LIVE CHAT IS BECOMING MORE POPULAR IN CANADA, BUT WHAT’S THE BEST OPTION FOR YOUR DEALERSHIP?
As someone with deep knowledge in the digital lead business in both Canada and the U.S., I can tell you that live chat usage is on the rise and becoming widely adopted by dealers — albeit slower than our friends south of the border.
The key benefit of chat is it gives your customers the opportunity to engage in a conversation, build a relationship, and most importantly, get information real-time while in your virtual dealership.
And what we’re seeing is customers who engage with chat are more likely to be buyers. Chat leads that are a result of a quality chat session are some of the highest closing leads in the industry at 12-15 per cent.
A recent study by R.L. Polk showed that one of three consumers who had an online conversation with a dealer bought a vehicle. As with any new technology, there are some important factors to consider when determining what type of chat system and support to use.
My goal is to help cut through the clutter and provide you with some details to make an educated business decision about chat.
CHAT STRATEGIES
Today’s live chat has the power to improve the online customer experience. It also has the ability to alienate customers if not executed well. Let’s take a look at some of the popular choices to consider: fully-managed chat, shared-managed chat and self-managed chat.
FULLY-MANAGED CHAT
This is just as it sounds — the external chat provider offers a 24/7 outsourced solution. When a customer engages with a chat window, he or she is actually communicating with a professional outside of your dealership.
For this to work effectively, you need to find the right chat provider that employs well-trained individuals with the right skill set required to engage the automotive customer and provide an exceptional customer experience.
• Benefits: Fully-managed chats ensure quick response times and high availability rates. If you’re new to chat, you may want to consider this option. I know that dealers shy away from fully-managed chat based on cost — only to upgrade later when a self-managed solution doesn’t work.
Good, fully-managed chat companies will have knowledgeable and professional individuals working the keyboard. In some cases, chat providers offer details through screen sharing, as well as the ability to transfer the call to your dealership staff immediately or schedule appointments in your CRM tool. Leads sent via managed chat are typically quite robust, including the complete chat record and other important details.
Some fully managed-chat companies use a behavioural scoring system to prompt a chat window — meaning your chat window appears at the most opportune time when the customer is most likely to engage. The benefit of this practice is that an annoying pop-up window won’t follow the customer around. Instead, the window appears when their actions indicate they are ready for help, providing a much better customer experience.
The key benefit of chat is it gives your customers the opportunity to engage in a conversation, build a relationship, and most importantly, get information real-time while in your virtual dealership.
• Drawbacks: The main drawback for many dealers is the lack of control. This can result in a less personalized approach, especially if the consumer is looking for specific details like vehicle pricing. Most fully-managed chat engagements can be geared toward gathering information for follow up rather than providing important real-time details.
A chat lead is then sent into an LMS or CRM. You’ll need a solid process in place to respond quickly. Any chat companies utilizing scripts to only gather contact information typically don’t provide a quality engagement that results in a positive customer experience
• Recommendation: Fully-managed chat is the best way to go if it’s within your budget. But attempting to jump into live chat without a support layer can result in frustrated staff — and a discouraged customer.
Not all live chat providers are created equal. Find a company that specializes in dealership support and respects the needs of the modern automotive shopper.
Providers using scripts that focus solely on getting contact information are not ideal, and we don’t recommend them. It can make the conversation seem too disingenuous, and that could make for a bad customer experience.
If done properly, fully-managed chat will result in increased lead volume so make sure you have a proper lead handling process in place to maximize your ROI.
SELF-MANAGED CHAT
The other end of the spectrum is self-managed chat. With this solution, your team uses a software product to manage all chats in house.
• Benefits: The key benefit is control of the experience and the ability to provide a personalized, non-scripted response. If you have the structure in place like an established Business Development Centre (BDC) which can double as a call centre, then self-managed chat is a viable solution.
You can implement a balance between customer experience and lead generation to ensure you and your customer both get what you need and want.
• Drawbacks: Our experience with dealers “going it alone” is that they start out strong and fade quickly. Chat engagement in which chats are answered is a critical measurement, and should be above 95 per cent to be successful.
With a distributed sales team managing chats, this can be a challenge. Employee turnover also impacts how effective you can be. I have seen time and time again when sales reps jump quickly to the price discussion when in a virtual chat, instead of building a value proposition.
• Recommendation: If you’re experienced with chat and have the structure in place to provide an exceptional experience then self-managed chat may be a viable solution. If you’re new to chat, I recommend you start with managed chat and move to shared chat before jumping into self-managed chat.
SHARED CHAT MANAGEMENT
This is a collaborative partnership where your staff manages chat during business hours while the chat provider covers the hours outside this range. In addition, some chat providers will jump in if chat requests are not responded to within a predetermined timeframe.
• Benefits: If the structure of your dealership is set up properly, the hybrid model works — and is less expensive. You can provide accurate information when you’re open for business but rely on backup after hours.
• Drawbacks: Similar to those for self-managed chat, response times and availability could be impacted if the structure is not in place and the process is not managed correctly. Also, your team needs to have the skill set to engage with your customers online.
It’s a unique skill set that is learned over time. Go at it too quickly, and the results could be detrimental to your business and your goal for improved customer experience
• Recommendation: We haven’t seen as much success with self-managed chat. One possibility is to start with fully-managed chat to set the benchmark. Once you’ve optimized that process and trained your staff well, move to a hybrid model.
BENCHMARKS TO WATCH
Once you’ve decided on the model to use, you’ll also need to determine how the chat function will work on your website.
• Passive chat is less intrusive and is only displayed when clicked but does not convert as well — expect less than one to one per cent.
• Proactive chat will pop up over the viewing screen and can be somewhat intrusive, but will convert one to two per cent.
• Behavioural chat is a chat window that appears after the consumer has taken certain actions on the website, like viewing a VDP. These types of chat functions see engagements as high as three per cent.
In the age of digital technology, the savvy customer is expecting engagement at all levels, including chat discussions with a virtual person. Providing a better customer experience is always the ultimate goal and though you might be new to this, it certainly is a means to an end.
