Ready to embrace interactive for more powerful customer communications? KainAutomotive.com's president has some services that should be high on your consideration list.

Even if you and your dealership stood by and watched as the first few years of automotive's internet business developed, you can catch up quickly with today's advances in technology. New developments seem to emerge each week, and each new trend and technology has its own merits, but they all share the ability to boost your internet sales and profits. To be a leading dealer, you know you need to aggressively seek methods to stay ahead of the pack, and the internet is becoming more and more key to those efforts. So let's explore some of the technologies that are starting to be embraced by front-running dealers in their quest to generate high quality leads and improve the bottom line. 

Let's review some services you may want to consider:

Outsourced online chat for dealer websites
It was exciting when the first "chat' icon appeared on a dealership website because it represented a clear departure from the static experience offered by most dealerships. Online shoppers seemed ready to enjoy the immediate ability to ask a question without having to visit a dealership or submit a request. Unfortunately, when prospects would click the chat button, they routinely received a popup message that said, representatives were, "not available at the present time. Please complete the form, and one of our representatives will contact you shortly." To my surprise, many dealers report that customers still completed the form and provided a lead for the dealership to follow up. However, the net effect for online shoppers was not good, and several indicated that it made their website visit unpleasant because the dealer did not staff the chat sessions appropriately. 

Chat blossomed in many retail environments, and with that success, several call centers with chat specialists were spawned. These specialists earned their stripes -- and their company's increased revenue -- by converting casual website visitors into actual merchandise orders. Because of this success, it was only natural that chat centers would make their way into the automotive channel and offer their services to dealers who desired a chat function on their site but did not want to hire and maintain the staffing. This specialty service fills a unique marketing niche, and provides dealers with another stream of qualified website leads. 

Here's how it works:

• A website visitor initiates a chat session by clicking the omnipresent chat button.
• A window opens up next to the dealership website allowing a full view of the site.
• Acknowledgement is made that the chat session has been accepted, followed by an auto response (which appears to be live) that states something like, "Thank you for visiting our website. I am Jennifer, a live person here answer your questions about. How may I help you?"
• Then the visitor types in their request and waits for a response.
• The chat specialists provides the information and "pushes" relevant information to the customer on the dealership site in the window next to the chat session.
• The chat specialist asks pertinent questions, provides data and then asks for the visitor's name and email address, along with other relevant data, and lets them know that a dealership internet manager will be contacting them.
• The customer that provides the data receives follow information from the internet team.

Any session can be successful, even if more data is not gathered, because of the goodwill that is generated. And with the customer's informational needs fulfilled, they are likely to return more often and eventually submit their data, call or simply come in and buy.

I recommend outsourcing for dealerships who want to test the waters before building their own chat processes; you'll find it requires a total focus to be successful, and dealers may not have the ability to hire, train and supervise a staff to get the kind of results that makes chat work.

Video chat for dealer websites
Video chat is a unique technology that allows the chat specialist to appear "live" through a video feed that opens in a screen within your website. This is a great way to introduce a representative to the customer, who can ask the rep their questions; at the same time, the rep builds credibility and can start to aggregate services that the customer's needs.

This is perhaps the most powerful tool coming down the pipeline, and can lead to obtaining customer agreements in an online environment. Some dealerships staff this service with their floor sales team, and it works similarly to paging a salesperson for a sales call. The receptionist answers the inbound chat request and pages a qualified salesperson to take over the chat.

This new environment may be the first step toward full-fledged involvement of the showroom salesperson in the internet sales process. With several PC and Mac computers being produced with built in web cams it, will be no time before these conversations and product presentations are standard practice among online auto shoppers. 

"Opened" email reporting in CRM tools
A common frustration for internet salespeople is the fact that so few prospects respond to their email communications. I use a CRM tool that allows me to determine if a client has opened emails I have sent in an html format, and it is time for dealership CRM providers to create the same benefit for their email tools. Imagine the benefit of knowing which subject lines work the best and get opened most often versus the blind nature of the task today. When a dealership creates an email marketing campaign they could actually measure the open rate and know when they are generating some buzz. Internet sales teams could use the lift and would become more excited about maintaining long-term ties with their customers.   

These are just a few of the service and technology advances headed your way. Give them a try and you'll be pleased with the results.