Dealer Now Vauxhall has signed a deal to incorporate Vee24’s live video chat technology into its online customer handling processes.

The ‘Now Chat’ service allows customers to make sales and after sales enquiries direct from the Now Vauxhall website using text chat and video chat technology. Now Chat is available seven days a week from 8am to 10pm.

Craig Williamson, of Now Vauxhall, said the business was aware that customers were starting to use the internet more regularly to research new and used cars and to investigate service options.

“This was backed up by website analytics which showed that customers were browsing, but not necessarily progressing to book test drives or book service products.

“Live Chat allows us to be there on the website to meet those customers who were looking for sales or service support, but perhaps not quite ready to make the initial enquiry and we’re seeing an increasing number of sales enquiries coming directly from our Now Chat service”.

The Now Chat service is currently managed during office hours by the Now Vauxhall customer service team and during the evenings the service is managed by a team at Vee24, able to engage with customers using live video chat.

“It has a real wow factor for customers who are amazed by the live video chat service, where they are able to see the agent on the screen, talk through their requirements, browse the website alongside the agent and book a call back for a test drive or service booking.

“It’s a fantastic way to interact with customers in the evening and from the comfort of their own homes, at a time when a dealership is typically closed”, said Williamson.

Benefits since adding the Now Chat service to the website, include increased sales and service enquiries, out of hours support for customers who are browsing the website during the evening, and a talking point for customers who continue to be impressed by the ability to see and speak to a real person via video.

“Live chat from a website means that you’re never more than a few seconds away from helping your customers, and live video chat takes your customer service to another level, offering one-to-one conversations, a very personal interaction with the customer and helping build a rapport with the customer while they are actively searching your website.

“In much the same way that you’d never leave your dealership unattended, dealers are now seeing the benefits of ‘staffing’ their websites,” said Nigel Thomas, director, Vee24.