Worlds first live, accessible on-line site-traffic mapping.
A world’s-first benchmark in on-line business transparency,
ingenuity and customer inter-activity has been notched up by the UK’s favourite
car leasing company.
Internet car-leasing specialists,
http://www.lingscars.com">www.LINGsCARS.com, has launched a live
sitemap on its website that shows the presence and cyber-whereabouts of each of
the 85,000 people who visit the site each month.
In keeping with the
entertaining, tongue-in-cheek ethnic branding introduced by LINGsCARS.com
proprietor, Chinese immigrant, Ling Valentine (35) - who famously uses a fake
nuclear rocket launcher as her company symbol - the live page is jokingly
presented as a Maoist detention camp. Individual site visitors are seen as
animated ‘prisoners’ exploring and flitting around ‘Camp Ling’ - the virtual
’showroom’ - checking availability, prices and financial arrangements.
“This is the first time that a small on-line business has used the kind of
technology that has been the exclusive preserve of massive organisations like
the Stock Exchanges and International money markets.” says Ling. “Anyone,
anywhere, can see my business working, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, in real
time.
“You can see how many people are looking for a new car; which
marques they are interested in, how often they’ve visited my site before,
whether they’ve decided to lease one or not and where they are on the site. I
also show the most popular cars, in pecking order.
The software was
built by Ling’s in-house team of programmers who used Parker Software’s WhosOn
Software to track how visitors use the website in real time and allow visitors
to communicate via live chat and click to call-back. Customers can simply browse
to LINGsCARS website and click the button to begin talking live with Ling
herself.
“We’ve built in quite a few jokes because we believe the whole
business of choosing a new car should be fun,” she says. “My customers know that
behind the gags and diversions we take their enquiries very seriously indeed. We
deliver £42m-worth of cars a year, after all.
“I’ve gone out of my way from the start to be a completely new and different
route to accessing a new car - any make or any model. ‘Camp Ling’ simply makes
my business model even more transparent and convincing. Customers getting a car
on-line for the first time find it reassuring to know that they’re in the
company of plenty of other on-line car leasing ‘virgins’ looking for a great
deal.
“With anything from 30-to-90 people on site at any one time
around-the-clock, it’s fascinating to watch - a bit like TV sport. You can
literally track the progress each one of my 1 million visitors a year, including
yourself!
“It’s about as far removed from going to your local one-brand
car dealership as you can get. It was always my intention to re-invent the car
retail business and find a totally new and simple way of getting a new car from
your home computer.”
Camp Ling may have the look of a rather dated
metaphor from China’s insular past but it’s a cutting-edge confidence-builder.
A world first for Internet business.