Hi Caoryan, I'm sure you are not here to promote at all lol. With that said, I agree that there are many dealers that have strong processes in place that can make chat work well for them. Based on my time in the business I have found that it is very difficult to implement processes accross the board to all sales reps. That is why we see so many BDC's now in our industry with dedicated staff that are focusing on getting leads and appointments. Your company has great software, and if the dealers that use it have an effective process that produces results, they are doing much better than the average dealer. I think that if a dealer can find a good chat company to outsource thier chat they are actually better off. Dealers already have enough on their plate with all of the changes taking place in our business, and it would make more sence and be more cost effective for the dealers to do what they do best (Sell Cars).
You are right....I am called out! I am here to promote. I promote chat, processes, better living for car guys/girls, more income for all. Based on what I read you have more experience in the business than I am. However I study the market and online advertising like the bible. Here is how outsourcing can hurt your dealer that you may not have thought about. We all love list so here goes.
1) These guys aren't too busy. I go in dealers all the time and see guys sitting around and talking, smoking, cutting up, and goofing off. So I don't buy that they are too busy to handle leads from there website.
2) NO ONE I mean NO ONE can answer chats like the dealer can. Based on the millions of scripts we have the site visitor will ask a direct question and they want an answer right away. I don't care how well your BDC people are they won't know where the Kroger is compared to the dealer or if this car has something that isn't listed. You have to base your information off of there being accurate info on the site or web. That is cool most the time but we all know that there are mistakes on the site and web that will seriously cause problems.
3) I can understand outsourcing 3rd party leads maybe because the closing ratio is already low but i hear daily that our chats turn the best ROI and closing ratio. So if I was a dealer, would I want you to handle my best leads or less effective ones? I have always been taught work smarter not harder. Our websites are so special and probably our best weapon in the car business why send the people that are on there some where else?
4) I monitored phone calls for our stores when I was an Internet Director and I found that no matter how much training you do there will always be bad calls that your guys just screw up. The phones generate a ton of gross for the store but we don't shut them off or send it to a 3rd party. Why? If out sourcing is the way to go dealers should be doing that across the country like crazy.
5) MORALE - I am a big believer in allowing my guys to handle leads for many reasons but they need to know that people are out there searching for cars and still interested in what you have. By seeing these chats come in it gives the dealers that are really slow, hope. It's easy for us to sit in this seat and tell them what they should and shouldn't be doing but in the grand scheme of things they should be telling us. I meet vendors all the time that have never sold a car and have no clue what these guys go through. Sales is a fickle thing and if you take from sales people they get feelings of anger and frustration.
Hear me here Shereef, I am not saying you do it wrong I am just saying that chat in general needs to be a product with flexibilities. Options for the dealer. I do not believe in outsourcing but I have suggested it to dealers that miss a lot of chats. I would rather a dealer outsource and get more leads from there site than not use chat at all. That's pretty fair of me huh?
If they don't choose us I hope they choose you by the way
. (let's hope the White Hat method beats the Black Hat slide-down-thingy )
