The Elephant in the (Empty) Showroom. Why Digital Reputation Management is Essential for Dealership Success

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1 Why Digital Reputation Management is Essential for Dealership Success

2 There s a big elephant standing in every showroom. It s something many automobile retailers know is there, but all too often they choose not to acknowledge or do anything about it. Today s highly informed consumers are spending nearly three months gathering information from nearly 25 sources all before they even set foot in a dealership. 70 percent of car shoppers indicating dealership reviews are very or extremely important to the research process. That elephant is their digital reputation and it s standing in a showroom increasingly at risk of being empty if dealers don t pay more attention to managing their digital reputation. One of today s biggest challenges to retailers, including dealerships, are highly informed consumers. When it comes to automobile purchases, today s highly informed consumers are spending nearly three months gathering make and model, price, and dealership information from nearly 25 traditional and online sources all before they even set foot in a dealership. From all they re reading online about other consumers experiences at your store, these highly informed consumers often are making choices about whether to visit your dealership based on your digital reputation. But, as these consumers browse online sources, they re also aware that not all online sources are created equal. They tend to favor third-party and user-generated resources, such as review sites or online comments from friends and family with nearly 70 percent of car shoppers indicating dealership reviews are very or extremely important to the research process. So, like other situations where there s an elephant in the room, it s time for dealers to recognize the situation and deal with that elephant. That means developing and implementing a strategic reputation management plan that includes monitoring what s being said about the dealership online, responding to comments, and further building their online reputation. 855.NKD.LIME nakedlime.com 2

3 Acknowledging the Elephant Before a dealership can develop a strategic plan for managing their digital reputation, it s important to understand why a positive online reputation is critical. More than 80 percent of consumers say reviews written by other consumers are valuable or extremely valuable. Nearly nine in 10 consumers trust online reviews about a business as much as they trust personal recommendations. More than 90 percent of consumers use social media and review sites to help them select a dealership. pretending the elephant doesn t exist can discourage the highly informed consumer from considering your dealership. Customer reviews, ratings, and stories matter to consumers when it comes to shopping and buying decisions. So, ignoring negative reviews and online mentions pretending the elephant doesn t exist can discourage the highly informed consumer from considering your dealership for sales or service. Consider this cautionary tale from Cars.com: On average, dealerships are answering less than one third of customer reviews posted on Cars.com. Yet, the site found an interesting correlation: The more often a dealership responds to customer reviews, the higher that dealership is rated by customers. The site compared the states with the highest and lowest rated dealerships. With an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, Delaware dealerships are doing a great job, according to their customers. These dealerships also are responding to more than 60 percent of customer reviews. (That s nearly double the national average!) It s a different story in South Dakota, the state with the lowest average dealership rating. Dealerships in that state are responding on average to less than 10 percent of reviews. The dealerships in Delaware and other dealerships like them seem to be aware that handling negative reviews can often turn into a positive situation. 855.NKD.LIME nakedlime.com 3

4 In general, when a business handles negative reviews in a professional, timely manner, 34 percent of consumers wind up deleting their negative comments. Another third of consumers will replace their negative review with a positive one. Dealers can turn 25 percent more critics into supporters by responding to negative online comments....dealerships that take action by responding to customers online complaints stand a better chance of winning back sales and service customers... Simply put, dealerships that take action by responding to customers online complaints stand a better chance of winning back sales and service customers and winning over more of their competition s customers, too. Making Your Elephant Work for You So you ve acknowledged the elephant in the showroom and recognize you should be monitoring and responding to customer reviews. But, only using a read-and-respond strategy puts consumers in control of a dealer s digital reputation. Dealership personnel have to wait for customers to complain online before they can respond to negative reviews. While dealerships wait, they run the risk of losing shoppers who are standing on their car lot, reading those negative reviews and online mentions on their smartphone. To take control of their digital reputation, dealers can do more than acknowledge the elephant they can also make it work for them. To do this, dealers should be taking a proactive approach and building their online reputation. Managing your digital reputation is like any other business process and practice: It takes the right combination of attention, technology, and commitment from the organization to be successful. The following checklist can help dealers who want to take the next steps in implementing a strategic reputation management plan. 855.NKD.LIME nakedlime.com 4

5 Reviews and Mentions Monitor mentions of your dealership from a variety of internet and social media sources, not just Google. There are a number of social media monitoring tools available at no or low cost to businesses. There also are services that will do this for you. Thank all consumers for their feedback, even if it s negative. Give professional, timely responses to be most effective. Try to take negative conversations offline and make amends with disappointed customers where you can. This will benefit your dealership in the long run by helping you retain that customer and build advocacy. Social Media Encourage satisfied customers to share feedback on your social media channels or theirs! Feature customer testimonials on your dealership website and also on your social media channels. Humanize your dealership s brand by adding candid photos and moments with staff and customers on your website or on social media. Campaigns Incorporate customer feedback survey s into your follow-up processes. These s can be short, dealership- branded messages that encourage customers to tell you about their most recent sales or service visit. Use these surveys to identify and resolve customer issues early on, perhaps even before the customer has a chance to leave a negative review online. Also use that feedback to improve your dealership processes for the long run. Proactively build your online reputation by encouraging satisfied customers to leave online reviews. An easy way to do this is to add links or buttons to your dealership signatures or in campaign messages. 855.NKD.LIME nakedlime.com 5

6 Conclusion In the world of digital reputation management, what you don t know can hurt you. Dealers who ignore the elephant in the showroom their digital reputation do so at their own peril. On the other hand, dealers who acknowledge the elephant can begin to tame it and even put it to work for them. To do that, dealers should develop and implement a strategic reputation management plan that includes social media monitoring, response handling, and digital campaigns. They can implement this plan using their own staff or can enlist the help of a trusted partner with expertise in these areas. No matter how they choose to manage their digital reputations, dealers who have a strategic digital reputation management plan will be in a better position to attract consumers to their dealership, foster stronger customer relationships, and achieve better business results. To learn more about Naked Lime s services, call 855.NKD.LIME, info@nakedlime.com, or visit nakedlime.com. 1 McKinsey and NADA 2 Cars.com, C+R Research 3 PeopleClaim 4 BrightLocal 5 Digital Air Strike 6 Forbes, RightNow, Magnetic Content 855.NKD.LIME nakedlime.com 6