Reply to thread

I did a "trial" with a managed chat service awhile back.  I ended up cancelling the service.  In my opinion, I like an after hours managed chat service to answer basic and general questions.  I believe that as soon as a customer tries to go deeper than the basics, the vendor needs to come right out and tell the customer that they are not actually in the dealership and they just don't know the answer...rather than trying to take that customer down a path that they really don't want to go down.  Ask if they can get the customer's contact information.  If the customer says no, inform them that if they initiate a chat between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm that they will get someone that is actually on the premises. 

To answer the question, I would rather have no after hours chat than a bad customer experience.

My ideal situation is when the dealership staff leaves for the day, the chat icon on the website disappears...rather than says "offline".