Contact At Once! and Cobalt Partner to Extend Cobalt’s Digital Marketing Platform with Dealer Chat
Atlanta, GA and Seattle, WA – April 27, 2010 – Contact At Once!, LLC, the leading provider of dealer chat software that moves online lookers into live conversations with car dealerships, announced today a partnership with Cobalt, the leading provider of digital marketing solutions to the retail automotive industry, to offer an integrated version of ContactAtOnce! dealer chat software with Cobalt’s dealer website solutions. Dealers adding ContactAtOnce! to their Cobalt digital marketing platform will be able to support more shoppers natural communications preferences, increasing total sales opportunities generated by their advertising investments. With this partnership Cobalt results reporting will now include chat-based opportunities as it does email leads, phone leads and walk-in intent.
More than three quarters of all shoppers use the Internet before visiting a dealer, leveraging a rapidly expanding portfolio of communications methods and devices. Research confirms that shoppers will engage more with dealers that support the type of communications methods they prefer, increasing total sales opportunities. This solution takes dealer chat technology to a new level by making it easy for dealer sales personnel to use, personalizing it for consumers with real images of dealership staff, and eliminating the need for expensive, less effective external call centers through “presence aware” smart technology that knows when dealership personnel are ready and able to chat.
Dealers have the expectation that their partners should report on the business return from the dealer’s investments in that partner. Unlike the superficial integration that typically exists when chat software is added to dealer websites, ContactAtOnce! is integrated into Cobalt’s digital marketing platform to optimize the conversion of online car shoppers into leads and to consolidate lead measurement and reporting. This allows Cobalt to discuss the total performance of a dealer’s digital marketing effort regardless of consumer contact method.
“ContactAtOnce! chat encourages online shoppers to connect and converse with our dealerships,” said Wayne Ussery, Director of Internet Marketing for the Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships that include Chevrolet, Buick-GMC, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Saab, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Audi and Porsche franchises. “Many of our stores receive 50 or more chat requests each month.” The Jim Ellis Automotive Group ranked #8 in the most recent “Ward’s e-Dealer 100” list of the top performing dealerships as measured by Internet sales.
“We’re thrilled that an industry leader like Cobalt recognized the advanced capabilities of Contact At Once! and chose us as a partner,” said John Hanger, President and CEO. “This is the first partnership of its kind for Cobalt,” said Chris Reed, Cobalt’s Chief Marketing Officer. “This type of partnership provides our customers with the flexibility and choice they desire to optimize the performance of their digital marketing without sacrificing the integrated performance reporting and service delivery they value from Cobalt.”
The integrated ContactatOnce! solution is available immediately. Cobalt customers should contact their Cobalt Sales representative or Contact At Once! to request a presentation. Information on the solution can be found at www.cobalt.com/marketplace.
About Contact At Once!, LLC:
Contact At Once!, LLC is the leading provider of dealer chat software and internet marketing tools for automotive sales, apartment leasing, and other industries where consumers conduct research online before visiting a dealership or office. The ContactAtOnce! service increases the conversion of website visitors into live conversations with sales people by utilizing a suite of technologies such as presence, IM/chat, VoIP telephony, video chat and text messaging, resulting in increased revenue and a better return on marketing expenditures. ContactAtOnce! is the only solution with features specifically for vertical search websites and over 40 such sites, along with thousands of merchant businesses, are using it today. Find out more at www.contactatonce.com.
About Cobalt
Cobalt is North America’s leading provider of digital marketing solutions to the automotive industry. For more than fifteen years, Cobalt’s mission has been to help automobile dealers and manufacturers increase their retailing effectiveness and profitability through cutting-edge digital marketing platforms, solutions and advertising. Cobalt currently provides marketing services to nearly half of the automotive dealerships in the United States as well as automotive dealers in Canada and Mexico. Cobalt’s digital marketing services are endorsed by two-thirds of the world’s major automotive manufacturers.
