TAKE POLL How many offers to CHAT would frustrate YOU?

[Jeff Kershner]

@Joe Webb just posted a must read article over on the blog around ALL THOSE DAMN CHAT INVITES! You can read it here - http://www.dealerrefresh.com/too-many-dealer-chat-invites/

When was the last time you stepped through your own dealer website and at one point found yourself frustrated because every damn time you went to a new page, some Chat invite was sliding down the page, popping up in your face or worse yet - causing the page to load so slow it would have been quicker to walk outside and physically touch the vehicle!?

Wanna Chat? What about Now? Now? Now? How about Now?

Why are we doing this? What's the purpose of having 1, 2, 3, even 4 chat invites on one page? Take the poll up there! At what point did someone do a backasswards study proving that the more chat invites you throw up in front of the shopper, while ruining their experience or flow for information, ultimately leads to converting more shoppers into a high quality leads?

DO NOT take this the wrong way. I'm a HUGE advocate of online chat. A dealer website without chat, is like a Tinder date without a kiss goodnight OR a dirty martini without blue cheese stuffed olives. Either way, let's agree it needs to be implemented PROPERLY, with the customer experience being most important, not the quick lead conversion.

What's been your experience with chat invites? Like'm - Leav'm?

How many is too many? (take the poll up there at the top of the page and comment below)

 

[craigh]

The number for Craig is 1, but the number for customers may be different.

<offtopic>
What concerns me even more is all these responsive sites that don't hide their chat. 2 seconds into a mobile page I get a massive chat window that blocks everything and I can't move it. I've been auditing quite a few sites in the past month and this is far more common than I like.

We also just did extensive trials with a chat company and came away quite disappointed.
Had a good chat with Gubagoo and may have to give them a shot next (slick setup), but still not sold entirely on chat at all - reduced our phone calls by a huge amount and since it's not in-house chat the conversions and appointments took a hit.
</offtopic>

 

[Eric Miltsch]

Love this post Joe.

Someone thought it was a good idea to cram all these CTA's in every spot and forgot the core principals of their design school training. (I'm assuming they went to design school)

A simpler design approach and a basic understanding of shopper behavior would go a long way to improving the site experience and make the sites something pleasing to look at as well.

 

[Heather Gallay]

My main beef is the windows that either pop-up/drop-down and have to be clicked out of, and the ones that appear on every single page as you navigate through the site. Chat should be there as an option - it shouldn't be forced upon the customers. As the article stated, it's a huge turn off.

 

[Tallcool1]

I want the OPTION to chat, but I don't want it to pop up. A simple Chat Icon works for me.

 

[ed.brooks]

I won't hate you for one pop-up - ONE. I want every communication option available to me, on every page - so I can choose how I want to contact you. But it should be MY CHOICE.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I won't hate you for one pop-up - ONE. I want every communication option available to me, on every page - so I can choose how I want to contact you. But it should be MY CHOICE.

I've always believed, that for some reason we (automotive/dealers industry) get away with being a tad bit more intrusive online than other industries/retailers online.

What I mean by this is... consumers seem to be more accepting to the pop-ups and in-your-face conversion points found on a dealers website than when on a more general online retailers website like Amazon or Target.com.

We seem to get away with being a bit more intrusive. Why is this?

Maybe my perception is wrong, as I have NO data to back it up, other than years of watching "incentive based pop-ups" convert. Maybe it's due to the money savings offer that's usually tied to the intrusive message. Maybe it's the mindset the consumer is in when they're online shopping for a vehicle (people change when they're looking to purchase a vehicle).

Even if the vehicle shopping consumer is more accepting to intrusive messages, there's going to be a threshold. And let's face it, the chat box popping up on each and every page passes that threshold and could possibly ruin it for another point of conversion, leading to a pissed of consumer that leaves your website all-together.

 

[joe.pistell]

consumers seem to be more accepting to the pop-ups and in-your-face conversion points found on a dealers website than when on a more general online retailers website like Amazon or Target.com.

We seem to get away with being a bit more intrusive. Why is this?

Our shoppers are invisible. We can't hear them complain.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Our shoppers are invisible. We can't hear them complain.

I hear ya Joe, I do. And like I said, I have no documented data to prove it out. Just my years of working within the dealer/automotive online marketing arena. Again, there's still a threshold.

 

[ed.brooks]

I hear ya Joe, I do. And like I said, I have no documented data to prove it out. Just my years of working within the dealer/automotive online marketing arena. Again, there's still a threshold.

You want to find the threshold where you start selling fewer cars? Where they are so disgusted they wouldn't buy from you even if you offer the best deal in town?

Unfortunately, as @JoePistell has stated, you rarely hear from the shoppers you've angered. They almost never turn into buyers - at least not from your store.