SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -

The draw of live chatting services, like a 24/7 employee, is the idea that they can cater to your customers via your website when your business is not even open.

That idea was a reality covered when Potratz Partners Advertising hosted The Dealer Spotlight webinar last week with a special guest, Paul Ricci, from Kia of West Edmonton.

Ricci, the public relations manager at the dealership, outlined some of the benefits he has seen through working with live chat services on Kia of West Edmonton’s website during Potratz’ line of questioning for the webinar.

“We’re really pleased with it,” Ricci said. “The traffic that’s being directed to the website, the live chat is up there within ten or 15 seconds, and I would say probably close to 70 percent of the people that come to the website are utilizing the live chat, and I would say like 95 percent are happy with the live chat.”

One of the most enticing features, according to Ricci, is reaching out to late-night and early-morning customers that are browsing the Internet and end up on the company’s site.

“They’re on 24/7, so we get a lot of people that seem to come on in the mornings, and I’m sure a lot of other dealers have that,” Ricci said. “People visit websites one, two, three, four o’clock in the morning, and now we’ve got someone that can converse with them and that surprises them.”

The surprise to the customer, in Ricci's opinion, comes from the idea that there’s a breathing individual on the other end, instead of something like a bot with automated responses.

“When they say they’re a live person, the customer says, ‘oh, okay, that’s great,’ so they’re really happy with the fact they’re dealing with a live person and it surprises them that, after hours, that we’ve got people there to be able to talk with them and chat with them and try to assist them in whichever way we can.”

When asked by Paul Potratz, the webinar’s host, what Ricci thought of the many dealers he has spoken with who were not satisfied with various live chatting services, Ricci addressed the matter optimistically.

“You can’t satisfy everybody 100 percent of the time,” Ricci said. “And for the few people that have complained about the live chat – it far outweighs itself with the benefits it’s had utilizing the live chat service that we use.

“On odd times you occasionally get someone that’s upset because they can’t get the answer that they want right there and then, but I would say 95 percent of the time people that go through live chat are really happy and pleased with it. And, obviously, the quick response that we give with the leads that do come in through that.”