Live Chat Could Give Lenders a Competitive Advantage

For online shoppers, “live chat” functionality often clears confusion and helps get questions answered quickly. A recent survey of 1,100 dealers (download results here) reported that nine of every 10 respondents felt that live-chat capability gave them a competitive advantage. Dealers also found the feature a good way to break into the younger demographic, as those consumers prefer chatting and texting to phone calls and conventional emails.

A survey of the nation’s top 10 lenders, though, turned up only one ― Ally Financial ― with live-chat functionality. And even Ally uses the service for banking in general, not auto finance.

Should more lenders add this capability to their sites? Sure, auto finance is typically an indirect transaction. But if consumers arrive at their dealerships with strong preferences toward a specific lender as a result of a positive live-chat experience, wouldn’t that help build loan volume?

And what about a scenario where dealers refer consumers with financial questions directly to lenders in their network? “Shoppers who chat are often giving very strong intent-to-buy signals,” said Ed Parkinson, vice president of Contact At Once!, the company that conducted the dealer survey.