One of the primary draws of DealerDex will soon be the Dealer Reviews section, which promises to play a key role in making up consumers’ minds about which dealers to visit and which to steer clear of.
But there’s a problem: as usual, dealers across the nation have been entirely ignorant of the value behind dealer reviews. As a result, negative reviews from consumers have become the norm, sprouting up in a dealer’s search engine results and turning potential customers away. There will always be a few angry customers who want to get on their soapboxes after a bad experience, but as a dealer you don’t have to lie down and live with a damaged reputation online.
The online dealer review situation is no different from your sales satisfaction surveys: most of your satisfied buyers won’t take the time to express themselves, while the small percentage of your customers who are out to tarnish your name will always find an outlet. Dealer review sites are the perfect place to wreak such havoc, as they often send bad reviews shooting to the top of the SERPs. You can combat a poor reputation in search engine results with a well-developed blog, but an even better way to improve your standing in the dealer review realm is to flood such sites with positive reviews.
Did your customer have a great experience with their purchase? Did you receive a letter from an owner touting the performance of your Service department? Get those customers to submit reviews on DealerDex and other dealer review sites, and in a matter of months you’ll drastically improve your standing. Do whatever you can to get your happy customers talking.
But don’t stop there. Once you’ve established that positive reputation, make the most of it by marketing it wherever you can. As an Internet Director, I always made sure that my first autoresponder to new leads showcased a link to my store’s consumer reviews, and prefaced it with a comment about our “well-known reputation for outstanding customer service”. Such canned phrases take on a whole new meaning when backed up by unbiased testimonials.
I recall that at one dealership, we were both the new guy and the little guy on the block, fighting for deals with two large, well-known dealerships within 5 miles of us. So I went as far as to include those dealerships’ dealer reviews as well in my autoresponders to third party leads. The chances of a third-party submitted prospect being cognizant of those other stores was pretty much 100%, so rather than fight a price war, it made more sense to show how we stood out from the crowd. Of course, those two dealers had piles of bad reviews, and our store came out smelling like a rose before price had even been discussed.
So there’s your lesson for the day: get a hold of your satisfied customers, incentivize them to write about their experiences, and market the hell out of it. Dealers need all the positive juice they can get, and this is a great way to make it happen.
