having coffee doing his 'digital walk around', checking prices and incentives on his new units. He cusses "DAMN IT, this chat box keeps getting in my way!!!!" I smile and shake my head and give him a snarky reply "gee your shoppers love it too". Just 3 minutes pass... "ARRGGG this F**kin' chat box!! It slows me down!!" I raise my voice from a 3 to a 7 and shout at him "Dude, shoppers got a job to do and they hate wasting time... think about it!!!!"

I have a story that's very much the same. I would bet many of us here do.

Not to completely change the topic but I was speaking with an owner the other day and he was asking me about different website companies because he was considering a change. I asked him "why was he looking to change from this current provider?"

His response: "Just looking to change things up a bit...?"

 

[joe.pistell]

ouch.

 

[craigh]

His response: "Just looking to change things up a bit...?"

I've met more than a few dealers that have gone through this same process and, to an extent, I agree with some of them.
To them in their role it could be as simple as "change it up", but usually there's an internet guy there somewhere pushing for change or giving suggestions. It's very hard to evaluate a website provider without trying their websites for your own brand, location, etc - especially now that a number of the vendors are moving away from templated solutions.

It won't typically turn a business around, but making these changes can help shed light on the reality of the situation for some dealers.
I also know way too many dealerships who blame their website for their lack of sales...

 

[Seamus Curley]

Seamus,
I'll dbl down on your mobile observations. If the chat window opens another browser and buries the dealer site, it forces the user needs to be sophisticated enough to get back to the dealer's site.

#FAIL.

That would be a #DoubleFAIL.

Seamus,
I'll dbl down on your mobile observations. If the chat window opens another browser and buries the dealer site, it forces the user needs to be sophisticated enough to get back to the dealer's site.

#FAIL.

#DoubleFAIL I often wonder if it would be better to just have CHAT available on Desktop and go with SMS only for Mobile...