Today is a new day - a day of dealers focusing more on their own websites versus paying someone else to deliver internet leads to them.  So what does this mean for dealers?  The obvious thing is the need to get traffic to the dealership’s website and convert it into quality leads.  Automotive dealers are in a daze trying to figure out how to make their sites rank well in search engines.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is great for so many reasons but there are a million blogs on SEO so I am going to give you a different spin on optimization – optimizing site layout for conversion.   

• Site layout is important because site visitor tendencies will dominate specific pages or things of interest.  How you display those things can and will determine how successful you are.  Google has tools to help with this in the webmaster tools.  Change your site layout and move things around often to accomplish the most effective conversion.
• Remember “The Fold”.  The fold is an old newspaper term that has been adopted by the web design business.  If you can accomplish showing what’s important above the fold so people don’t have to scroll down you will have better success.  Some people will scroll down but some will not.
• Colors are important….remember “red” means stop, “green” means go, and “black” can mean cold.  Does stop mean stop hear or stay away?  Does green mean go here or keep going?
• Are you promoting too much on the home page?  Too much shows clutter and people need to know what’s important within 2 seconds.  A video will postpone that 2 seconds to 6 seconds so be careful with your use of video.
• Call to action….what in the world do you want them to do?  It has to be a common goal.  (Here is my plug…Chat is perfect because it allows the site visitor to ask their question and gives the dealer an opportunity to schedule an appointment or schedule a follow up action).

All of the above need to be considered when you are optimizing your site.  Conversion is extremely important.  Dealers want shoppers to land on their sites and buy a car.  The shopper has questions and wants to see it, smell it, touch it, drive it, show their friends, compare to others, and once they feel comfortable they buy.  You need a common ground.  Chat is just that. 

Which chat solution?  You need to take a few suggestions from the professionals.  Companies like Cars.com and Carsdirect.com have been researching the most effective chat solutions to convert site traffic to leads.  Take it from the big boys….after examining different chat companies they chose ContactAtOnce!  (I guess most reading this blog already figured that out!) 

And as with all things internet, you’ll need a way to track everything…..I suggest Google Analytics or Omniture.  The price is right for Google (free) but it will be more work and it is all about you and how well you keep up with it.  Omniture is your analytics assistant.  They will share with you information about your site that would take years to learn with Google Analytics.  They are not cheap but how important is your website to your business?  Invest wisely in your website and convert more website traffic into quality leads. 

I hope this helps someone.  Please feel free to ask questions in the comments and I will answer them.

Instant Messaging usage has best practice guidelines. The following tips can help you communicate more effectively, and by doing so, convert more potential clients into paying customers. 

Photo

First impressions count, so use a professional looking photo for your drop in.  This photo should be a headshot of you smiling and looking relaxed, and taken at your desk or in your work environment.  Adding a photo personalizes the live chat experience for the customer. 

Introduce yourself

Start out the live chat with, Hello, my name is ___.  How may I help you?  This will often times give the customer the clue to give you their name back and tell you what they are looking for. 

Messages should be short and to the point.

Keep messages simple, concise and give people time to respond.  “Machine gun” messaging is a really good way to get people to totally ignore you in future. Multiple questions sent to a recipient before they’ve had a chance to answer can seem more like an interrogation rather than a conversation. Pose a question, then give the other person the opportunity to respond - they may not be as fast a typist as you or may have been distracted. As a courtesy, you should also only ask a single question in each message and acknowledge the person’s answer when they do respond.

Don’t “SHOUT”

TYPING YOUR MESSAGES IN UPPERCASE is extremely rude - it’s considered shouting and very aggressive.

Remain polite and non-judgemental

While you may be comfortable on live chat, your customer may not be, or may not be a speedy typer.  Not only may these people be slow to respond, but their responses may seem too brief, curt or bordering on what appears to be illiteracy! Try not to judge the person based on your initial conversations. If a person seems to be abrupt, there’s no need to match the abruptness; remain professional but polite. Just because someone else may not use the terms “please” and “thank you”, it’s no reason for you not to.

Pay attention

If a person has taken the time to request a live chat with you; give them your attention. You know what it’s like at a store when the person is serving you and also speaking on the phone; it’s just plain rude. 

Wherever possible, give the person you are communicating with your undivided attention. It’s not just a sign of respect, but if you have multiple conversations happening or are allowing other issues to distract you, you may miss an important point in the other person’s messages or lose the gist of the conversation.

Jargon, slang and abbreviations

Jargon, abbreviations and slang used in live chat and instant messaging conversations can help reduce keystrokes, but may come across as being unprofessional to the person you are communicating with. Worse still, if the other person isn’t familiar with the lingo, it may totally confuse. Until you get to know the person better, or you see them using the same lingo, best to steer clear of it. 

Humor - be cautious

Just as with email communications, be very careful about the use of humor in live chat and instant messaging communications. In fact, in initial business conversations steer clear of jokes etc. unless the other party initiates them, and even then be careful as to how far you push it. There are all sorts of cultural and personal differences among the population, so what may seem funny to you may be considered weak or even offensive to others. 

Probing questions

Be cautious about asking too many probing questions right off the bat with a potential customer.  You may be comfortable talking about credit scores, down payments and monthly payments, but often times a customer is not.  Know your limits and have a plan in place to direct the customer to a secure credit application or discuss this when they come into the dealership for their appointment.   If you start digging too deep with a customer about their business or personal life and you may scare them off.

Using canned text

ContactAtOnce! offers shortcut buttons to use during the live chat.   These allow you to store texts that are used often; such as a response to a commonly asked question - this is called “canned” text. It is easy to set up and you can also modify the text before sending it to the customer. 

http://portal.contactatonce.com

Settings

My Account Settings

Agent Facing Settings

Give the shortcut button a label name and type in the desired text

Save

 

Think before hitting the enter key

I’ve been in a number of IM conversations where things become a little heated, but I always try to stop and think before hitting the enter key.

 Instant Messaging conversations lack the advantages of physical signals such as body language and vocal intonation. In situations where emotions are running high, one wrong word can turn a difficult situation into explosive.

Ending a conversation

It’s important to properly end an IM conversation - you may think the chat is over, but the other person may not. Your main goal is to set the appointment for the customer to come into the dealership.  At the end of the conversation, reaffirm the appointment date and time, ask the other person if they have any more questions and if not, thank them for their time.

Our friends over at the DealerRefresh blog launched a new forum site last week.  I would recommend it as a great source of information for any of our customers and readers across a wide range of topics, from CRM to 3rd party leads.  

One of the hottest topic threads so far is about live chat.  Check it out, and please join the conversation. 

http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/low-cost-live-chat-software-62.html.