TOPICS: Chatbot for Cars    Chatbot Optimization   

Car Dealership Chatbots – How Car Dealerships Can Drive Sales with a Chatbot

Quite a lot has changed in the way cars are sold today, and car dealerships have been quick to respond to these changes. One of the most prominent changes that we can see in the way car dealerships function today, is a growing preference for building chat bots for their websites. Car dealer bots have a lot to offer as virtual marketing, customer support, and sales staff. Today, we’ll look at their ability to drive sales for the car dealership that implements them.

Selling cars is not a desk job.

The average car sale goes through multiple steps before the buyer can drive home in their new car. And salespersons have a role to play in each of those steps. From talking to customers who visit the dealership, to showing them the cars they are interested in, to arranging for test drives and payment matters, the sales team at the average car dealership tends to be a busy lot. They definitely don’t have the bandwidth to attend to all the calls and emails the dealership receives thanks to its online presence. Luckily, car dealer chat bots do.

When car dealerships create a chatbot for their websites, they essentially add an ultra-efficient virtual salesperson to their team. Potential car buyers visiting the website can reach the online chatbot 24/7, and ask it a whole range of basic questions that can be answered via automated replies. Car dealership chatbot can keep generating leads in the process, collecting contact information from interested buyers and passing them on to the human sales staff. The whole process is totally unaffected by public holidays or weekends.

Car buyers don’t like waiting.

We’re a time-strapped bunch of people, and no matter what we’re buying online, we don’t like waiting in line. Car buyers are no exception. They want relevant information, right when they want it. Waiting for a call back or an email is a thing of the past now. By building chatbots for their websites, car dealerships can attune their online presence to the demands of their busy target audience.

Eric, a potential car buyer, wants answers to a whole bunch of unrelated questions. If he calls up the car dealership for these answers, he’ll have to listen to additional information and sales pitches that he doesn’t want at this point. But by building car dealership chatbot for its website, the car dealership allows Eric to get instant, to-the-point answers to all these queries at once:

"Do you sell [Auto Brand 1] cars?"

"Do you sell car care products for [Auto Brand 2] cars?"

"What financing options do I have if I buy from you?"

"Where are you located in [City 1]? How about [City 2]?"

"Do you buy back old cars?"

Similar principles apply to customer service interactions as well. Customers don’t like waiting for a follow-up call or email – they want to be attended to right away, or at least have access to the status of their issue. Car dealer chatbots can help with these requirements. The best chatbots for car dealerships are those that are programmed to respond to customer queries like:

"When can I expect to get a quote on [Car]?"

"Does [Car 1] have any additional safety provisions over [Car 2]?"

"When will my car be ready for pick-up?"

For complicated queries, customers can be put in touch with the dealership’s human support staff. The car dealership chatbot acts as an intermediary, taking the customer’s queries, passing them on to the support team, and giving the customer a ticket ID that they can use to check in on the query later.

Nothing beats expert advice.

Car dealerships aren’t just a hub for car sales. Car owners want to make sure they have the right information about car care, maintenance and repair. They tend to seek advice from professional sources – sources that include reputed car dealerships. Car dealership chatbot development should thus account for these additional requests from existing car owners. The best chatbots for car dealer websites are known to be able to provide car owners with informative answers to questions such as:

"What is the right treatment for my [Car]?"

"Should I take my 2-year-old [Car] to a local garage?"

"Where is the nearest service center for [Brand] cars?"

"How often should I go for an oil change?"

And so on.

Being able to offer professional advice to car owners helps bring more visibility and credibility to the car dealership as well, and increases its sales figures via referrals.

Our blog features regular posts on chatbot development and the impact of online chatbots on various industries. You can also contact us directly with specific questions about building chatbots for your own website.