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Winter weather is notoriously bad for car sales; short days, bad road and visibility conditions, and the salt and slush-stained cars you see driving around the city don’t exactly make people eager to test drive a brand new model. Just about every retail sector takes a hit after the holidays as credit card bills and cold weather encourage people to go into hibernation mode, but auto sales are hit particularly hard. There are also some pragmatic reasons for the winter slow season, too, as anyone who’s invested in winter tires isn’t likely to want to trade-in until the snow stops falling.

But as the weather gets warmer, the days get longer, and people start to smell “spring in the air,” car dealers get ready for one of their busiest seasons of the year. As higher demand takes some of the pressure off of salespeople to cut better dealers and owners to offer bigger discounts, Investopedia estimates that the average price of automobiles goes up 10 to 15 percent in the busy season. Spring is the season when dealers should be marketing heavily, generating new leads, and reconnecting with repeat customers.

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In order to get your dealership ready for the spring season, you should have in place a way to connect with your customers online, over the phone, and through SMS 24/7. That doesn’t mean keeping your doors open round-the-clock, it means investing in a car dealer chat that can give you 360 degree communications coverage. Before you go with any live chat solution, do your research, as service providers like Gubagoo are designed specifically for car dealers. They invest in well-trained staff at US-based call centers to provide live chat, 24/7 overflow call service, and chat through Facebook Messenger (which ties into Facebook ad campaigns).

Automobiles are a major household expense and live chat platforms designed for generic retail just aren’t optimized for generating and converting leads. That’s why the live chat platform from Gubagoo is designed with the auto industry in mind; the platform integrates your dealer’s inventory, whether you sell new or used, into its chat service. That means call center professionals can send prospects credit applications, videos of your product, and links and VDPs to your product pages. Online customers are considerably more likely to click on links when they’ve been converted to preview images, while the average click-through rate for video is highest among all forms of digital ads. Another feature of the Gubagoo live chat tailored to the auto industry is their RESQ app, designed to let your dealership’s salespeople monitor and jump into live conversations through their phones, as well as allowing dealership owners to analyze the chat’s overall performance.

In addition to the new buyers who start searching online during the spring, most dealers also experience a bump in customers looking for services. Whether it’s changing winter tires or repairing some of the wear and tear winter inevitably causes, a live chat platform can become your online booking tool for service requests. Never overlook the service side of your business, especially in spring, as it’s one of your most effective tools for maintaining relationships with customer in-between purchases. Let your customers know that you’re always there for them by opening up more channels of communication.

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