Corporations Subsidize Car Shopping!

Occasionally we examine industry trends that the aggregate data from our system reveals and I’d like the share a most interesting one.

The peak time for IM-based leads from auto classified websites is during business hours – specifically between 10am and 6pm on weekdays with the heaviest usage on Mondays and Tuesdays during those hours.

Why? Well, here’s my reasoning…

We know from published studies by JDPower & Associates that the average US car buyer spent nearly 5 hours researching online before making their purchase. We know from personal experience that using the desk phone at work to do personal stuff, like talking to a car dealership, is uncomfortable at best and enough to get people fired in some cases. We know workers from low-level clerks to high-flying execs have PC’s on their desks. We know IM is an interactive channel of communication, like a phone conversation, and therefore superior to non-interactive communication channels such as email and contact-us forms. We know IM can be discreetly used at work to accomplish personal stuff. We know browser-based IM clients, like that of ContactAtOnce!, pose no technical or security issues and are therefore readily usable from PC’s on a corporate network.

Sometimes empirical evidence reinforces pre-conceived thoughts (and sometimes not!) and this is one of those cases!