IRVINE, Calif. — Autobytel Inc., a provider of consumer purchase requests and marketing resources, has launched a new service for dealers and manufacturers: Live Chat by ActivEngage.

Continuing to solidify Autobytel’s commitment to its dealer members by offering useful products and tools, live chat will allow car dealers and manufacturers the option to add this powerful tool to their Websites.

According to Jeffrey H. Coats, Autobytel President and CEO, “We want to do everything we can to help our member dealers and manufacturing partners succeed. By offering them easy-to-use products and services that can increase their close ratio, we believe we can do just that. Now, in addition to our WebLeads+ product, we can offer our member dealers and OEM partners another powerful software tool to maximize the performance of their own Websites – all designed to help them sell more cars.”

ActivEngage is the automotive industry's premium live chat with business intelligence for dealer Websites. ActivConcierge, ActivEngage's full-service offering, engages Website visitors with a virtual “meet and greet”and acts as an online sales force, increasing purchase request generation by assisting and qualifying shoppers. This creates a Website shopping experience that is similar to the showroom experience, crucial because an average of over 98 percent of shoppers currently take no action during visits to auto dealer Websites.

“While live chat is a useful and coveted tool, the logistics and programming are often daunting and overwhelming – especially for a small business like a dealership,” Coats continued. “By aggregating our resources and partnering with ActivEngage, we can provide a simple, easy and cost-effective solution for dealerships and OEMs to add live chat to any Website. This feature helps our member dealers and OEM partners increase their close ratio by connecting immediately with potential customers.”

“Autobytel is a true partner to us – in addition to providing us quality purchase requests, the company also offers tools for our own Websites to help increase our chance of making a sale,” said Bruce Hartz from Bob Bell Ford Hyundai Kia dealership. “We always wanted to add real-time chat to our Website, but didn’t have the capabilities or resources. Autobytel is offering us another simple solution and we are looking forward to implementing the new chat feature to our Website.”

ActivConcierge impacts dealerships immediately by turning informational Websites into conversational Websites, thereby multiplying the number of qualified purchase requests generated. Dealerships using ActivEngage have indicated that they experienced increases in the amount of purchase requests they receive from their own Websites.

“We are excited to offer our ActivConcierge service to Autobytel's dealerships and manufacturers around the nation,” commented Todd Smith, ActivEngage co-founder and president. "With this new service offering, Autobytel is taking another proactive step to ensure that their dealers generate the most purchase requests possible. Dealerships have indicated that purchase request generation from the dealer's own Website has increased on the first day of using our live chat. Autobytel is a clear leader in automotive retail; we look forward to our partnership and serving their dealer and manufacturer body.”

Chat representatives continually train on product knowledge and individual store promotions and specials to ensure seamless chat experiences for Website shoppers. Further, ActivEngage provides dealers real time user statistics, keyword analysis, powerful reporting and insight to help make their Websites more efficient and produce more sales.