The chat feature on most dealership websites, as it pertains to fixed ops, could use an overhaul.
Activating the chat system for a service or parts query is often a frustrating time suck. Instead of quickly delivering specific answers that allow me to schedule an appointment, it drives me away. Too many exchanges provide generic information I could have found out myself.
I recently tested the chat features of about a dozen dealerships. The conversation started: "I have one simple yes or no question: Is it possible to schedule an oil change on a Saturday?"
The typical reply demanded my full name and email address and the year, make and model of my car. The response seemed canned; I didn't know whether I was exchanging messages with a real person or a chatbot.
Many Americans are wary of giving out such personal data these days, but like me, they still want instant gratification. Call it the Amazon effect.
Yet chat features appeal to me. I work in an office with open cubicles. My voice carries, forcing my co-workers to hear my phone calls. I can often hear snippets of theirs.
It's not always possible to tune out office chatter, especially if someone has been the victim of poor service and is using lunch hour to phone the offender and straighten out a mess. (I say lunch hour because we'd never — nudge, nudge, wink, wink — make such calls on company time.)
Sales over service
In such conditions, an Internet chat can be a valuable communications tool. The problem is that dealership chat sessions aren't specifically geared to handling fixed ops inquiries from potential service customers.
Chat is mostly designed to generate leads that eventually translate into new- or used-vehicle sales. Noah Kaufman, a regional sales director at Florida-based Gubagoo, a chat company that works with more than 3,000 dealerships, estimates that 70 percent of chats are directed to the front end of the store.
"Dealerships have a lot on their plates," Kauffman says, "and they don't always give the right attention to the third-party products that are supporting their business. More can be done, but dealerships have so much going on, and it's our job to help them sell cars."
CarChat24, also based in Florida, provides live chat support service and software for dealerships. When I checked, there were 15 reviews by dealers on its corporate website.
Just one mentioned the use of chat to help a dealership improve its parts and service revenue. Yet we know that in a well-run dealership, fixed ops propel the profit engine.
Gubagoo counts Kia, Volkswagen and Land Rover among the vehicle brands it handles. CarChat24 serves thousands of dealerships all over the country from central locations.
Information, please
The chat professionals at such companies are expected to conduct many online conversations for different dealerships at the same time. That makes it challenging for them to get quick access to store-specific fixed ops information.
Andy Lapin, an assistant vice president for retail solutions architecture at Cox Automotive, says the chat function is an efficient way for a dealership to shift some of its workload from a call center. But he sees room for improvement in how chats can help fixed ops.
"How we are processing information on the back end maybe is just not quite where it needs to be to make these things useful from a consumer's standpoint," Lapin says.
Kauffman says the amount of fixed ops information that Gubagoo chat professionals can provide depends on what dealers tell the company about their stores. He agrees the process could be made better.
"I tell dealers how much information they can feed us so that we can help provide the best service for them," he says. "I tell them, 'You are outsourcing to us, but I want to be an extension of your dealership. I want to be able to communicate with your voice and match your goals.'
"We have space for them to guide us," Kauffman says. "As with anything else, more information is better."
Chat is another area in which dealership service departments are leaving money on the table. The first chat company to roll out a dealership-specific product that gives quick answers to detailed service and parts questions — without data mining — is going to be a big winner.