There are few industries as competitive as the automotive industry, and with so many different brands and makes of cars on the market, dealerships need to provide as many different ways for potential customers to get in touch as possible.
The days when most buyers’ first point of contact with a dealership came when they walked in the door are long gone, and according to Autotrader, 88% of car buyers in 2016 used the Internet to shop. So how does a salesperson establish that all-important lead that will help them foster a relationship that might eventually turn into a sale? For dealerships that want to leverage the power of the Internet to generate new business, dealer chat is one of the most powerful new methods for car dealers to connect with buyers who are looking for a new or pre-owned vehicle.
There are several reasons live chat is so appealing to dealers, but the main one is that being able to talk to an auto dealer live over the Internet increases the likelihood that potential customers will move from a query to a purchase. As any sales professional knows, more leads means more sales, and live chat works by making a dealership website into a kind of virtual showroom. Chat operators can make contact with customers browsing the site, and chat services allow dealerships to answer questions anytime through live chats, texts, and calls 24/7, which means customers shopping outside of business hours can still be reached.
Perhaps more importantly, live chat services like Gubagoo are integrated with online forums like Facebook Marketplace. Not only can they ensure a dealership’s whole inventory is accessible to a new set of browsers, they also take advantage of Facebook’s chat function to provide a contact point for potential customers. Chat operatives can answer customers’ questions about vehicle availability, and free up dealership staff to join the chat and take over at any time if the customer starts showing serious interest in making a purchase. Not only does this give dealerships the chance to reach new markets, it gives them a new tool to generate real leads that can turn into real sales.
Dealer chat also harnesses the power of behavioral analytics to score and profile web visitors. An Internet user’s browsing and search patterns generate a great deal of valuable data about what they are looking for through analysis of how they interact with a website. Gubagoo has taken advantage of this by developing software that helps dealerships to offer web visitors a completely customized experience, one that is geared directly toward their personal needs and budget. Instead of trying to guess exactly what a customer is looking for, behavioral analytic software allows a sales representative to present a completely bespoke pitch.
The Internet has often been presented as a disruption and even a threat to traditional business models, and car dealerships are no different. But for dealerships that want to stay on top of the market, the Internet also offers an unprecedented ability to reach new markets and generate new leads.
