I visited a landing page that had a link to “Buy this domain name at Aftermarket.com,” which I clicked to find out more about the domain name and purchase price. The landing page looks pretty clean and it has attributes that are similar in scope to my ideal passive “domain sales platform.”
I had to walk away from my computer for a few moments, and shortly after leaving, I heard what sounded like a doorbell on my computer. when I returned to my computer, I saw a dialogue window had opened, and I was asked if I needed any help with respect to the sale listing.
I’m not sure how long the window was open before the chat screen popped up, but I think that is pretty neat. I don’t know if other companies have implemented something like this either, but I would assume this at least helps qualify buyers. For instance, if a buyer wasn’t too sure about domain name values, they could be offered information in the chat window.
This is a great offering from Aftermarket.com, and I would be interested in knowing how this increases response rate. Other companies provide phone numbers to call with questions, but having a chat window pop open is a great option, especially when there are account representatives available to discuss the domain name in question.
Update
As someone pointed out in the comment section, I wrote about BuyDomains offering a live chat in 2007. The button to chat is in the top corner of the site. I am not sure if there is a popup window that makes a noise or encourages a chat when someone lands on a inquiry page.
We implemented live chat on MediaOptions.com 9 months ago! I believe we were the first in fact in the industry to do so.
It’s been very effective for us but also very time consuming.
If it makes a sale then I say its a decent addon.
That is a cool feature Elliot, I would imagine as Andrew wrote above it is time consuming but if its effective its worth it. Actually Media Options was the only place I had seen this.
Wonder if anyone elese will roll this out ?
It’s funny, the first “article of interest” below this thread “discovering” live chat is how your blog covered the fact that BuyDomains introduced this feature in 2007….
It doesn’t look like BuyDomains is offering the live chat functionality any longer. Any idea about why – or if it’s just not enabled over the weekend?
One major difference between Aftermarket.com and BuyDomains is that Aftermarket is doing it to sell their clients’ inventory, whereas BuyDomains has a huge portfolio of its own domain names.
As Elliot mentions, BuyDomains has been innovating with chat since 2007. It’s available on BuyDomains.com during business hours of Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST. It is available for all domains sold through the BuyDomains platform, brokered names and our own portfolio. It’s a very effective sales channel for us, and it’s good to see others using it as well.
BuyDomains/Afternic Customer Service
service@afternic.com
866-944-8600