Former AutoMart executive to join leading provider of live chat for car dealers, Contact At Once!
ATLANTA, GA – January 20, 2010 – Contact At Once!, LLC, the leading provider of live chat and other internet marketing tools that move online lookers into live conversations with car dealers, announced today the hiring of Skip Dowd as Vice President, Business Development. In this role, Dowd will be responsible for building and managing relationships with the company’s strategic partners.
Dowd began his career in 1991 as an advertising sales person with Trader Publishing, calling on auto dealers in Northeast Ohio. He rose to Vice President of Electronic Media, assembling and leading the team that launched AutoMart.com and AutoMercado.com. After AutoTrader.com, a division of Cox Enterprises, acquired AutoMart.com in October of 2006, Dowd managed the corporate transition before leaving to pursue independent consulting engagements within the automotive industry.
“Skip knows the automotive landscape extremely well including the many different types of websites and tools that help connect in-market car shoppers and car dealers,” said John Hanger, President and CEO. “We are excited to have him join our growing team. Skip is a smart business builder whose contributions will benefit our customers and partners.”
“The executive team’s integrity and the company culture always impressed me, so it is very exciting to now be a part of it,” Dowd said. “Contact At Once! was one of my vendors at Automart.com so I’ve seen first-hand how effective their live chat for car dealers solutions are at connecting online lookers with car dealers. The company is a market leader because their vision extends far beyond just adding chat to a dealership’s website.”
“Consumers increasingly prefer text-based communication but the automotive industry has been unable to capitalize on this trend for lack of a scalable, standard’s based approach to connecting dealers with all of the websites that bring them leads,” Dowd continued. “Contact At Once! has solved this problem, has woven itself into the fabric of the automotive industry, and is literally improving the effectiveness of every automotive website to which it is added. That list that today includes thousands of car dealer websites and leading automotive classified sites such as Cars.com, CarsDirect.com, CarSoup.com and others.”
Contact At Once! Customer Global Imports BMW Featured In Magazine Article
Great article in AutoRemarketing Magazine today about a Contact At Once! customer, Global Imports BMW.
This dealership is part of the Sonic Automotive Group and ranks in the top four nationwide for certified pre-owned sales, which is the main topic of the article. This dealership has also been named a BMW Center of Excellence store six consecutive years. We have been featuring them in a customer testimonial on our website for the past year or so.
The AutoRemarketing Magazine article is recommended reading for anyone looking to improve their dealership’s pre-owned sales and marketing.