Phone and email has traditionally been the go-to for customer interactions. It’s the way dealerships communicate with their customers and leads.
But times have changed.
Today’s consumers are now opting to communicate with businesses through the channels they’re most comfortable with. WhatsApp, Messenger and SMS. It’s a messaging revolution that’s seeing some dealerships thrive and others left behind in the rear view mirror.
What is conversational commerce?
In short: conversational commerce enables dealerships to converse with consumers on any device (on and off your website) through their channel of choice.
It’s a trend that’s seeing more dealerships interacting with car buyers through messaging and chat apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, and WeChat.
With conversational commerce, consumers can chat with sales and service reps, get vehicle repair updates, ask questions, get personalized recommendations, enquire about vehicles, and even pay invoices all from within messaging apps.
On the business side, it’s how dealerships are empowering car buyers to engage with their brand without consumers ever leaving the messaging app they are using. Dealerships can send booking confirmations as well as repair updates, special offers and even carry out virtual test drives. And with the power of chatbots, dealers can answer questions, engage leads and interact with buyers in real-time.
So why do you need conversational commerce?
7 out of 10 car buyers prefer speaking with dealers via messaging apps like WhatsApp than picking up the phone. That’s a hard and dangerous statistic to ignore! No car has ever been sold without having a conversation. Conversational commerce allows you to start the conversation earlier in the car buying processes and in some cases before the buyer has had a chance to shop around.
Webforms are a dying breed. And let’s be honest, we don’t really enjoy filling forms in ourselves so it’s no surprise that consumers are shunning them too. With conversations you can convert a greater number of consumers into sales opportunities and extract more context than you would via a traditional web form.
Managing a phone based operation requires a 1-to-1 call to agent ratio and with the average phone call lasting upwards of 5 minutes it’s easy to see that phone support isn’t the most scalable communication channel for dealerships.
With Conversational commerce and the combination of human and AI conversations you can engage more consumers than ever before without having to increase staff costs (unless you want to).
The difference conversational commerce can make to your dealership
The above all sounds great. But I know what you’re thinking: “What’s in it for me and what can I expect?”
And the answer is a lot. The results don’t just stop at your website… Introducing conversational commerce has generated the dealerships adopting it:
• Higher customer satisfaction
• Shortened sales cycles
• Increased brand loyalty
• Greater ROI from campaigns
Implement conversational commerce with an Automotive Messaging Specialist
As Europe’s leading messaging platform for the automotive industry (according to Inc 😉) we’ve helped the likes of SEAT, Jeep and Audi stay on the right side of the messaging revolution.
Curious to see how conversational commerce can be a game changer for your dealership?
Speak to a messaging expert today for a breakdown of how you can introduce messaging for your dealership.
