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It’s very common and if it hasn’t already happened to your dealership, be prepared, it likely will. Unethical competitors trying to make you look bad by leaving a completely fabricated review on Google. A disgruntled ex-employee who was terminated for a just cause seeks revenge by spreading false claims about your dealership on your own Facebook page (the latter of which has happened to us here at PSM). And, good luck appealing these with Google and Facebook and having them removed. 

In the past, I let this stuff really bother me, but nowadays I’ve accepted that it’s just part of the game of business. Ironically, if you are a high transaction and/or fast-paced, leading-edge business, attempting to perform at the highest levels possible, you are probably more vulnerable to this type of nonsense.Those are the two criteria that lead to more haters.  

The good news is, once you learn to play by the rules and install a solid game plan (a system), getting new reviews can actually be pretty fun and your star-rating can be higher than your competitors’ rating, regardless of those cheating players. 

The first step in getting good at this game is to understand and accept that reviews and search engine rankings are very important to your dealership. Wouldn’t you agree that if your dealership ranked #1 on the Google results page and the local 3-pack map results that you would get more site visits, phone calls, and ultimately more appointments and sales?

Google’s goal is to be the best search engine, and to do this they must serve up the most relevant search results to their users. This is great news for local businesses like yours.  If a prospect is searching for the products you sell, or a dealership with the brands you carry, Google really wants to provide your dealership in the search results (of course, I’m over simplifying as Google has over 200 components that go into their proprietary algorithm which they keep confidential so the system isn’t able to be exploited).

Nevertheless, one of those 200 components that is clearly weighted heavily for local businesses is reviews.  If you get more 5-star reviews you will rank higher in the local Google map results. It is that simple. 

But it’s not just about ranking high, it’s also about serving up relevant results for the user. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. When you are searching for a dealership to buy your next new vehicle from, if the map displays a dealership with loads of 5-star reviews, and then one with little or no reviews and a low rating, what is more relevant (and compelling) to you? 

There are two really good reasons to take reviews seriously: 1. Google loves them. 2. Your prospects and customers love them. Now let me give you a 3rd reason. Remember those pesky fake reviews that were left by an ex-employee and a low life competitor? The easiest way to fix those is to bury them with dozens and dozens of positive 4 and 5 star reviews. The late Ed Lemco used to say that 5% of customers are lunatics, and the Google users researching products and reading reviews know this deep down as well. If you have 150 reviews and 3 or 4 are bad, it only adds credibility to the good reviews because it substantiates they are real. Anybody who’s ever worked in retail or customer service knows that you can’t make everyone happy. And whoever came up with “the customer is always right” line needs to go back to fantasy land.

Part of the flaw in Google’s emphasis on reviews is that happy customers tend to go away quiet and happy. Flaming-hot, pissed off customers tend to seek revenge, and reviews are a perfect outlet for them to blow off some steam. This is why it’s so important for dealers to get in the game and understand the rules and play hard (but fair), otherwise you lose.

Many business owners’ system for getting reviews is to simply ask for them. And that’s just fine, but it’s not a very scalable nor reliable system. Here at PSM we’ve developed a technology-based system that not only garners positive reviews, but it filters out unhappy customers by identifying them prior to them leaving a negative review and provides you with the opportunity to save them. 

Our system has generated over 100,000 authentic customer reviews, which are featured on our national consumer site: www.powersportsdealerlocator.com. It’s the largest review platform in the entire industry for a reason, it works.

In fact, it has worked so well for our clients we decided to use it ourselves, even though we’re not a dealer. 

In addition to an automated review acquisition system, our solution includes creating your own personalized review site like this: 

powersportsmarketingreviews.com, 

and an employee ranking page like this: 

powersportsmarketingreviews.com/reviews/employeereviews. Both of which have too many benefits for dealers, customers, and employees for me to list them all in this article.

Every Friday in our staff meeting, we take a look at our company reviews and employee reviews together, and usually have multiple rounds of applause for team members who’ve gotten reviews that week. It really makes playing the game fun, and eliminates the stress of potentially getting a couple bad reviews that aren’t legit. 

For more information on how we can help you bury negative reviews and rank the highest in your market, contact us at 877-242-4472.