The past decade has proven to be a turbulent one for car dealerships — and the automotive sales industry in general. Faced with unprecedented changes to the infrastructure of car marketing and sales, caused in large part by the Internet and the sweeping changes it has wrought on the retail landscape, many dealership owners are looking for new ways to reach out to customers and communicate the value of their product. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many are turning to tools designed specifically to meet the needs of dealerships that want to leverage their online presence to increase sales.
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One of the most common of these — car dealer chat software — helps dealerships generate leads and build a more digital-friendly marketing strategy by using third-party chat providers to engage web visitors. Chat software provides dealerships with a remote, auxiliary sales team who can field queries from interested shoppers and provide information about inventory and deals. But while this software obviously provides an important point of contact for dealerships that want to find new ways of reaching customers, does it actually translate into sales? Perhaps more importantly, does it offer a significant enough return on investment to be worth the trouble? According to two recent case studies, the answer to both questions is a resounding “yes.”
Data recently became available from case studies carried out with the Checkered Flag Group in Virginia Beach, VA, and Mississauga Toyota in Mississauga, Ont., suggests that with the right dealership chat software, dealerships can not only increase their sales significantly, but can also make a stunning return on investment. The Checkered Flag Group and Mississauga Toyota both used Gubagoo, a Florida-based chat software provider that has emerged in recent years as one of the most innovative dealership chat options in North America,and since adopting Gubagoo, Checkered Flag Group was able to quadruple its car sales. Over the course of its first year with Gubagoo, Mississauga Toyota sold 106 vehicles — an increased lead conversion rate of 23%, representing a 2570% ROI.
In both cases, this remarkable increase was due to the fact that the software was able to augment the efforts of the dealerships sales team, allowing experienced dealership salespeople to spend more of their time bringing high quality leads to close rather than working to generate leads from nothing. Because live chat software personnel were able to filter out low importance and frivolous requests, dealership staff were able to focus on what they do best: selling cars to potential interested customers.
While experts are conflicted about the future of auto sales, it is clear that increasing customer engagement through online tools like dealership chat software really works. And for dealerships that feel besieged by the competition and struggle to make an impression on customers, live chat is one of the most effective ways of strengthening their brand and reaching out to potential buyers. If you are looking for innovative marketing solutions for your dealership that are proven to work, get in touch with a live chat provider today.