This page is an archive of previously-published content. The information was accurate at the time it was published; however, the information may no longer be accurate or complete. If you have any questions about current Car-Part products, please contact your sales or support rep.

Upgrades to Live Chat and
Car-Part Messaging

Our Live Chat feature allows your customers to contact you right from their search results, and have an instant messaging conversation with you. On Car-Part.com, the Live Chat works for your customer in their browser. On your side, you get these messages in your Car-Part Messaging. This convenient feature allows your customers to contact you and ask simple questions without calling. In fact, 53% of customers would prefer to use online chat before calling a company for support. (Source: Harris Research)

While this feature has been available in Car-Part.com search results for years, we recently made some major upgrades that make it easier for your customers to contact you, and easier for you to serve them. To help you understand the changes in iCPM, first let's review the changes to your customer's experience.

What does my customer see?

To provide some context, first we'll review your customer's experience. In their search results, customers can click Live Chat on a part to begin a chat with the seller. They'll be prompted to provide their contact information and specify their user type (Consumer, Shop, or Insurance).

The customer can select a specific representative at your business, or they can opt to Chat Live with First Available Representative.

The Live Chat window opens, and the customer can begin chatting with you.

What do I see?

When a customer begins a Live Chat conversation with you, a chat tab will open in your Car-Part Messaging (iCPM). The label on the chat tab will begin with your Car-Part account number. Information about the customer (including their search details and contact information), details about the part they are interested in, plus their actual name and contact information, will be automatically sent when a chat begins. You can now begin instant messaging with this customer to answer any questions or arrange a sale!

If you have multiple Live Chat conversations being held simultaneously with multiple customers, they appear as separate tabs in your iCPM, each ending with a different number (e.g., 1001web001, 1001web002, 1002web003).

How does "First Available" work?

When a customer selects Chat Live with First Available Representative, things look slightly different in iCPM. A message is sent to all iCPM users at your business who are available at that time and who are configured to receive messages from that user type (Consumer, Shop, Insurance).

Whoever at your business responds to the customer first "claims" this chat. All other users will be sent a message that someone else has answered first. After someone else answers, you can no longer send messages to this customer.

What else do I need to know?

The Live Chat now stays open as long as you are actively chatting with the customer. If you and the customer both stop chatting, the conversation will be ended after a period of inactivity. (Don't worry - you'll be warned several minutes before this happens. If you're not ready for the chat to end, just send another message.)

Also, when you're done chatting with a customer, we advise you to close that chat tab. Here's why: you can think of each Live Chat tab as a phone line. When the customer leaves the conversation, it's like they're "hanging up the phone," and that "line" is now open for another conversation with someone else. If you have an old conversation open in a tab and a new customer begins a Live Chat, those messages will appear in that same tab, below the chat with the previous customer. To prevent confusion, we recommend that you close each Live Chat conversation when it's over (with the "X" button in the top right of the conversation tab). Now, when a new customer begins a Live Chat, a fresh tab will open with only that customer's information.

How does this work with Car Part Pro?

Your professional customers on Car Part Pro can begin conversations with you from their search results, too! If they do not have Integrated Car Part Pro (iPro), your Live Chat conversations with those users will work just as described above.

For insurers and body shops who subscribe to our advanced iPro service, they have software similar to iCPM that allows them to chat with you like recyclers do. When an iPro user sends you a message, it will come through more like an iCPM private message/CP-RFQ with another iCPM user, but there will be information included about the user's search. (For more detail about the information that will be included, see this Car-Part Scoop from March.)

What do I do if I need some help?

If you don't have Live Chat yet but would like to learn more about how to add this feature to your part listings on Car-Part.com and Car Part Pro, click here to contact your sales rep.

If you already have the Live Chat service but would like to make some changes (like changing which users at your yard show as available representatives, or which customer type they receive messages from), or if you have more questions about how it works, contact your support rep directly or call our main line at 859-344-1925 and ask for "Car-Part Messaging Support."

Did you know?

Car-Part.com, Car Part Pro, and individual recycler websites are now using Car-Part Interchange version 84.1.

FREE Upcoming Webinars

Partmate: For Beginning Users - Tuesday, September 25, 11:30am Eastern

We have tons of information to share in this webinar so it will run about 2 hours. Topics include:

Inventorying parts on a vehicle and entering loose parts
Creating the AUT (and AUT vs VUC)
Adding Part and Vehicle Images (including downloading from IAA/Copart)
Overview of Options and Parts tabs
Inventorying, pricing, and grading parts
"Show Parts" mode
Exporting to Checkmate
Adding vehicles with a VIN less than 17 digits
Editing the Options tab

Partmate: For Intermediate Users - Thursday, September 27, 11:30am Eastern

We have tons of information to share in this webinar so it will run about 2 hours. Topics include:

Creating Parts Lists
Creating Dismantling Reports and Unresolved Inventory Reports
Partmate Settings (activating Fast Add, creating Price Book Multipliers, etc.)
Partmate Review (feature only available to Advanced Partmate users)
Pulling vehicles back in from Checkmate (Pull from CM)
Editing the AUT
New inventory statistics filters
Adding multiple quantity parts
Car-Part statistics and core pricing in Bidmate (feature only available to Advanced Bidmate users)

Brokering Training - Wedesnday, September 26, 11:30am Eastern

In this webinar, we will discuss Brokering parts on Car Part Pro. (This information is the key to more sales - 48% of parts added to estimates through Car Part Pro are brokered!)

You are welcome to attend whether or not you currently broker parts, but the content will be geared toward those who already have this service set up and would like to understand how to use it. We will cover:

How brokered parts appear on Car Part Pro
How to recognize a request for a brokered part
How to use your F-keys to locate brokered part information
How to understand the pricing structure (including markup)
and more!

Click here to register for a webinar

We'll Be At

Automotive Recyclers Association of New York (ARANY) - Rochester, NY
September 27-29, 2018
Booths #1 & 2

Car-Part World Tour Training in conjunction with Texas Automotive Recyclers Association (TARA) - San Marcos, TX
October 12-13, 2018
Booth

Auto & Truck Recyclers of Illinois (ATRI) Conference and Tradeshow in conjunction with Missouri Auto & Truck Recyclers Association (MATR) - Washington, IL
October 19-20, 2018
Booth

Theresa Colbert Speaking

Car-Part World Tour Training in conjunction with the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) - Lake Buena Vista, FL
October 30 - November 2, 2018
Booth #227

Car-Part Speakers: