Contact At Once! chat solutions drive lead generation and shopper engagement on dealer websites

Transcription

1 Better Interactions, Better Results Contact At Once! chat solutions drive lead generation and shopper engagement on dealer websites An Independent Study by Dataium Commissioned by Contact At Once!

2 BETTER INTERACTIONS, BETTER RESULTS 2 Summary In a recent study of online automotive shopping behavior, dealership websites using Contact At Once! software, the leader in automotive online chat solutions, converted more visitors to leads, attracted more active shoppers, and displayed higher levels of overall visitor engagement than dealer sites without Contact At Once! Thanks to advanced behavioral analysis from Dataium, the industry s largest independent aggregator of online automotive shopping behavior, this white paper demonstrates the true value and positive impact Contact At Once! chat solutions can contribute to a dealership s bottom line. Case Study A dealer s website is more than a virtual showroom. It s a destination, with visitors funneled from a wide variety of advertising and online media. It has become a vital tool for establishing a brand and engaging shoppers, but in a world saturated with advertising messages, truly connecting with shoppers is difficult at best. On-site chat tools have emerged as a key component of shopper engagement because the more ways an online shopper can communicate with a dealer, the more likely that shopper will become a customer. Chat is unobtrusive and offers shoppers a convenient way to ask questions about inventory, store location and more. Unlike , online chat provides the personal experience of a call for those shoppers who want information immediately, but are reluctant to pick up the phone. Contact At Once! is an industry leader in online chat solutions for automotive websites. Their solutions connect auto dealers with active online shoppers by inviting prospects to immediately ask questions and personally communicate with dealership staff. It s the most widely deployed live chat service in the industry, used by major automotive portals, manufacturers and over 13,000 dealerships. Contact At Once! contacted Dataium to measure and independently verify the added value its online chat services provide dealers. Dataium aggregated and analyzed desktop and mobile automotive shopper behavioral data through the months of April and May 2013, comparing behaviors of shoppers who engaged Contact At Once! solutions against those who did not. This collaboration between Dataium and Contact At Once! revealed significant shopping behavior insights into the value Contact At Once! can add to a dealer s website. The study looked at three key areas to understand the impact of Contact At Once! chat solutions on shopper behavior: User Engagement, Website Metrics and a detailed Shopper Profile.

3 Influence of Contact At Once! on User Engagement Metrics BETTER INTERACTIONS, BETTER RESULTS 3 Looking at millions of shoppers across their network, Dataium found that as anonymous visitors move down the online path to purchasing a vehicle, they typically perform a set of measurable actions: they search for specific makes and models; they view multiple inventory units; and they view the maps, directions and hours webpage. Some or all of these actions will usually happen prior to a shopper contacting a dealer, and the metrics created by these actions provide a very good picture of how a dealer website is performing. Contact At Once! versus Control Comparison At User Level METRIC CONTACT AT ONCE! USERS CONTROL Lead to Visitor 12.6% 3.2% Clicked on Maps, Directions, Hours 4.0% 1.2% Vehicle Detail Views To Visitor Searches to Visitor Time to Lead Submission (hours) Repeat Visits Time On Site (minutes) Average Days in Market In Dataium s view, a key metric is the ratio of site visitors to lead submissions, the Lead to Visitor (LTV) ratio. A higher LTV ratio indicates that more visitors are submitting leads. Dataium uses the LTV ratio as a standard metric to benchmark performance of dealer websites. Using its proprietary data collection platform, Dataium observed the behavior of shoppers across its automotive network for two months. Website engagement metrics were calculated to measure the effects of Contact At Once! chat solutions on shopper behavior. A control set consisting of visitors to the same sites who did not engage with Contact At Once! was established for comparison. Dataium found Contact At Once! chat solutions to drive better user engagement across the board. Online shoppers are nearly four times more likely to submit a lead after using Contact At Once! chat than those not using Contact At Once! (12.6% vs. 3.2%). For shoppers who needed information regarding a dealer s location and store hours, Contact At Once! users were three times more likely to request this information. Contact At Once! users performed almost three times as many inventory searches as those who did not use Contact At Once! (13.8% vs. 5.1%). Contact At Once! users also viewed vehicle detail pages almost three times the rate of the control group (4.6% vs. 1.6%). Historically, the average LTV ratio across the Dataium network of dealer sites has been 1.5%. For the period from April to May, the national LTV ratio average for dealers in Dataium s network was 2.1% and 1.8%, respectively. Online shoppers are nearly 4 times more likely to submit a lead after using Contact At Once! chat solutions.

4 BETTER INTERACTIONS, BETTER RESULTS 4 Impact of Contact At Once! on Dealer Site Metrics Moving up a level from user metrics, Dataium also benchmarked the effect of Contact At Once! chat solutions on overall site performance by comparing dealer websites that used Contact At Once! to those that did not. Occasionally, there are concerns that shoppers may react negatively to a chat solution, or that deploying a chat tool on a dealer s website will adversely impact performance, such as cannibalizing traditional lead sources. Key performance indicators were used to compare websites that deploy Contact At Once! chat solutions against those that do not. To normalize these comparisons, the selected websites in both groups shared the same region, brand and website provider. This normalization process is important for eliminating variables like location and website design, and isolating the effect of chat engagement. Dataium measured the effect of Contact At Once! solutions on dealer site performance and found no negative impact on overall site metrics. Contact At Once! chat solutions do not negatively impact or take away from or cannibalize traditional lead sources. Contact At Once! versus Control Dealer Level Comparison METRIC DEALER SITES USING CONTACT AT ONCE! CONTROL Lead to Visitor 3.2% 2.8% Clicked on Maps, Directions, Hours 1.2% 0.8% Vehicle Detail Views To Visitor Searches to Visitor Time to Lead Submission (hours) Repeat Visits Time On Site (minutes) Dealer sites using Contact At Once! had slightly stronger lead conversion performance overall when compared to those sites not using Contact At Once! (3.2% vs. 2.8%). Comparison in other engagement metrics, such as directions and location views, inventory searches and vehicle detail views, showed negligible differences between the two site groups.

5 BETTER INTERACTIONS, BETTER RESULTS 5 Shopper Profile Analysis For a better understanding of the differences between shoppers who engage Contact At Once! chat solutions and those who do not, Dataium analyzed the types of sites visitors were referred from and the behaviors and actions they performed while on a dealer site. The shopper profile analysis revealed a number of key insights. First, over 70% of Contact At Once! users initiate a chat with dealer staff on the first visit, reinforcing the high user engagement metrics observed in the user impact study. Additionally, of all users who utilized the Contact At Once! tools, 7% of them submitted a lead before chatting. On average, visitors who use Contact At Once! chat solutions perform more than three times as many inventory searches as visitors who do not. Visitors who utilize chat solutions also view nearly three times more vehicle detail pages on average before using chat, compared to those who do not chat. Shopper Profile of Contact At Once! User VISITOR BEHAVIORS Percent of chat users who submit leads VISITOR BEHAVIORS RESULTS 12.5% RESULTS Chatted on first visit 71.6% Chatted on second visit 13.2% Chatted on third visit 5.2% Chatted on fourth visit 2.9% Chatted after fourth visit 7.1% The average percentage of chat leads to traditional form leads is also noteworthy. Contact At Once! chat solutions provide an additional method for visitors to contact dealers. It s an additional lead generation avenue for dealerships. The direct benefit of live chat on dealership websites can be measured by the number of additional chat leads (i.e., leads submitted through chat solutions that the dealer may not have received otherwise). Percentage of chat users who submit leads before chatting Average number of searches performed by a chat user before chatting Average number of vehicle detail pages viewed by a chat user before chatting 7.7% Dataium compared the average number of chat leads to the average number of traditional lead form submissions. Contact At Once! chat solutions generated 78.8% more lead submissions to dealers via chat, in addition to leads submitted via forms. This means that for every 10 form leads submitted to a dealer website, Contact At Once! chat solutions generated an additional seven leads. As shopper values and tendencies change, methods of communication should change as well. Contact At Once! opens a valuable automotive lead generation channel, capable of engaging users who might not otherwise submit a form lead or who might be reluctant to call. Contact At Once! solutions generated an additional 79% more leads for dealers.

6 BETTER INTERACTIONS, BETTER RESULTS 6 Shopper Profile Analysis (continued) The time between lead submission and chat initiation is also important. 52.8% of users that submit a lead and then chat, do so within 24 hours of their lead submission. For users who chat and then submit leads, 42.8% of users do so within 30 minutes, and 7% of users initiate chat within one minute after lead submission. Latency Between Chat and Lead Submissions TIME FRAME PERCENT OF USERS Within 1 Minute 7.0% Between 1 Minute and 30 Minutes 42.8% Shopper Profile for Lead Submitter VISITOR BEHAVIORS Average number of searches performed by a user RESULTS 2.3 Between 30 Minutes and 1 Hour 3.7% Between 1 Hour and 2 Hours 3.3% Between 2 Hours and 3 Hours 2.6% Between 3 Hours and 4 Hours 0.9% Average number of vehicle detail pages viewed by a user 0.8 Between 4 Hours and 5 Hours 0.2% Between 5 Hours and 1 Day 10.0% Between 1 Day and 2 Days 3.3% Average % of chat leads to organic leads: 78.8% Between 2 Days and 3 Days 1.9% Between 3 Days and 4 Days 2.6% Between 4 Days and 5 Days 2.1% Between 5 Days and 15 Days 9.8% Between 15 Days and 30 Days 9.5% More than 30 Days 0.5%

7 BETTER INTERACTIONS, BETTER RESULTS 7 Conclusion Overall, Dataium found an increase in website effectiveness and visitor engagement on dealer websites where Contact At Once! solutions were deployed. Sites with Contact At Once! chat solutions consistently showed that visitors were more likely to look at maps and directions, engage in inventory searches, view vehicle detail pages and, most importantly, convert to a lead. Having a chat solution available on-site also showed no significant negative impact on site performance. they communicate with dealers, and the more choices they have, the more likely they are to engage during the shopping process. Higher engagement results in more leads and ultimately more sales. The findings in this study clearly demonstrate the importance of having an online chat solution available at key points during the shopping cycle. At both the site and user levels, the data shows that deploying Contact At Once! on a dealership website has significant benefits, with no measurable downside. Today, consumers are demanding a shopping experience that is strictly on their terms. These shoppers want choices in how Dataium is the largest aggregator of online in-market automotive shopping activity. With its Cloud Intelligence platform, the company collects, analyzes, and indexes billions of online automotive shopping events from over 20 million active auto shoppers monthly. The company supports cutting-edge data collection, analysis, proprietary research and reporting technology. 616 Marriott Drive Suite 600 Nashville, TN DATA [3282] Dataium.com