Once upon a time, in the Land of Aluminum, Steel, and Rubber, there lived a team of Salespeople working at R-U-SERIOUS Dealer. These Salespeople, it is believed, had a rare gift for multitasking. Every day, they would tackle many different tasks - from taking and making phone calls, emailing prospects, making walk-around videos, attending to customers on the lot, and the list went on and on. Then one day, the Head Honcho said, “We’re going to start chatting with online car shoppers.” To which the Salespeople replied, “Sure! No problem!”
And so it was done.
The Salespeople were provided login information and soon enough, they were up and running. When the first chat came in, Bill the Sales Guy jumped at the opportunity and started the chat.
An Online Car Shopper Ignored
The shopper, Neggy Lected, wanted to know about the dimensions of a particular vehicle of interest because he was as tall as a Gulliver felt while visiting the Lilliputians in Gulliver’s Travels.
While Bill was looking up those dimensions for Neggy, another shopper stepped into the showroom. It was at this moment that Bill faced an internal dilemma, “Do I ignore Neggy, and talk to this shopper who is already at my store? Or do I finish my conversation with Neggy, and make the shopper in my store wait?”
Bill weighed his decision and decided to make Neggy wait a few minutes. As far as he was concerned, his most important priority was the shopper who was already in his store. Once the shopper was gone from the store, he would get back to Neggy about the dimensions of the vehicle.
However, one minor detail that Bill failed to realize was that Neggy was impatient. He wasn’t going to wait around all day, sipping lemonade, checking Facebook, and waiting for Bill to reply. That just wasn’t his style. He had stuff to do. A life to live. A car to find.
So after a minute or two of feeling disgruntled by silence, and when his responses weren’t receiving any reply from Bill, Neggy closed the chat.
After this initial experience that Neggy had at R-U-SERIOUS Dealer - “You have the audacity to ignore me?!” - Neggy decided it would be best to take his business to another local dealership’s website instead.
The Dealership's A-Ha Moment
What the Salespeople of R-U-Serious Dealer quickly figured out was that their multitasking responsibilities were too much to handle with live chat. A Salesperson shouldn’t have to focus on everything, they should be focusing on selling cars.
In order to make their team more effective, they made the decision to hire a few reps specifically for generating new leads. This way, the roles in the organization could be more specialized, and their store was able to accomplish all of its tasks efficiently.
The Salespeople focused on selling cars on the lot and the new business development reps focused on online lead generation and setting up appointments.
After this shift in the organization of their sales team, no other online car shoppers on R-U-Serious Dealer’s website ever had to suffer the fate of Neggy Lected.
Their sales went through the roof, and everyone lived happily ever after.
Moral of the Story:
If you want to be successful with live chat, your dealership needs a dedicated team answering the chats and generating leads. It is scientifically proven that no human being can successfully multitask - we just shift around priorities.
To ensure your dealership provides a unique consumer experience, segment your sales team and let them specialize. Salesforce segmented its sales team and added $1 billion to its top line revenue! Read more about sales segmentation in Predictable Revenue by former Salesforce.com Director of Corporate Sales, Aaron Ross.
If your team is unable to successfully handle chat in-house, then your next step is to look into a managed chat service.
