Real-time Engagement Tools Drive Better Business Performance

By Author: Yuval Moed
Total Articles: 14
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The Auto Industry has been growing strength to strength in the last few years an encouraging sign for dealers. The US automotive industry had a record year in 2015, with sales reaching breaking previous levels and growing by around 6 percent over last year.

As the industry grows it has also been seeing dramatic shifts, with each year introducing new trends, highlighting the fast-changing customer needs and technological advancements. A few of primary shifts that have occurred in the recent past that have heavily impacted businesses are:

Prominent influence of online channels in buying process as customers today use online sources to gather required information on cars.
New customer expectations from dealers who are now seen experts stepping in at the last stage of the purchase rather than facilitators of the entire process.
Savvy informed customers who are well-educated about the ins-and-outs of the process thanks to multiple online sources.
Fading of traditional lead generating channels as websites gain prominence as the source for sales leads.
High level of competition and choice that ...
... benefits the customers but can also make the decision-making process more complex.
To succeed in the challenging business environment, dealers have to reorient in their attitudes and functioning. Auto dealerships must adopt processes and tools that make the car buying process simpler, faster and transparent. The dealers who put priority on building a strong customer connect can greatly ease the process, and benefit from increased customer trust and loyalty.

Real-time engagement tools can be a vital bridge to customers. With BDC automotive, dealers can empower their customer service representatives to build a strong rapport using tools like live chat, video chat, cobrowsing. These tools are easy-to-deploy and are cost-effective making the customer support function more powerful.

The following six methods capture how these tools can enhance business performance of an auto dealership
Do more Through Online Medium: Beyond just browsing, with virtual engagement platform, customers can achieve a lot more in their visits. Customer support representatives can provide personal guidance, one-on-one discussions and live assistance
Enhanced customer experience: The multi-faceted platform can provide an enriching experience for customers. Get personal tours with co-browser , transfer documents instantly, share screens or chat though video – the whole range of interactions is possible through these tools
Visual engagement with Customer: Online interactions are limiting in some ways as they don’t have the personal connect that comes with in-store interactions. Solve this with live video chats which allows visual engagement with face-to-face interactions enabling support staff to understand customer needs better and provide quick resolutions
Responsive Customer Support: The click-to-call feature provided by platform along with live chat plugin makes sure that customers don’t have to wait for responses. During their browsing session on the website itself, they can approach a live person on the dealers’ end for discussion or advice.
Augment customer interactions: The platform offers tools that enable customers to initial co-browsing or screen-sharing while on a phone call with support staff. This boosts the efficacy of the support session since the agent can quickly understand the customers issues or questions and provide solutions right away
Real-time engagement platform Can Impact Business Performance of Auto Dealerships
Faster sales cycle: Car purchase is a complicated process demanding many discussions. By having tools that enables faster and richer conversations between the company staff and customers, the dealership is likely to see faster closure of sales.
Improved customer trust: Many customers view the car buying process as a daunting prospect given its highly technical and complex nature. By communicating effectively with the customer and meeting their needs consistently, the dealership would be able to build a close rapport with the client that translates into deeper trust levels.
Higher sales conversion: As customer support staff leverage tools that help them do their jobs better, it results in happier customers and improved conversions as customers are likely to make decisions faster.
Build reputation for great customer service: By providing interactive and personalized customer support, dealerships can establish a strong reputation of offering high quality customer support. This will increase the word of mouth recommendations, bringing in further leads.