Instant messaging and different chat platforms are becoming a more and more popular form of communication between dealer and customer, and in response to this surge in popularity, digital marketing company Outsell revealed this week improvements to its Live Chat Channel.

The channel is part of the company’s Digital Engagement Platform, and the enhancements demonstrate “efficiency gains, increase in capture rate and significant reduction in average speed of answer,” company officials noted.

Ben Herkenhoff, Outsell customer interaction center manager, told Auto Remarketing that during this round of enhancements, “the company has updated some of the processes and training to improve the speed of answer, trained agents and updated the response library (based on analysis of hundreds of chat interactions) to raise the 'capture rate' of consumer information and improve the consumer experience, and made additional tweaks to the proprietary OCCS (Outsell Customer Centered Sales System) process to improve the quality of leads we are sending to the dealership.”

Commenting on what the improvements have meant for his dealership, Todd Williams, eCommerce director, from Mike Castrucci Chevrolet chimed in, noting, “We’re very excited about the improvements Outsell has made to its Live Chat, and have already experienced fantastic results with Chat including 22 sales leads in November.”

And the company contends one of the most important aspects of the product is what it calls its “Outsell Customer Centered Sales System,” or OCCS.

This process is used by the company’s Live Chat agents and “helps them to guide a prospective customer down a path that maximizes sales outcomes,” according to the company.

This process is also technology enabled, which means the agent has access to a library of automotive data, suggested responses to questions and dealership information.

“We have found the Live Chat channel to be a secret weapon for our dealers,” said Mike Wethington, chief executive officer of Outsell. 

“It’s a very effective way for them to engage and interact with consumers and service them around the clock to improve customer satisfaction, customer retention and increase sales and service leads.  We’ve invested in improvements to this platform to help our automotive dealers, and are proud to see these concrete results in just the last two months,” he continued.

Furthermore, the company contends the 24/7 nature of the Live Chat feature allows dealers to engage with their customer base whenever they want — from home or from the office.

Herkenhoff contends that the chat feature helps dealers connect with customers that may not be able to visit the dealership during its hours of operations.

“If you look at when consumers are coming online to shop, it’s often in the late evening after work, right around the time the dealership is shutting down for the night. With a Live Chat service in place, the dealership is always open and ready for business,” Herkenhoff said.

“The Internet has fundamentally changed the face of retail. There is now a consumer expectation of being able to shop, ask questions and interact on their own terms at any given time of day or night. By giving a prospective customer the opportunity to interact with the dealership anytime, it improves the chances that they will set an appointment to come in and look at a vehicle, or set a service appointment,” he continued.

Leads and chat transcripts are also sent to dealers’ CRM systems and email, so both sales and service people have immediate visibility and context to leads, the company shared.

Commenting on how the system has worked for one Cincinatti dealership,  Laura Scott, the BDC manager at Mike Castrucci Chevrolet, said, “Live Chat is a major online channel for us in servicing and selling to our customers.

“Customers love the real-time aspect of interacting with us, and getting answers to their questions, and it provides a great platform for us both from a customer service and sales perspective,” she added.

The company even shared that the improvements to Live Chat has had a direct impact on its dealer clients’ performance, including :

—24-percent efficiency gain in average time chat, or duration of chat with customers
—13-percent increase in capture rate of agents gathering important customer contact information
—50-percent reduction in average speed of answer, cut from eight seconds to four

Herkenhoff also explained the company’s dealer clients also take advantage of the information provided in chat transcripts when looking for ways to close a deal. 

“The key thing dealers need to understand, is that the leads we send them from our Live Chat service typically tend to be 'hot leads.' The consumers contacting us via this service are usually close to making a purchase decision, and therefore should be contacted in a timely manner,” he said.

“Rather than just looking at the contact information, dealers should also read the chat transcript, as there is often a wealth of consumer information or specific buying triggers that they can find in there.  Rather than restarting the sales process on the phone, by picking up on where the chat left off, a dealer can create a more seamless sales process with the consumer,” Herkenhoff concluded.