Articles

Partnering with a website provider to create your digital dealership is a lot like the partnership you had when you contracted to have your brick-and-mortar built. The process is very similar. 

With your physical dealership, you started with a plan. Your plan outlined everything that was necessary for your dealership to function – foundation, framing, electrical, plumbing, lights, etc. are all a part of the plan for an optimal performing dealership. Once everything was completed, there was a punch list created for those last finishing touches necessary to make everything perfect.

As it turns out, this is very similar to how your digital dealership is created as well. You have an initial meeting with your new provider, creating the digital floorplan for your online presence. You review functionality, what you like (and what you don’t), the look and feel, and much of the functionality you want. 

One of the things that doesn’t get talked about (or is maybe glossed over) is what’s behind the walls of your digital dealership. What doesn’t get seen, but is extremely important. SEO.

SEO (search engine optimization) is extremely important, and most folks have come to understand that over the past few years – even if they don’t fully understand why.

It’s critical for search engines to understand how to navigate your site, and understand what your site is about. The better they understand and interpret your site, the better your rankings when people search for you.

There are a few things that are pretty important when it comes to having a strong online presence. Your site needs to be easily navigable. It can’t be difficult to find your way around. There has to be good, solid content, and it needs to be as unique as possible.

All of that is what is visible, but there’s more to the SEO game than that. Just like in your dealership, there’s some really important stuff hidden behind the walls that you can’t do without. You know, like electrical and plumbing.

In the SEO world, metadata is one of those things that, while not as important as it once was, still needs to be included in the header code of each page of your site to help search engines interpret what each page is about. There’s been a lot of talk saying that Google doesn’t look at metadata anymore, but split testing has shown that it’s still a player. It’s not visible on your pages, but ignoring it can cost you.

Having keywords in your URLs plays a really big part in how you appear in search results. Having the name of a particular unit in the URL for its inventory page can help boost the ranking of that page when searchers are looking for that specific unit.

Another big, behind the scenes player in the SEO world is proper naming of images on a page. Many folks simply leave whatever default image name tagged to the picture by the camera in place when they put it on their site. An SEO best practice is to name the image after what the image is. For example, if it’s a picture of a 2018 blue Honda Goldwing, use that as the image name when it’s placed on your site. There is also an option when using images for what is called ‘Alt Text.’ 

‘Alt Text’ is used when a browser is unable to display the image for whatever reason, the alt text is placed in place of the image. Search engines use alt text as a way to interpret what a page is about for indexing as well. 

One of the biggest SEO elements to pay attention to, and that Google will either reward you greatly for, or penalize you in a big way for, is 301 redirects.

301 redirects are important because what they do is keep your navigation from other 3rd party sites operational. For example, let’s say that a third party site – a motorcycle enthusiasts magazine – wrote an article about a particular bike and linked it to a page on your site of that unit. That’s really great for SEO for you, and Google will reward you accordingly in their rankings. Now, let’s say some time has passed, and you’ve either gone to another website provider, or changed the layout of your current site, so that particular page no longer exists, or is called something else. If people click that link on the 3rd party page to see the unit mentioned in the article, they’re going to get a 404 page not found message. That’s called a broken link, and Google hates those, and your rankings will suffer greatly because of them.

301 redirects keep you in Google’s good graces by forwarding those page requests to the new, redesigned or renamed page so you don’t get any broken links.

Now there are a ton of other SEO best practices involving things like site maps, robot.txt files, and data formatting but my point is really this: just like when you contracted to build your dealership, there were best practices regarding it’s construction, the same thing applies when it comes to your digital dealership. Not just that, but it should be included in your build out. In other words, your site provider should include good SEO practices as normal and customary and NOT charge you an additional SEO package fee as some do. When you built your dealership, it wouldn’t have occurred to you that you would have to specify that you wanted light switch covers or door locks, it was just a part of the cost of the dealership. The same can be said for SEO compliant site structure. Anybody with half a lick of sense is going to insist on it, and if you’re going to be in the website business, it by gosh ought to be so ingrained in what you do that it wouldn’t occur to you to think you should charge extra for it.

I mean, after all, are front wheels an ‘option’ on motorcycles?

If you want to talk more about websites, or how we can help you switch to a site that will increase the number of leads you are currently getting, give us a call.

Talk soon 

Brad

 There’s no doubt that having a sales process and trained staff in your new and used departments will result in selling more units. However, the best sales techniques on the planet are useless if the buyer doesn’t want to buy. This is why understanding buying motives is equally as important, if not more, than top notch sales skills.

The reality is buying a motorcycle, RV, boat, etc. is an emotional purchase, not a logical one. This is why the intent of all of your dealerships marketing should be to “trigger” the emotions that lead to “wanting to own” rather than the “defensive logic” of not wanting to be sold. 

Month in and month out in this newsletter we talk about our “Predictiable Growth” formula which is to “touch” your Buying Base 52 to 104 times per year. This may sound pretty simple but  it can easily be botched up with the wrong approach. For example, if every time I receive a message from you, regardless of the media, it is always “Hey you, wanna buy a bike, lets do a deal, I wanna sell you….”  then which emotion are you triggering, wanting to own or not wanting to be sold?

Just as a reminder, we define your Buying Base with two groups of customers/prospects. Customers, who are already in your database because they have done business in the past, and prospects who are not in your database, but live in your market area and have an interest in the products you sell, but have not done business with you in the past. You don’t own those customers in your database, they are only rented, and the rent is due every month. BUT…. They are the most likely people to give you money in the future if you continue to “trigger” their emotions of “wanting to own”.  That second group, the prospects who haven’t done business with you are a little more expensive to get into the dealership, but still a solid target audience to allocate budget to, if you do it the right way.

So let’s look at two pretend Dealer Principals with two different approaches to their annual marketing plan. Both are astute dealers and create an annual plan of attack rather than being completley reactive month in and month out. They are both experienced and have wasted hundreds of thousands on mass media like radio and TV and now believe direct marketing clearly provides the best bang for the buck. They also both buy into going after their Buying Base to “touch” them 52 to 104 times per year. 

There is only one main difference in their marketing approach, the message. Dealer one is all about “Moving the Metal”. His direct mail, email, facebook, etc. is all about finance special offers, best trade in value, factory rebates, low price guarantee, and meeting monthly goals, every single month. 

Dealer two on the other hand creates a “Reason to Visit his Dealership (and Website)” every single month by hitching his wagon to the time of year. In January he does a “Resolve to Ride” campaign, in February it’s a “Cabin Fever Reliever” theme, in March it’s “Spring is in the Air” in April it’s “April Showers Bring May Horsepower” and so on. You get the idea. In most of his marketing he’s sending an invitiation to his Buying Base to come into the dealership for a party they are having with Free Food, Drinks, Door Prizes, and more. He also offers a Free widget to customers who will go to a landing page and share what’s on their mind this time of year. AKA... what they would “like to own”.

Dealer 1 is only generating quantifiable leads from those who raise their hands and say they are in the market to buy today (low funnel) and are ready to negotiate. Usually less than 1% of your list. Dealer 2 is generating leads from those who are just sharing what they are interested in owning for any department in the dealership. Sure, many of these leads are higher up in the funnel, but he also picks up all of the same low funnel leads that Dealer 1 is getting, but those leads are not as focused on price. So, Dealer 2 has a much larger list of leads to follow up with, creating a month long sales process. Bolt this to the event he has each month, and he is constantly “triggering” the emotion of wanting to own. Furthermore, everyone loves to be invited to a party, and even those who don’t respond or come to Dealer 2’s event, feel an affinity towards that dealer, and when the time comes they will recipricate. 

Gitomer defines it like this: “The head is attached to the price, and the heart is attached to the wallet. If I pull on the heartstring, the wallet will pop out of the back pocket, and the only thing that can stop it is logic.”

It’s officially riding season, and there is no better time of year than right now to execute the above outlined strategy, so you can sell more units and make more money. Contact us today at  877-242-4472 to learn more or visit us online at 

www.powersportsmarketing.com

One of the most common questions I currently hear from dealers is, “Why should I switch to a Firestorm Website?”.  This article will have no fluff or hyperbole… just good ole meat and potatoes answers.

Let’s start with a foundational question: What is the main purpose of your website? 

I’ve mentioned this question before in past articles, but I’d be remiss not to state it again because your answer is like a compass that lets you know if you’re heading in the right direction. For instance, if your website’s main purpose is to get your name out there, you’re done!  It’s doing that. 

The correct answer is: To generate leads. All other functions are secondary.

The average website in the powersports industry gets around 4,000 website visitors and generates about 60 leads per month (or a 1% to 2% conversion rate). Our chief goal with Firestorm Websites is to generate more leads. 

This is meat and potatoes reason #1: Firestorm Websites have a 100% success rate at generating more leads each month, and we'll generate more leads for your dealership as well. For details on what type of increase you could expect for your dealership, call me at 877-242-4472.

But what about quality of the leads? First, let’s address the big fat ELEPHANT in the room:

1. Your website blatantly leads customers and prospects down the path of requesting a quote. Ever wondered why all your website leads are focused on price?

2. The MSRP is listed on your inventory pages, which means you’re pushing website visitors to expect a discount. Ever wondered why all your website leads want a discount?

3. Any good salesperson who follows up with website leads has been taught to avoid price. They’re trained to do their best to get the prospect into the dealership, and whatever they do, avoid talking price!

To recap, your website is actually leading visitors to focus on price and request a quote, but your salesperson is taught to avoid giving them a price? Wow! How is this the norm? Why haven't we caught this... it's terrible?! This process, which leads to a headbutt between your dealership and the prospect, causes less website leads (or a bad conversion rate) and less prospects in the store. 

When “quote request” is your call to action, it’s the equivalent of greeting a showroom guest with “Can I get you a discounted price on any of our inventory?”  That would kill your margin and your closing ratio. Oh yeah, this all leads to salespeople not being excited to get a website lead. Your salespeople ever said, “They’re all junk! It’s a waste of time! They just want our best price out the door! They never come in!”?

Recap: This is meat and potatoes reason #2: Firestorm Websites generate a higher quality lead that’s not just focused on price. Want details? Call me.

What about having real, authentic pictures of your inventory on your website. 

The auto industry is often said to be 10-years ahead of the powersports industry. In the auto industry, if you’re not adding 20 to 30 actual pictures of each unit, you’re doing it wrong. 

The problem is that it’s so darn time-consuming to take all those pictures, save them to your computer, organize them, then add them unit by unit to your website. This is where our back office mobile app comes in handy. 

Recap: Meat and potatoes reason #3: Now you can walk around your showroom and add inventory pictures to your website instantly using a tablet or mobile phone. The time savings and increase in leads this produces is amazing. 

Let’s move to your identity. 

Most dealer’s websites completely lack their culture, local geography and really any identity at all. You could literally slap any dealership logo on the site and it would work. This is not the case with a Firestorm Website.

Recap: Meat and potatoes reason #4: We work tirelessly to provide a completely custom, one-off site that tells your story. 

There are plenty of other features like DMS Integration, VIN Decoding, SSL Security Certificates, Responsive Designs, Great SEO and more, but I’m out of space.

I’m available for a ‘Meat and Potatoes’ phone calls and can show you dozens of live examples and results – call 877-242-4472 and ask for me.

- Tory 

Dealership: 

Northern Ohio Ducati Triumph was founded in January 2010. The driving force behind this dealership stems from the vision and passion of Carl N. Peshoff and Carl M. Peshoff. Their mission statement is not to be the biggest, but simply be the best dealership available for avid motorcyclists. They specialize in Ducati Motorcycles and pride themselves in absolute customer satisfaction. “A motorcycle dealership driven by motorcycle enthusiasts, trying to create the ultimate experience!”

Solution:

Northern Ohio Ducati Triumph invited 2,500 of their past customers to their 8th Anniversary Party.  Using a nice mix of active and inactive customers, they knew they could reactivate customers who hadn’t spent money with them in the previous year and increase frequency of visits of their existing customers to increase the number of customers spending money with them and the amount they spend in 2018.

The Sharp Shooter Program targets customers with up to 12 different, direct marketing strategies ensuring they receive the message multiple times. By increasing the number of times they get the message, we increase response to the survey site and traffic through the doors on event day. Big picture, this multi-touch approach makes it easy to touch their buying base 52-104 times over the course of the year which puts a fence around their herd and makes them immune to other offers from other dealers. Overtime, it helps increase the number of customers spending money with the dealership and on average, how much they spend annually leading to predictable growth for the store.

Focusing the message on the party elements of their event (food, drinks, door prizes, etc.) not only attracted the small number of folks who were ready to buy but hundreds of more customers who didn’t plan on buying anything that Saturday, resulting in tons of impulse purchases and pipeline for future sales.

Results:

JChris, Northern Ohio Ducati’s Sales Manager, said, “It was a rainy day but that didn’t stop people from coming in…we still had over 400 people through the door and sold six on the day of the event, with more deals working! We had a huge day in over the counter sales. It was a great day!”

We followed up with Chris a few days after the event and said they got another three deals out and at least one more credit app. 

Their Sharp Shooter Program generated 266 completed surveys, which created a total of 201 sales opportunities in P&A, Service, and Apparel, PLUS 88 responses for a new or used bike, turning this weekend event into a month-long sales event for each department following up on the leads generated from the event and increasing their Return On Investment.

What’s next?

March means Spring has arrived! If you haven’t planned your Spring Open House yet, call us today to get one on the books. After the winter we’ve had this year, your customers have so much cabin fever, they’re dying for an excuse to get out of the house. It’s your job to get them through your doors before your competition. Don’t wait for the weather to break, because it will already be too late. For more information on how the Sharp Shooter Program can help you have your best year yet, call me on my direct line 877-242-4472

“Couple sells all possessions for sailboat, sinks 2 days into trip.” This is the headline in a recent Fox News article about a young Colorado couple who sold all of their possesions to buy a boat and sail around the world. 

The couple, age 24 and 26 said they were, “tired of working,” and dreamed of a life sailing around the world.

“How can we live our lives when we’re working most of the day and you have to pay so much just to live?” 24 Year old Nikki Walsh told the New York Times. 

So, apparently their solution was to sell all their furniture, their SUV and purchase a 49-year-old boat in Alabama to live on and sail the world. 

“We were pretty prepared,” Walsh said, but the boat capsized in a channel of water called John’s Pass. She and her boyfriend, who previously drove for Uber, did later admit they were “new” to sailing. 

But, wait. There’s more. The couple has set up a Go Fund Me account to help them rescue their boat and keep the ‘sailing the world’ dream alive. Tired of working at age 24? You serious, Clark? <Insert hand slapping me in the face emoji here.>

“You only have one life. Why spend it doing what you don’t love. Money isn’t everything!” Walsh told the Post.

Is this pathetic or what? Money is what makes the makes the world go around, it’s what shapes our economy, our country, our security, and our quality of life. And the only people I’ve ever heard spew that money doesn’t matter crap are people who don’t have any. 

If money isn’t so important then why start the Go Fund Me?

And money moves based on principle. You can’t trick it, and this poor couple is going to learn that the hard way. 

Think about your used inventory. The market, supply and demand, are what dictates the true value of what a unit will bring.  And it can’t be deceived, regardless of what some book or website says it’s worth. I know, because I’ve tried it many times. I can’t tell you how many hundreds of thousands of dollars I’ve written off in obsolete inventory, over allowing for trades, over paying at auctions, etc. I’ve made many stupid mistakes trying to trick the movement of money in business. 

That’s the problem with get-rich-quick schemes, 4-hour work weeks, and silver bullet marketing magic jargon. It’s all attempting to out smart money, and money can’t be out smarted. You must devise a plan, execute that plan, and work to earn it, a concept this young couple has yet to grasp. 

Sadly, this world is full of mis-informed, mis-guided, do-gooders who think giving these folks money is a good idea, which is evident by the over $16,000 that has been donated to their Go Fund Me, exceeding their $10,000 goal! You can’t make this stuff up. 

While that may seem to be a solution to this couple’s challenges, it’s going take a lot more than that to buy a boat and sail the world. It will only undermine the ultimate life lessons about work, money, dignity, discipline, and fulfillment that all successful high achievers learn. Similar to how procrastination and indulgence are just creditors who charge you interest. 

Here at PSM we speak with hundreds of dealers a week, which means we run across many who have no clue of the principles of marketing and/or are trying to outsmart or trick them. Many times, dealers hire young in-experienced marketing managers, or appoint office managers to handle tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing decisions, who are no more qualified to do so than are those two Coloradoans are to sail the world. If you’re reading this, you’re likely not one of them, or won’t be for long. Good for you.

Right Message, Right Market, Right Media, Right Time, are the guiding principles that we have focused on in this newsletter for the last 100 plus issues. It’s also, the foundation behind all of the products we’ve created over the years. And if we can’t quantify its performance with real metrics, we don’t touch it. We don’t do it because it “feels good.” We do it because our metrics say that it works, and we should do more of it.

That’s one of the many reasons I’m so excited about our Firestorm email system. Not only is it architected with our guiding principles in mind, it’s the only email software built from the ground up specifically for this industry that allows you to send kick ass emails fast, without needing to be a graphics wizard. The data says it’s consistently one of the top three sources of website traffic for our clients often accounting for more than 1/3 of all total website traffic. That’s huge! But, that’s not the only thing that makes our system unique. We’re able to follow that traffic to your site, and then send them a follow up triggered email, taking an anonymous website visitor and moving them further into the sales funnel. 

This couple’s plan may have sunk, but yours doesn’t have to ; -). To learn more, join one of afternoon webinar training sessions at https://www.powersportsmarketing.com/training-calendar or give us a call, 877.242.4472.

 OBJECTIVE

Yamaha-Triumph-KTM of Camp Hill is Central Pennsylvania’s #1 Powersports dealership. They strive to build a long-term, relationship based on trust and respect with all their customers. With over twenty-five years of experience, local powersports enthusiasts know that they can count on quality products and services any time they visit Yamaha-Triumph-KTM of Camp Hill.

Duane Summers, Dealer Principal, knows that one of the best ways to continue building those relationships is to let the local enthusiasts know where to go when they are searching for a local powersports dealer.  But, experience is as important for Duane as it is for his customers. Quality experience means choosing a marketing partner that knows both the powersports industry and the marketing channels that generated a proven, positive ROI. 

SOLUTION

Yamaha-Triumph-KTM of Camp Hill has been using the Local Web Dominator program to help with lead generation, reputation management and search engine marketing.  By taking advantage of the vast industry knowledge and Google AdWords expertise in the PSM Digital Marketing department, Duane has been able to generate quantifiable results from his campaign.  He’s able to maintain a lean, targeted budget that generates a positive ROI each month. 

RESULTS

By using Google AdWords experts who also are immersed in the powersports industry, the Yamaha-Triumph-KTM of Camp Hill account was able to see some incredible results. During the first quarter (typically considering the ‘slow season’ for many powersports dealers…especially in the north), the campaign managed within the Local Web Dominator program generated a 12% Conversion Rate! These numbers are significant considering that the average Conversion Rate (how many leads did the campaign create) is typically about 5-6%.  Duane’s campaign doubled that which included 59 unit leads and 77 phone calls to the dealership

Additionally, the campaign increased their website traffic by 12% all quarter.  And, to really show off, the campaign had a 12% average click through rate as well (Google considers anything over a 2% CTR to be a good campaign).

So, it seems that 12 is Duane’s lucky number so far this year.  It’ll be exciting to see how those numbers respond once we’re in the full swing of the riding season.

Does your current digital marketing strategy generate a 12% increase in quantifiable web leads?  If not, we’d love to help you create a campaign that generates the kind of positive ROI that Duane at Yamaha-Triumph-KTM of Camp Hill is seeing, even in the ‘slow season’.

Call us today at 877-242-4472 or request a Free Demo at www.powersportsmarketing.com/local-web-dominator, so we can walk you through the benefits of the Local Web Dominator program.

 Whether you like President Trump or not, there is no arguing that the economy is booming. Unemployment rates are the lowest they’ve been in a decade, which, on a side note, has also led to food stamp assistance being at a 10 year low a well. Things are looking good and you can grab your portion of this good economy, but you gotta work for it. 

There are 2 types of dealers:

1. Market-Driven Dealers – Their success is strictly dependent upon the market, good weather, hot OEMs and a good economy.

2. Marketing-Driven Dealers – They create their own success through marketing to their buying base every single month (I’ll explain in more detail later).

Obviously, there’s no denying that a great economy, good weather and a hot OEM make a difference. The best combination, however, is to be a Marketing-Driven Dealer while the market’s hot. I’ll focus this article on how to implement a System for Predictable Growth and become a Marketing-Driven Dealer. 

It all starts with your buying base. These are the folks who live close to your dealership and fall into 3 buckets:

1. Active Customers – Customers who’ve done business with you within the last 12-months. 

2. Inactive Customers – Past customers who haven’t done business with you in the last 12-months.

3. Conquest Prospects – Riders in your market area who buy what you sell, but not from you. 

95+% of your sales across all departments over the next 12-months will come from these 3 groups. Less than 5% will be riders who move into your area, or first-time riders. 

I understand the need for brand new riders, and that’s what most of the OEMs are focused on right now. Your culture needs to celebrate new riders and make it easy for them to buy, but you can’t spend a disproportionate amount of your limited time and budget going after where less than 5% of your sales will come from. Leave that to the OEMs; there’s a much better way. 

Our Sharp Shooter program scientifically goes after the 95+% (Active Customers, Inactive Customers and Conquest Prospects) and gives them a reason to provide their name, email address, phone number and tell you what they’re most interested in purchasing right now. We send you this information in a spreadsheet on every campaign. This alone creates a positive ROI, but it gets even better. We also give your buying base a reason to visit your dealership... a fun event/party with your choice of food, drinks, door prizes, demo rides & more.   

The Sharp Shooter program’s success in creating leads (in both the lead list and traffic coming in to the store) is through a proven marketing system that targets the right people, reaching them with the best media, utilizing a specific message with perfect timing. Mess with any one of these components even a little and the campaign fails. 

Important Note: The Sharp Shooter program is not designed for a one-off event. While it will drive in lots of traffic and create a list of leads for you, that’s not its true purpose. This is where the Predictable Growth System I mentioned earlier comes in. Implementing a Sharp Shooter every single month will predictably grow:

• The number of Active Customers year-over-year. If more customers do business with you in 2018 than did in 2017, you’ve grown the dealership.

• The average value of each customer year-over-year. 

For easy math, let’s take a look at a $5,000,000 store with 2,000 Active Customers who have an average value of $2,500. 

With 10% growth in Active Customers (2,200) and their average value ($2,750), this same store does $6,050,000. That’s 21% growth, or over $1 million dollars.

The Sharp Shooter program is specifically designed to increase those 2 metrics, and nothing does a better job if you do it every month.

For more information call 1-877-242-4472 or visit

 www.powersportsmarketing.com/sharp-shooter

- Tory

 Having a good online reputation is no joke. 

Back when I was running dealerships, the internet wasn’t what it is today. There were no review, or social media sites for people to congregate on and share experiences. When you had the occasional psychopath that came into the dealership, had a bad experience, and subsequently lost his ever-loving mind, the “blast zone” that he created was relatively contained. You had the opportunity to talk him off the ledge, get his issue solved, and turn him back into a fan, mano y mano, as it were.

Sometimes that wasn’t possible, but in those rare situations, again, the “blast zone” was small, so it wasn’t usually catastrophic – just unfortunate.

Fast forward to today. With the internet being the huge influencer that it is now, and having Google aggregating reviews, your dealership is now on stage – for better or worse. Dissatisfied customers can now go online and have a serious impact on the financial health of your business.

According to a recent Brightstar study, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. That’s a big deal, especially considering there’s no filter for crazy. 

Oh, and a fun fact: dissatisfied customers are 11 times more likely to give you a bad review than satisfied customers. So, there’s that…

Depending on how upset the customer is, and how tech savvy they are, you can have a real problem on your hands. One extreme example that comes to mind right away is that a dealer we know – who is a good dealer – had a run in about 10 years ago with someone who came into their shop with a problem while passing through town on a trip. Long story short, he accused the shop of causing a small scratch on the top of his tank, by the gas cap.  He wanted a paint job (instead of a very minor touch-up). The shop advised that they didn’t scratch it, and they wouldn’t be providing the free paint job he wanted.  They would entertain a touch up though. Now, knowing the folks involved like I do, they didn’t scratch the tank, but the customer wouldn’t settle for a touch up.

Unfortunately, the customer was an employee of a reputation management company – and unreasonable. He created a website in protest of the dealership, used some solid SEO practices, created tons of negative reviews, and best of all actually ran a Google AdWords campaign (with a small budget) for about 8 years.

Now, 10 years later, as I’m writing this article I Googled the dealership’s name and the first result is the actual dealership’s name, and the second is this clown’s site.

Online reputation management is important.

Now, not everyone has something that crazy happen – but every dealer who has been open for more than a week has some kind of unhappy customer story they can tell. 

Unfortunately, the first thing many of them do is go online to share their experience (justified or not). 

So, what do you do when you get a bad review?

First, you’re going to need to take a breather and let the emotions pass. It’s totally normal to get pissed off when somebody calls your baby ugly. Once the initial adrenaline surge is over, you’ll be in a better place to look at what was said more objectively. DO NOT fire off a quick response. Remember, on the internet the world is watching – and you want to be sure that you don’t come off looking bad. If you want to see examples of bad review responses, do a Google search of “Amy’s Bakery.” Don’t be Amy….

That said, you do have to respond. The only thing worse than having a bad review online is having a bad review online that didn’t get the courtesy of a response from the business trying to fix the problem. Crickets are a terrible response. Readers view that as you not caring.

So second, you want to take care of the issue. In most cases, there is at least some nugget of truth or place where something got sideways that could or should be addressed. So, when you’ve settled down, respond to the review in a non-combative way, and if appropriate apologize for the less than excellent experience – but most importantly, take the conversation off stage. Ask the reviewer to call you, email you, or swing by in person, so that you can resolve the issue. This accomplishes a few important things. First, you can actually resolve the issue. Second, you can do so out of the public eye. Third, you can win back a customer. Fourth, once resolved you can ask them to edit their review. You’d be surprised how many people will. Reviews that reflect initial dissatisfaction and then resolution add a great deal of credibility to you and your dealership. They show that you take customer concerns to heart.

Third, you want to bury the bad with the good. What I mean is that you want to bury bad reviews with tons of good ones. Anyone with even the smallest amount of common sense knows that nobody is perfect, and that everyone is going to get bad reviews from time to time. The important thing is that the good should far outweigh the bad, and that the bad should be handled professionally. 

Unfortunately, many dealers get the normal and customary number of bad reviews, but don’t have systems and processes in place to harvest the good reviews they need to put things in perspective. If you fall into that category, and find it a struggle to harvest good reviews regularly, we have a fix for that. Give us a call and let us show you how we’ve helped hundreds of dealers all across the country.

Talk soon 

Brad