Communicating with your customers is one of the most important things you do in your dealership. Communicating well with your customers is something that every sales representative knows how to do, but there’s some areas that you can always fine tune.

When it comes to communication, there are three places to look at: chat, video, and text.

Chat
When it comes to chat, it’s extremely important that you’re answering people quickly. Customers are on your website looking for information, and they won’t stay if you’re not answering back immediately. Make sure that you’re providing them with the information that they need as well. They’re not asking to be sold to, they just want product knowledge.

You can use chat to establish a relationship with your customers through casual conversation. It’s also a great way to gather information, such as email and phone number, for further communications.

You can always use links to your website in your chat messages too, which can show your customers the helpful content you have. That kills two birds with one stone; people are coming to your website and you’re establishing trust with them!

Video

Videos are becoming more important than ever, and they’re going to become even more important as buyers change. Now, 60% of customers would prefer to watch a video than read anything online. Make sure you’re creating videos, and make sure that you’re also making videos that are different (and better) than your competitors.

Walk-around videos are perfect ways to utilize the power of videos on a daily basis. When people inquire about a car, send them a personalized video of the car from your own phone! Cars aren’t exactly the coolest thing when you see brand new ones everyday, but your customer will be excited to see the vehicle they’re interested in up close.

These videos should be around 60 seconds long, and you can make templates to follow for every video, cutting down the filming time for them. You should also host your videos on YouTube to boost your SEO!

Text

The main thing with texting is to make sure that you have permission to text your customer before texting them. There’s a lot of laws that you can break if you’re not careful, so make sure that you’re paying attention when you send texts.

Your texts shouldn’t be too long, so make sure that you’re not sending too much information. If you find yourself needing to send more information, then link back to your listing somehow. This is a great way to direct people to your website as well!

All of your texts should contain value, too. Make sure you’re not being too conversational, and always respect when people ask you to stop texting them. Remember, your customers are coming to you for answers that they can’t find online, so make sure that you’re providing the value and answers that they need.