Shoppers’ online behavior and expectations about vehicle purchases have changed dramatically, and your communication should reflect these changes. As the evolution of Internet technology and innovation continues to accelerate, consumers expect more choices and instant gratification. For example, live chat has become the “1-800” phone number of today. In the 1980s, businesses were slow to offer toll-free numbers. As more companies provided them, it became a consumer expectation to conduct business. The companies that didn’t provide toll-free numbers began to lose prospective customers, while those that did gained more customers. Live chat now follows the same path. Innovative dealers began to offer it early on, and now consumers expect this alternative contact experience. It is true that technology has given consumers more control, but it’s also true that technology can give you more power to track and analyze shoppers’ behavior. By offering consumers a faster, more interactive online experience, you can leverage technology behind the scenes to capture more data that can be turned into business intelligence.

By now, most dealers understand that live chat is a required component of a successful online marketing plan. Chip Diggs, director of Internet sales and marketing at Zeigler Automotive Group, began using live chat on his dealerships’ Websites more than six months ago. “Even a year ago, we weren’t convinced that we needed live chat, but now we know it’s a necessity. Most Website visitors expect it, and you can actually lose shoppers if the service isn’t available. Chat has enabled us to ‘soften’ the first contact with clients. We invest a great deal to drive traffic to our Website, and we finally realized that we would earn more leads from this traffic if we engaged people on the site. Live chat is perfect for this. People have questions but many don’t want to call or come into the store to get answers.”

Jim Bell, Internet performance and marketing director for Don Ayres Honda, began researching live chat options more than a year ago, and deployed chat last winter. “We all know that a lot of people search for automotive information while they are at work. Many of them can’t talk on the phone while working because they are being monitored. Sometimes even e-mail is monitored, but they can ‘stealthily’ use live chat. We constantly chat with Website visitors during the work day who give us their phone numbers and tell us to call them in the evening. By the time we talk on the phone, we’ve already given them valuable information and begun building a relationship. It’s a great service for everyone involved.”

Successful Live Chat Requires Highly Trained, Dedicated Chat Reps

Making the important decision to deploy live chat is a start, but understanding the staffing requirements is just as important for success. Some dealers have the internal resources to manage chat from within the dealership, but many do not. It is critical to understand that dedicated chat reps are required for effective live chat. Further, the reps must be trained in best practices for the unique communication requirements of chat. If your dealership does not have staff members who are committed and trained to manage chats, then it is essential to use a qualified service that can handle the chats for you.

“If you’re planning to manage live chat from within the dealership, the biggest challenge is staffing,” Diggs said. “You must have dedicated, highly trained staff to handle the chats. You will lose shoppers if they think chat is available, but no one responds to them. We have an Internet team with 10 trained sales people who manage our chats. We now typically sell 125 to 130 vehicles per month just from Internet sales, and live chat is an integral part of this.”

Bell takes a different approach. “We don’t have the internal staff to manage chat, so we use ActivEngage’s full service live chat, ActivConcierge. It’s great because the chat reps really make our Website visitors feel like a part of the dealership, and all chat transcripts and contact information are tied directly to our BDC. Our customers consistently tell us how much they like having live chat available on the Website, and we don’t have to worry about managing the chats from within the dealership.”

Data Drives Internet Marketing Success

Once live chat has been deployed and properly managed, it’s time to look at the tracking and analysis that turn mere data into business intelligence. Measuring online data is a start and can help you better serve consumers, but refining that data is the key to leveraging its true value. Measuring and refining relevant data allows you put it in perspective, and learn how to use it to improve your business. While looking at numbers on spreadsheets may not be particularly enjoyable, examining data via interactive charts and graphs, within the context of your overall marketing plans, is always illuminating — and actually can be fun.

Further, three levels of consumer data should be captured and analyzed: visitor, engagement and conversion. Visitor data lets you know how shoppers find you and how they navigate your Website. Engagement data tells you where and how they take action. Conversion data lets you know where and when they take the crucial step of moving from visitors to qualified leads.

Connect the Dots with an Internet Marketing Dashboard

Now that you’re tracking the data, an online marketing dashboard is essential to refine it and realize its full value. Advanced dashboards allow auto dealerships, dealer groups and manufacturers to track all marketing metrics — including Website analytics, conversion points, ROI and more — from a single Webpage. Historically, monitoring dealerships’ online marketing from multiple campaigns, vendors and sources was time-consuming, complicated and sometimes impossible. Now, however, technology allows this consolidation, and the best dashboards quickly and easily display all marketing campaign performance. The most advanced online dashboards also have a single login that enables dealerships to see exactly how their Internet business is performing in one location.

Analytics dashboards should incorporate all marketing data from live chat, phone, e-mail, third-party lead sources, Website analytics and any other sources used. The data can then be integrated and analyzed to provide dealerships, dealer groups and manufacturers advanced business intelligence to create the most effective marketing and sales mix. A single online dashboard login also ends the inefficiency of creating and monitoring multiple reports, and puts the most important information into an interactive visual display, helping you connect the marketing dots.

Mobile is Now Mandatory

It is also important to note that consumers increasingly access the Internet via mobile devices and expect full Website functionality on hand-held devices. Mobile applications are now available to offer dealers advanced chat functionality on mobile devices. Web-based, native mobile applications provide full live-chat capability, unlike other mobile offerings that merely allow text or instant messaging. Further, with advanced technology, live chats can be seamlessly transferred between mobile devices and computers. For example, a dealer can be at his/her desk chatting with a customer and the shopper requests detailed information about a car on the lot. The dealer is then able to effortlessly transfer the live chat to his/her mobile device and continue the conversation while walking to the vehicle of interest. In addition, chats can be moved from the mobile device back to the computer, with no interruption in the communication. Chat transcripts and contact information are then seamlessly entered into the dealership’s ILM, CRM or DMS, with no manual data re-entry.

Live Chat with Business Intelligence and the Bottom Line

Automotive retail success is still (and always will be) all about creating an outstanding customer experience, but today we must use online technology to meet and exceed shoppers’ expectations. Consumers spend a lot of time online, and most are now trained to expect instant gratification. Live chat, coupled with business intelligence, helps you provide this gratification and sets you apart from your competitors. With the prevalence of text and instant messaging, most consumers are comfortable with, and even have a preference for, live chat online. In the end, it comes down to improving the bottom line, and live chat that incorporates data tacking and analysis consistently yields outstanding results.

“On average, we set appointments with half of the people we chat with,” Diggs said. “Of those appointments, we typically close 80 percent. Live chat is now one of our highest percentage closing tools. It’s really amazing. Clients who use live chat are ready to do something. It’s on their minds right now and they want someone to help them in a noninvasive way, and they want that help immediately.”

“We’ve already had hundreds of chats in just the first few months of use,” Bell said. “We have increased our sales leads, and have been pleasantly surprised that parts and service leads have also increased. Some people even use live chat to schedule service appointments. There is a high return on the investment and it’s a great convenience to shoppers. In fact, some shoppers will even leave your site if live chat isn’t available.”

The foundation of success is creating a great customer experience, whether shoppers are in the showroom, on the phone or online. And with more than 90 percent of vehicle consumers conducting research and shopping online, it’s not enough to merely have a nice-looking Website — with a form for shoppers to submit their contact information before you even help them.

The foundation of success is creating a great customer experience, whether shoppers are in the showroom, on the phone or online. And with more than 90 percent of vehicle consumers conducting research and shopping online, it’s not enough to merely have a nice-looking Website — with a form for shoppers to submit their contact information before you even help them.