One of the most important factors for turning visitors into leads is a fast follow up: The sooner you’re able to respond to your mobile customers, the more likely they are to stick around and potentially make a purchase. This saves them the 3+ hours it takes to go through a purchase in-store and allows them to do it on their own time. Luckily, messaging can help to streamline these processes with the following features:

Meet your customers where they are with the multichannel chat widget

Rather than having live chat on your website, you can implement a multichannel chat widget. This allows your team to respond to messages from your unified inbox while your customer can choose their preferred messaging channel, be it WhatsApp or Apple messaging. You no longer have to have live agents and buyers in the same session at the same time. The multichannel chat widget allows you to implement asynchronous communication which means that the conversation doesn’t have to start and end in the same session.

Asynchronous communication allows for the buyer and agent(s) to slip in and out of a conversation when it’s convenient for them, be it immediately or after a few hours. Essentially, asynchronous communication is great for driving information requests because a chatbot can start the conversation and a live agent can take it over when the buyer is looking for more complex or detailed information. And the buyer can come back to the same conversation at any time to ask more questions or move forward with the purchase.

Handover qualified leads from marketing to sales with Click-to-Chat

Click-to-Chat uses pre-determined texts that provide a smooth handover from marketing to sales representatives. Your marketing department is in charge of how information is shared on your website and how to pull buyers in. Click-to-Chat buttons use the pre-determined texts to provide clear information and route the message to your sales representatives to turn qualified leads into paying customers.

Setting up your website with Click-to-Chat is an easy way to trigger a WhatsApp conversation with a potential buyer. Click-to-Chat can be easily implemented onto a vehicle detail page, for example, to trigger buyers to take the next step in their buying journey. You can use Click-to-Chat for:

• Price indication requests for a specific make or model
• Planning test drive appointments
• Trade-in proposal requests
• Planning showroom visits

Turn happy customers into returning customers with broadcast messages

You can use broadcast messages to alert all your existing customers of a new car model, for instance. Using this method, you are priming your customers to start thinking about buying a new car. Immediately, you can gauge which customers might be interested in upgrading or trading in their current car and use this as a starting point to prompt them to request trade-in proposals and book test drive appointments.

Broadcast messaging can also be used for seasonal deals like a discount for your customer base’s annual seasonal tire changes. You may find that some customers who never thought about changing their tires with the season will start contacting you for more information about tires, the seasonal changing process, and storage.

Messaging allows you to leverage your knowledge about your potential customers and invite them to become more serious about their car purchases. Once your potential customers have taken the next step and become qualified leads, it’s up to your sales department to drive sales. Want to learn more about how messaging can help drive sales? Download our Automotive Ebook to learn all the possibilities that messaging can offer you.