Oh, MaGoo, you've done it again!

Oh Magoo, you've done it again!

Who can ever forget the lovable Mr. Quincy Magoo.   One of the first successful human cartoon characters, this Oscar winning Rutgers alumnus would venture out with his severe myopia and hijinks would ensue.   

Mr. Magoo came to mind today as I was perusing a chart from those marketing information aggregators and analyzers at Market Sherpa.  The chart analyzed the best sources of website conversions.

Website conversions, as you may know, are when a visitor to your eCommerce website takes an action that transforms them from a visitor to prospect or customer.  The conversions we prefer are those where a customer either makes a purchase or submits their personal information which opens the door for further contact from our highly trained sales staffs.  Some automotive website vendors also include as conversions those visitors who click on the "Hours and Directions" link.  (To what degree this is a true "conversion" is the subject of many a lively discussion around the water coolers of the marketing universe.)

Here are the results Marketing Sherpa found when surveying to find the best sources for website conversion:

Source:  http://www.marketingsherpa.com/1news/chartofweek-10-30-12-lp.htm

To date I have tried to keep my articles fairly simple and basic for the digital marketing neophytes out there.  To that end, I am not interested in drilling deeply into the information contained in this study. (The Marketing Sherpa article itself does that far better than I would, anyway!)   I am going to share with you the observation that came to mind at first glance:  "Oh, Magoo, you've done it again!"  We are concentrating our efforts on those areas which provide the least return!

Most dealers know at this point that they have to do well in organic search.  This is most often tested by typing the dealership name into Google.  Unless you share a name with a larger urban behemoth somewhere else in the country, you usually show up quite well simply by default.  It is when we change the search term to a particular vehicle model that we sell combined with the name of our city or county that we become more concerned.  If you know what to look for, you see the organic search littered with third party vendors and paid search that might even feature competitors far away!

Too often this evokes a knee jerk reaction.  We have to show up on top!  The quickest route to get there?  Paid search, of course.  $800-$5000 per month later, we are on top of countless search term lists...but in the high rent district known as the "Sponsored Links".

Although it is falling out of vogue lately, many dealers ad Facebook ads, too.  It is, after all, recommended, right?  Using social media is all the rage in trade publications.  So we litter our social media pages with customer pictures, links to a particular inventory unit, or announcements that it is the end of the month and we are dealing!  Sometimes we subscribe to a content writing service that charges significantly for articles to blast on our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Finally, we might opt for a greater spend with third party sites like Cars.com, AutoTrader, or Kelly Blue Book.  We will pay a little more for nifty banners and sparkly side ads in an effort to make sure we are all over the page when consumers are doing their search.

While none of these are bad ideas, if the research by Marketing Sherpa is accurate then we may be suffering from the same myopia as the loveable Mr. Magoo!  The chart shows that the actions we most frequently default to give us the least return!

According to our Sherpas, the most effective means to garner conversions are organic search and email campaigns.  It makes sense, too, when you think about it.  So why do we avoid these two highways to prosperity?  Because it is harder to understand how to do these well.  We are car people, and to do content or develop and test email marketing materials requires creative ad people.

Organic search after the great Google Penguin invasion has become more challenging.  To Google's credit, those websites wishing to gain organic prominence need to become living, vibrant sources of relevant information.  This challenges the dealer to move from websites that resemble a digital version of the traditional Sunday newspaper full page ad to websites that engage, inform, and most importantly spur consumers to choose us as their dealership of choice when they purchase!

Email campaigns can be a challenge, too.  There are no shortage of vendors with many and varied email marketing products out there.  Even if you use a vendor, though, it still takes time to determine to whom in your database you intend to send email solicitations and what you want those solicitations to contain.  Add the specter of Spam filters and email campaigns can become the most intimidating media for the dealer to use.

The path of least resistance and greatest expense leads to third party vendors who will handle the tasks of search optimization and targeting email marketing.  But why not do it in house?  Besides having more creative control and people working on your material who understand your dealership more intimately because they are a part of it, too, in house marketing allows you to test, retest, and then run with what truly works best for your individual operation!

Google Analytics allows you to publish two different sites and measure the results.  A good CRM tool combined with a staff that understands how to use it and read its reports allows you to test market your marketing materials.  Which email works better?  Which web page design attracts more click-thrus?  While you and your entire dealership family may love your site or the clever email you are sending out, if it does not resonate with your target consumers and result in visits to the dealership it is a waste of time.

Many of us believe America is about hard work, self-reliance-- why we are a nation of rugged industrialists like John D. Rockefeller!  A quick glance at the expanding welfare rolls, though, and we discover that we are increasingly a nation of Honey Boo-Boos!  Perceptions are nice, but a good marketer needs to understand the reality of their target market.

May I make a bold suggestion?  Let's have a paradigm shift in our dealerships.  Among our ranks of "car guys" why don't we add one or two creative content generators?  That's right, add to the payroll someone whose job it is to write compelling ad copy for both our websites and our email campaigns.  Let's find someone who can handle the mechanics of HTML code, SEO content generation, and graphic arts.  Replace our fascination with the relic who has been in the business for twenty years and therefore knows "the car business" with a curiosity for the person who can deftly and accurately aggregate the labyrinth of Google Analytics data into an easily understood assessment of our situation.

In short, let's relax our obsession with drawing a direct line between each sale and the person(s) on the staff who caused it to happen.  Make room at the table for one or two non traditional dealership employees whose jobs are to make our Internet presence engaging, evolving, and most importantly -- effective.

You will not have to forgo accountability.  Accountability will just take on new forms.  Instead of just measuring closing ratios or sold units we will begin  measuring trends.  Did our exposure online increase over last month?  Are visitors to the website visiting more pages or spending more time on our site?  Did more visitors send in emails?  Have phone calls increased?  If the answer to any of these questions is "No", then you need to look deeper into the data to answer "why".

A good content team should result in an increase in the number of people visiting our sites, the length of time spent on the site, and most importantly an increase in the number of phone, email, and walk-in leads. The degree of data you can cull from a well executed Internet marketing plan is staggering.  In fact, you have a far greater risk of "analysis paralysis" than you do of lacking tracking data.

It should not take long until you are fully in charge of the two aspects of marking that will give you the most conversions:  relevant content that fuels organic search and targeted email campaigns.

So let's look beyond our immediate comfort zone.  Let's look into building in house what works best for filling up our appointment calendars and sold logs.  If nothing else, at least you can change the discussion in the huddle from how hopeless conditions at the dealership are to why in the hell the company would have hired a couple of odd looking geeks!

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Thank you for reading my article.  For nostalgia sake, and as a treat for having endured my ramblings, shall we enjoy some Mr. Magoo?

I'm in my own little world, but it's ok, they know me here!

My eldest son showed up with a tee shirt to this effect one day:

 I loved the utter simplicity of the message complete with that ironic twist that every little saying will need one day if it aspires to tee shirt prominence.  It came to mind again today when I was pondering car sales.  What is typically the least cultivated source for high gross deals?  Repeat and referral business.  They are in our little world.  They know us.  By and large, we close our eyes, click our heels, and hope that they feel that there is no place like our dealership, there is no place like our dealership...

We know this not to be the case, though.  Three to five years is a long time.  Our society has shifted from traditional brand loyalty to one that espouses a narcissistic instant gratification.  The more we stay in the forefront of our sold customers' minds, the better our odds of turning them into loyal, repeat buyers.

To this end often dealers use various third party vendor tools, many of them largely service related.  This is good in that not only does it keep your name before their eyes, but also because it fosters a relationship and, best of all, increases the lifetime value of our relationship with them.

Our very best career salespeople know the importance of repeat and referral business and typically have some sort of method in place to reach out to their sold customers on a regular basis.  Surprisingly not all veteran salespersons do this, leaving far too many that just rely on attracting a handful of loyal customers every year to their roster over the course of ten or fifteen years. 

The all too frequent staff turnover in our industry leaves a good number of our customers orphaned.  Sure, they are called every time a new green pea hits the floor and is handed by the busy manager that tattered list of old customers to call, but relationships are rarely fostered with these random, unplanned and largely unscripted calls.

Manufacturers looking to boost their JD Powers customer satisfaction percentages typically require their franchise dealers to send out an obligatory post sale "thank you" letter.  I knew an owner who used to also send out an awkwardly worded thank you of his own, too.  We all have some "thing" we do for sold customers, but do we have a well drafted and equally well executed "process"?

It doesn't take long to draft such a workable "process".  Choose your time table, select your media (letter, email, coupons/offers), assign responsibility.  What bedevils most dealers is getting the process to be followed consistently.  Like so many great ideas we have, post sale follow up works so well we stop doing it.

This is where automation becomes so valuable.  If we take the time to set up our process, whatever it is, into a software program whose automation helps to overcome the omission caused by our human frailty, we stand a better chance at being consistent!  So where in your dealership do you find those best equipped to set up and monitor a working repeat/referral business plan?  Your Internet Department, of course!

Most CRM tools are able to trigger tasks that include sending letters or emails on specific anniversary dates, putting phone call reminders in the salespersons' "To Do" lists, and generating lists for targeted  marketing campaigns.  In small dealerships, it is the Internet Department that is typically most adept at using the CRM tool.  (Far too often they are the only ones who use the CRM software tool.)  It therefore only makes sense to empower them to program the CRM tool to include a repeat/referral process.

Not only does this serve to tear down the outmoded concept of the Internet Department as "those salespeople that take care of Internet leads", it begins to develop your Internet staff into a more expansive digital marketing asset for your dealership. 

Because there are still a good number of salespeople who are intimidated by or lack the skills to utilize your CRM tool well, your Internet team can begin to serve as peer coaches. Their skill and enthusiasm will help make the use of your CRM tool for things beyond just inputting new customers less intimidating.

Adding a repeat/referral business process to an already well executed Internet lead process cannot help but increase sales.  You will begin to have a more well rounded team and a more sustainable business model, too.  The automation will serve to allay our natural tendency to drift away from our best practices.  The task reminders will help those salespersons watching for fresh ups to not forget the equally important and more profitable opportunities found among their sold customers.  With your veteran staff filling their calendars with the better grossing repeat/referral prospects, you will soon be recruiting new salespeople to handle the drive in traffic!

Everybody wins.


Elements of a basic Repeat/Referral Process: 

• Auto generated follow up letter from the salesperson.
• Next day follow up phone call
• Thirty, sixty, ninety day follow up phone calls (use a good referral script).
• Newsletter email blasts every 45 days.
• Birthday/sale anniversary phone call tasks.

Taking it to the next level:

• Service coupons/email offers
• Model specific email campaigns deeper into their ownership cycle
• End of lease calls/offers. 

 

"Just looking" - Reflex reactions aren't limited to customers.

Any good salesperson knows that the last way you want to greet a customer is with the words,

"Can I help you?"  

Sales 101 teaches that you will guarantee yourself that famous reflex reaction that stymies your sales efforts:

"Just looking!"

This most basic of all reflex reactions thrusts the novice (or lazy/skill deprived) salesperson into sales purgatory.  If your sales manager is not watching, you will make sure you give them your name and let them know exactly where in relation to the coffee machine you will be standing explaining to your coworkers why these people are probably not buyers -- so they can find you when they have found what they are looking for.  (This also happens to be the salesperson version of dogs peeing on a bush to mark their territory.  These customers are now "upped", meaning that this salesperson has exclusive rights to any purchases these people make by virtue of the fact that he/she first said words to these people.)

I professionally "upped" them so if they buy within the next three years they are my customer!

If your sales manager is watching, you are condemned to perform the "stalker walk", following them from item to item until they either flee on the wings of some lame excuse to free themselves from this awkward situation or until they ask you a question, thus absolving you from your sin of ineffectiveness and letting you begin your version of the sales process.

For a couple of weeks now I have been attempting to find a new home for my marketing experience and talents.  It has been frustrating to say the least.  Upon reflection, however, I realized that I was approaching it in much the same way as a novice or lazy/unskilled salesperson.  I was walking in, asking for a dealer principle, handing him/her my resume and explaining, "I was wondering if we can talk about what I can offer your Internet marketing efforts!"

If you ask a dealer principle, general manager, sales manager, etc. to consider letting you help their digital marketing efforts they, too, have reflex responses.  Most fall into these three categories:

"We already have someone who does Internet for us."

"What we do now is working for us, we aren't looking to add anything right now."

"Yeah, we know we need to do something about it.  We just aren't sure what yet."

We have someone.

Having grown up in Geneva I remember my father walking home one day with his pink slip, a victim of the closing of the True Temper plant.  I am never in favor of replacing someone with whom you are satisfied simply because someone else has shown up with strong credentials, too.  At the same time, is one person sufficient for the digital marketing efforts of the modern automobile dealership?  What does your "Internet person" do?   Is he/she doing many things adequately or just a few things very well?  How heavily do you rely on more expensive third party vendor options?  Could a larger staff execute a more comprehensive plan and still be profitable for you?  If you have not asked these questions in the last ninety days, perhaps you should!

We are fine, thank you.

This has to be the most maddening reflex response of all.  This is the "just looking" of the managerial vernacular.  If it is just being said to avoid a discussion with a resume bearing unemployed Internet manager or third party vendor salesperson, etc. then it can be forgiven.  Aside from that, what manager ever believes that their plan and process is so beyond scrutiny that any review of it is pure folly and a waste of time?  Could you imagine the CEO of a major corporation addressing a meeting of the stockholders with a brief statement like this: "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Everything is great.  See you next year."?

You know we should look into this.

If you climb a mountain to its summit to find a robed and bearded guru from whom to solicit advice, he will no doubt begin by teaching you that the first step to any problem is to admit that there is a problem. There are so many facets to the modern automobile dealer franchise that excelling in every single one of them is nearly impossible.  When you remain open, however, to exploring how to improve when the opportunity presents itself you are inarguably more likely to find success in multiple areas than those for whom constructive scrutiny is just too vexing. 

So what do I do?

My primary recommendation is that you call me and offer me ungodly sums of money in exchange for maximizing your digital marketing efforts.

 

In the absence of that there are a some core elements upon which a good Internet marketing process should be built.  Hybrid roses offer a myriad of different colors and varieties for the flower gardens of the world, but they are usually all grafted to the hardy root system of a wild rosebush.  So, too, you should make sure your Internet strategy is grafted onto these trusted, basic tenets of automotive digital marketing:

Feature a good quality product.

Your primary objective is to sell cars, period.  Make certain that your inventory listings are designed to elicit a response from those who see them.  You do not need an elegant studio in which to stage your cars (though it can help) but you should make sure that your pictures are clear, accurate, and informative.

• Does your vehicle fill most of the frame of the picture?  Are they well focused?  Is lighting or glare a significant hindrance?
• Is your description correct?  Does it feature an accurate trim level and include the most important or unique options?  Did you update the mileage on demo units?
• Do you have engaging ad copy in the description?  Is it relevant to the vehicle?  Does it answer the most basic questions about the vehicle. (You would be surprised, by the way, on how much more people rely on the pictures than the descriptions for feature/trim information.) Do you point out significant damage or defects in your pictures or descriptions?  (It's not as though a customer is not going to notice when they arrive.)

You wouldn't buy clothes that were all crumpled up on the floor of a fancy clothier, would you?  Your inventory feed is your prospect's first exposure to your primary product.  Make your first impression a good (and accurate) one!  

Find your story and tell it well.
Believe it or not: not every dealer is the #1 biggest volume primary source of the most amazing ever expanding all encompassing inventory at the lowest below invoice pricing in the tri-state area that specializes in giving you an amazing difference that results in the greatest customer satisfaction of anyone anywhere who also happens to give you more for your trade than anyone else ever will because they sell more cars than all other local dealers combined!


All dealers have those facets of the automotive sales business in which they absolutely excel.  Discern your greatest strengths and use good ad copy and images to portray it simply and succinctly on your company website.  Present your story, not just a template of what automobile dealer sites are supposed to say.  People tune out a preponderance of cliches.  Make your site reflect who you are and in what you excel. A high end luxury dealer's site should not look and read like a modest, low end economy dealer's site -- and vice versa!

We caught one! Now what?
All of the above becomes an exercise in futility in the absence of a good Internet lead process.  If you put ten salespersons or marketing professionals in a room, you will get eleven opinions on what the lead process should look like.  On one point they should all agree:  your process should never be etched in stone.  As market trends ebb and flow so, too, should your response tactics constantly be edited, tested, and tweaked.  Here are some points to consider:

• If you use an auto-responder, it should contain simple calls to action.  Remember, too, that brevity is the soul of wit!  Avoid sending a Charles Dickens manuscript as your auto-responder.
• Answer quickly.  Forget the OEM clock, you should be answering leads quickly because it makes good business sense.  I've never heard anyone say, "strike after the iron cools off". 
• Answer the question!  If your prospect has questions, answer them.  Don't try to sell the car via email or phone.  Your goal at this point is to sell the appointment.  Ideally you seek that balance between giving enough information to build trust and rapport and yet letting reasons remain to justify the prospect's need to come in to see you. You will never build rapport by ignoring the prospect's questions, though.
• Calls to action: use them!  Every email correspondence should invite the prospect to proceed to the next logical step in the sales process.  
• Build rapport and make every attempt to connect with your prospect.

The length and/or intensity of your follow up process or its contents all should be regularly discerned by the individual dealership.  If you have a high volume of leads, try two competing process models for a quarter and measure your results.  The point is that a good Internet strategy should include scrutiny, an openness to new trends/ideas, and an attention to the resulting data.

That's so crazy it just might work!

Finally, make sure you have a good Internet Marketing Manager at the helm.  Many opinions exist on what makes a good Internet manager.  I would propose, however, that whoever you choose and whatever his/her duties a good Internet professional should have difficulty sitting still.  The jetsam and flotsam churning about on the Web affects and influences our culture to a greater degree at every passing moment.  Good Internet marketing watches those trends, tries new approaches, and tests ideas carefully to determine what is most effective -- even if those results conflict with his/her personal biases.

Closing a deal hasn't really changed.  Automobile purchases are still largely based on emotional impulses.  What increasingly differs are the ways that we are attracting prospects to our sales staff and closers.  Internet trends are fluid and so, too, should be our Internet marketing.  A good Internet Marketing Manager realizes this and, while staying true to the fundamentals, is always looking to adapt the strategy and the message so as to stay relevant and effective.

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" - Win their praise before they discover the Internet!

While driving down Pennsylvania Route 18 in Girard the other day, looking for a new home in which to let my brilliance shine, I passed the house of a very angry ThermoTwin Windows customer. 

I have passed this house many times.  It always evokes a smile, as I genuinely appreciate the more feisty among us.  I cannot help but wonder what must have transpired.  The weathering of the sign indicates that whatever ThermoTwin's transgression, it was obviously some time ago.  It must have been enough of an issue that this disgruntled customer has had to mow and trim around that sign for several years.  He is angry, very angry, and is intent on costing ThermoTwin any potential customers that travel Route 18, that is for sure.

The angry customer -- we have all been that at one time or another.  The ThermoTwin guy is a rank amateur in the arena of public protest when compared to Geneva Ohio's "Mad Signer".  He has devoted his house, his cars, and any flat surface he finds to the venting of his rage.

The energy poured into his quest is rather impressive.  The cost must be significant, too.  Plywood, paint, gas to drive his manifesto emblazoned gas guzzlers up and down the roads of Northeast Ohio-- it must add up to a hefty sum.  Should you stop to read the signs, he often comes out of his inner sanctum to hand you copies of the latest motions he has filed in court in his quixotic frenzy.

We have all seen the indignant customer in our stores.  Sometimes we may even have created one, intentionally or through no fault of our own.  Though we could be sure that their outrage would be shared at the first bar to which they bellied up or  during the first water cooler conference they would attend, not many of us would spend the level of indignant energy that the ThermoTwin customer or the Mad Signer have. The worst we might expect is a loud declaration of outrage in a crowded showroom, but even that takes a level of courage or audacity that most people just do not possess.

But now, we have the Internet.

While the latest craze is to push at all costs for positive reviews from everyone, the fact remains that satisfied people tell someone when asked, and the pissed off tell anyone they can find.  I would not argue with a campaign to solicit positive reviews, but does our marketing and our lead handling process encourage a positive review in the end?

Perhaps we can start by asking ourselves these three questions:

• Is our Internet presence promising a false reality?
• Is our follow-up designed to help the customer or put a body in front of us at all costs?
• Are we nurturing post sale relationships with the same attention we pay to incoming leads?

Promising a False Reality
Since the 1930's Dale Carnegie has been reminding people that no one likes to be critical of themselves.  Though he uses dated examples such as John Dillinger the reality is that human nature has not changed.  Customers like to believe that they are fair, reasonable, and realistic in what their budget will buy them.  Salespeople like to believe that we are altruistic servants of the public who rarely, if ever, consider how the consummation of the sale will affect their well being.  Can we talk?  Everyone has at their heart their own self interest.  It may vary in degree from one person to another but there is nothing inherently evil in wanting the most for your money or wanting the most money for your efforts.

Automobile dealerships aren't always honest with themselves, either.  Face it, dealerships often develop different "personalities"that are shaped largely by the business model they are operating under.  Whether you are "Mr. Big Volume" or "The Home of Personal Service", your store has a personality.  Look candidly and introspectively at your operation.  Know thy self, and to thyself be true.  (Unless, of course, you realize that maybe what you're doing is not the most effective, in which case pause here to revisit your overall business model and then proceed.)

If you are a gross profit oriented store, don't fill your web pages with ad copy promising the lowest pricing anywhere, huge volume, highest money for your trade, etc.  You certainly can add these to the mix, but how much better would it be to avoid the typical car dealer ad cliches in deference to what you really are good at.  Do you have a top rated service department?  Is your dealership part of a family legacy with close ties to the community?  Is your charitable giving a model for corporate philanthropy?  Find out what you are best at and make that your primary marketing message.  Then sprinkle it with the other calls to action people naturally expect to round it out.

People still arrive at car dealerships with a high level of apprehension.  If they arrive to find that your physical presence is a true reflection of your online image, you can decrease the consumer's anxiety right from the start.  Your Zero Moment of Truth should reflect what will become your showroom visitor's First Moment of Truth.

Being an invaluable consumer resource, not just an appointment seeker.
You can try to wish it away all you want, but the reality of the information age is upon us.  The explosion of mobile devices makes it even more challenging.  Your customer's ability to cross reference what you are telling them can now happen in real time right in front of you.  In your favor, though, is the fact that there remains a seed of doubt in people's minds about the veracity of the information they find online.

From the first moment you talk to your customer, you have an invaluable opportunity to establish yourself as their automotive expert.  Presenting and selling automobiles is something that you do every day.  They can use someone like you.  Investigate their needs, their concerns, and their automotive goals -- then provide them with some information that sets you up a their own trusted adviser.  In the process, set the expectation that you are able to be even more helpful in person.  You will provide hard copy of some of the material you quoted (Carfax reports, vehicle specifications, etc.).  Never try to sell the car over the phone, but by all means establish an appointment as the logical next step in your commitment to help them choose their next vehicle wisely.

Whatever you do don't try to become the expert by attacking what they have read or researched.  Take an interest in what they have learned.  Shut up and listen.  Sales 101 dictates that the more they talk the easier they will be to close.  Remember, nobody appreciates a know-it-all.  People can, however, appreciate a different way of looking at things.  Try word tracks such as:

That is an interesting bit of information.  I have not heard it put that way before.  Where did you learn this?  What resources did you use?

 I have heard others cite that information, too.  The information I gathered is a little bit different.  I am always open to new ideas.  When do you think we can get together to compare notes?  Is this afternoon good or would this evening be better? 

When I hear something that differs from the information given to me by the manufacturer, I always like to explore the details and compare.  Would you be able to bring in your notes today, or is tomorrow better?

If we challenge the customer their natural reaction will be to dig in and fight.  That is what we do, after all!  Gone will be the seeds of doubt in their mind and in its place will be the ex cathedra infallibility of whatever it was they found online.  Become a research partner, a trusted resource.  Don't waste time creating a rancorous debate partner.  You may win the argument, but your embarrassed prospect will find someone to whom they award the sale.

The Morning After
If we have focused our energy on projecting a true image of ourselves online, won our prospects trust with our handling of them during the lead process, and given them a comfortable, smooth buying experience the worst thing we can do is forget about them the morning after.

Remember, you do not have to remind angry people to tell everyone what a schmuck you are.  They won't forget, and depending on their level of audacity they will find increasingly creative ways to do so.  It is that sincere, positive review that we are seeking.  Subsequent repeat and referral sales are not bad, either!  Remember Joe Verdi talking about those?

The increased use of customer relations software is making post sale contact a given in many dealerships.  If your CRM tool is not programmed to print out thank you letters and/or thank you emails, fix it!  Do not, however, just rely on automated processes.  Take a page from the old Ma Bell campaign and "reach out and touch someone".  A phone call to thank them for the sale gives you another opportunity to ask - with credibility- for a positive online review.

Don't hide from your reputation, Manage It!
If even the Lord himself had critics and detractors don't operate under the delusion that you must have nothing but glowing reviews.  It is not realistic and will certainly not seem so.  Instead of hiding the skeletons in your closet, deal with them.

 

If someone is venting online or is being critical, acknowledge it!  Apologize for their experience and assure them that this is not the norm.  Then, get the argument offline!  Don't get into a he said/she said online.  Even if their rancor springs from a complete falsehood.  Show potential customers that you engage in a meaningful, in person dialog with the disgruntled masses.  If lessens the impact of angry reviews.

If someone has left you the coveted positive review, thank them!  A few words thanking them for taking the time to leave a good review might encourage others who go from the review page to your showroom to the ranks of your satisfied customers to likewise share their experience.

Finally, watch trends.  If you see start receiving negative reviews look for a common complaint and address it.  Social media complaints are the best in that they don't appear in searches yet give you insight into how those customers who most identify themselves with your dealership are feeling.  

 

  

Because the Internet makes if easier to share our experiences, good and bad, with others, it is going to become increasingly more common.  The advent of mobile devices will empower the outraged to launch salvos against your reputation before they even leave your dealership.  Don't fear it, manage it.  Make it hard for people to become angry or disenfranchised.  Encourage those enjoying the fruits of your customer centered processes to share their experiences.  Don't let an established relationship die of neglect!

If you must lose a battle, win the war!

So what about the ThermoTwin Window activist?  He may well have sullied the ThermoTwin name in the minds of regular travelers on Route 18 in Girard, but his plywood and paint grievance loses its edge the moment someone looks up ThermoTwin online.  Between their Facebook page and their own website testimonials, they all but neutralize his weathered wooden raised fist.  Perhaps he should have used Google to vent his ire instead.