One of the key success factors for an auto dealership’s online reputation is customer satisfaction.
How many times have you visited a store, restaurant, maybe even a car dealership, based off a friend’s personal recommendation?
A reliable suggestion or warning will weigh heavily on your decision when making a purchase. Satisfied customers are key to the success of any business, but an unsatisfied customer could single-handedly break it.
Online reviews work in a similar way. According to Bright Local, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations.
What your customers are saying about you could make or break you. The difference between making the sale or losing out to the competition could depend on how you manage your online reputation.
There are hundreds of sites that offer to host your dealership’s online reviews, but which ones should your car dealership be targeting?
At the very least, you should focus on the big two: Google and Facebook. It’s also critical to keep close tabs on carsales.com.au/ and other industry-specific sites.
To successfully manage your dealership’s online reputation, you need to keep a watchful eye on each of these review sites. Be sure that you are actively monitoring your accounts and that you are responding to reviews appropriately.
You also need to be as transparent as possible, but what does “transparency” mean here? Transparency shows your customers that you’re brave enough to welcome criticism and willing to reply and treat comments with polite professionalism.
According to Hootsuite, with the exception of a complete absence of reviews, there is nothing worse for your business’s social proof than negative reviews left without a response.
Not only does this leave the audience without your perspective on the issue, it can also come off as lack of caring about what your customers think about your product or service.
Unless you are the world’s most perfect business, you are likely going to get a poor review or two. If you manage your reviews, you will be aware of these reviews and it is important that you respond to them. It can seem like a frustrating endeavour, but taking the time to respond will go a long way in managing your reputation.
As a general rule of thumb, you should follow these four steps when responding to a negative review:
Remain calm and collected, don’t let your emotions get the best of you.
Apologise (“We’re sorry to hear…”)
Offer a solution to their problem (We’d like to do all we can to fix/change that…”)
Ask to continue the conversation privately (“Please contact our customer service manager at this number…”)
Leaving polite and helpful responses to negative reviews can ensure a positive online reputation. Also, always remember to offer a clear path to resolution.
Now that we’ve discussed the kind of presence you should have online, it is important to know why you should strive to obtain online reviews on an ongoing basis.
The number of reviews plays a very important role in your customer’s decision-making process, in fact, it is second only to the overall star rating. In addition, the recent nature of your reviews plays a determining factor in how often and where your business’ reviews may be seen.
Getting online reviews for your business is easier than you think, but you probably won’t get them if you aren’t building “the ask” into the sales process. There are a number of different methods for asking for a review, but politely asking for a review via text message by far has the highest response rate.
Text messages have a 99% open rate, much higher than the 23% open rate of email.
You should also make sure you build “the ask” into the right time of your customers’ visit. You should aim to send invites at the most convenient time for the customer while they are still in your dealership.
If they have some down time waiting on paperwork or credit approval, they are more likely to leave you a review because you are top-of-mind. Quick tip: don’t batch emails to send out later.
If you want to learn more about how you can better collect and manage online reviews for your dealership Register for the webinar How to Drive and Optimise Your Dealership’s Reputation with Online Reviews to learn the tips and tricks you need to collect reviews and attract more car buyers!
Register Here
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