I have been hearing a lot of buzz around live chat for automotive websites since the Digital Dealer Conference in Orlando. What is the benefit behind having a chat service that is live on your website? Having a useful and functional chat service live on your website will allow you to convert a higher amount of your current dealership website visitors into leads. Some chat companies claim they can covert 60% of their sales chats into leads for your store and that you can close these leads up to three times higher than third party automotive leads (like Dealix). Fusion Zone Automotive claims that “most clients prefer live online help to telephone assistance. Online shoppers who use the “live chat” are more likely to make a purchase. Acceptance of live chat will grow to 87% of online buyers by 2012.”For most automotive websites, driving traffic to their site isn’t the problem. It is trying to convert those visitors into sales. Every year dealers spend millions of dollars driving traffic to their websites through pay-per-click advertising, behavioral targeting and advertising their unique URL in TV, radio and newspaper ads. Now dealers are beginning to realize that they need to focus on converting these visitors into leads and then into sales. What are dealers doing with the missed leads? One chat service, CarChat 24 claims that their “live chat solution can improve your current website traffic conversion rate by as much as 60%.” Dealers with unique visitors numbering into the tens of thousands each month could expect to see a huge increase in leads to the stores month in and month out with a live chat service with conversion rates like CarChat24 claims.By using a live chat service you can accomplish that level of instant customer support and care that can keep you light years ahead of competitors and increase your website sales.