Have you ever had a negative experience with a business? Most of us have and some of us have had a few nightmares. How did it make you feel when it happened? Anger, frustration, disappointment, an urge to tell everyone you know?
Customers are just like us: they experience the same reactions, including that primal urge to tell the world they’ve been wronged.
We live in a world of declining levels of even the most rudimentary customer care.
We can look back fondly on the days when contacting our cable company’s customer support made for good conversations around the water cooler at work on Monday. Sure the cable company lacked of empathy and care, but it was the exception to the customer experience rule.
That behavior seems quaint now, right?
It’s as though lack of empathy and care became the set point and things percolated over the past few decades to become today’s outright disdain for customers.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the tech industry. The tech bros’ “profit at all cost” credo overrides any regard for customer/users care, privacy or security. Here are a few examples I’ve encountered:
- Have you ever had to contact Facebook/Instagram/Meta about a serious issue with a page or profile? There is no meaningful remedy.
- Have you contacted Mailchimp lately via chat? We utilize the platform often and just two days ago, there were 182 people ahead of us in the chat to resolve an issue. 182!
- Twitter has morphed into 4chan, having fully devolved into hate-filled, conspiracy theory laden madness. Have you tried reporting the hateful posts, abuse or worse? Good luck because the consistent lack of response illustrates that Mr. Musk apparently agrees with all of it.
Thank goodness, the customer care wheels haven’t come off the bus within automotive retail. Weary customers are searching for better experiences, and the entire auto industry is ripe for enacting even more positive change.
Outstanding customer care attracts attention.
Buying a car is a milestone in someone’s life. Creating a delightful customer experience that people rave about and want to share with their friends and family is one of the key components to dealership profitability. The vast majority of dealers take this seriously and while no industry is perfect, there are a lot of happy, satisfied customers driving cars right now.
Controlling expenses is the #1 concern for dealers. Get your FREE DEALER SELF-ASSESSMENT to see how you measure up against manufacturer-specific benchmarks. Get it today!
Positive online ratings are integral to profitability and long-term success.
I entered the automotive digital world via online reputation management. It was quite organic: As a regular user of online ratings sites, I realized that dealerships did not have an internal process to capture their happy, loyal customers’ feedback. Now, here I am 14 years later, still evangelizing the benefits of online reputation management.
The bottom line is that positive online ratings are a valuable company asset. Devoting resources to building up and sustaining that value with processes, products and people equates to more sales.
Customer experience remains the driver to customer loyalty.
Next week (on June 19th), I’m speaking at the NIADA (National Independent Auto Dealers Assoc) annual convention. I’ve written for their various media for many years and it’s an honor to be asked to speak, especially with the great direction the organization has taken with Jeff Martin.
Core operational practices in the car business change at a glacial pace. While I ceased participating in a lot of the automotive conferences because I felt I was unable to effect change, I am happy to be participating in the NIADA Convention. They take a unique approach with their membership in that they select top advisors to share their insights so dealers are supported and equipped with up-to-the-minute information to make important business decisions.
Customer loyalty is the lifeblood of dealerships.
Have you ever heard about The $517,000 customer? It comes from Carl Sewell’s iconic book Customers for Life. In it, he teaches a simple credo, “Find out what customers want…and give it to ‘em.” He says that each person who walks through your door (virtually or in real life) represents $517,000 in potential business revenue over his or her lifetime.
Treating customers with dignity and respect fosters loyalty. Studies have proven over and over again that when customers leave happy, they tell their friends. When they feel respected, they’ll be back to buy again.
Let’s talk about the part where happy customers tell their friends.
Customer loyalty plays a pivotal role in developing a positive online reputation, especially on ratings sites where word-of-mouth recommendations are invaluable. Loyal customers, who consistently have positive experiences, are more likely to leave favorable reviews and high ratings. These endorsements are crucial to a dealership’s credibility and they attract new customers who trust peer recommendations over traditional advertising.
Loyal customers often share their positive experiences with friends and family, amplifying the dealership’s reach and reputation organically. This cycle of positive feedback and personal referrals helps establish a strong, trustworthy online presence, critical in today’s digital landscape where consumer choices are heavily influenced by online reviews.
I’m a big believer in processes. Leaders implement processes to carry out their vision and goals. When managing online ratings and reputation, a strategic process is your friend.
How to Sustain Positive Online Ratings in Automotive Retail
I’ve developed a list of 5 necessary actions that car dealers must take to create, improve, manage and maintain their positive online reputation.
1. Review Funnel
- Proactively create a review funnel process to capture customer feedback.
- Systematically drive customers to one conversion funnel that routes them to the review sites you care about.
- Ask, remind and guide happy customer through the funnel.
- Recover unhappy customer before they vent online.
2. Culture
Create lasting impressions by building a company culture that is customer-centric, respectful, supportive and recognizes the contribution of every employee in the overall success of the store.
3. Internal policies
- Policy for Employee Use of Social Media
- Policy for Monitoring and Responding to Online Reviews
- Online Review Acquisition Policy
- Social Media Content Review Policy
- Social Media Crisis Policy
4. Review building in the sales process
Integrate a process to gather customer reviews within sales and service transactions. What does that look like?
- It starts with a well-developed script and some form of training on how and when to ask for an online review.
- Choose one platform to focus on where you want to build your reviews (examples: Google or Yelp)
- Recognition for obtaining reviews and/or hitting goals should be included in sales and service meetings.
- Consider giving spiffs for 4-5 star reviews where the employee is named. This shows you’re serious about your online reputation and money is a powerful motivator for taking action.
5. Tools to safeguard your online assets
First, make sure your online assets are secure:
- Always claim your profile and complete all the necessary business info.
- Never give a vendor your page owner login credentials. They can access your accounts as an Admin only.
- Never allow an employee or vendor to us their personal email for page owner or admin level on profiles. Instead, use a company-owned domain email address. If something happens (they leave, you terminate them, they become unable to perform their job, etc), you’ll have control over that email and you can change the password immediately.
Next, utilize the great tools that are available for managing your online ratings sites.
- We use BrightLocal for its outstanding reputation dashboard, review building funnel, Google Analytics integration, Google Business Profile audit, reviews displayed on website, Keyword rankings and local ranking map.
These 5 online reputation essentials will help develop your winning formula
Every store is unique but customer delight is a constant. A new car franchise still has CSI processes to contend with, even though the results are completely internal and incentives are based on positive results.
It’s been a struggle for years trying to manage both processes while still running a retail operation, which is why I am such an advocate for instituting a more effective process in capturing your happy, loyal customer’s feedback.
There are literally 100 happy customers for every one dissatisfied customer. It’s just a matter of implementing workable policies and procedures to tap into that goldmine.
As always, please reach out to me here if you’re stuck or simply want to learn more about how improve your online ratings.
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