Highly considering the switch from Reynolds and Reynolds to TK can someone please give me some good advice? I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR FROM ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE COMPETITION TO TK BASHING THEM (REMEMBER: THAT IS NOT PROFESSIONAL). Thank you for the support!

Jason,
Love your scrappy attitude. Ya gotta put your URL in your comments (I want to see your efforts in action!)

Joe

How are you two measuring conversion rates?

Jason- Interesting points you make, and with regards to the customer using your website for an information portal, I would agree, with qualifications. What I have noticed over the last several years is a pronounced movement from 3rd party websites to the manufacturers, to the dealers. In other words, as people have come to trust the content of the manufacturer and then the dealer, I have seen an increase in "fresh" shoppers on the website vs. a couple of years ago. I think it is also essential to consider what make you are selling. Most everyone knows Accord and Camry are among the highest for inquiries on the Internet. But what about the other makes? I would submit buyers like GM and Ford customers are where Toyota and Honda customers were 2-3 years ago. We very well may see a change in the dynamics of domestic customers in their research.

Pop-up coupons are VERY annoying, and that is why I use mine as a pop-behind. It is an effective tool, and is less annoying for the customer.

LOL - i brewed my own website for my families dealership, and conversion has never been under 16% in a year. I once replaced our entire site with nothing but a header graphic and contact form - and had a 30% conversion! With a ONE PAGE site. So much for 'engage your visitor', video tours, 360 degree inventory shots, keeping up with technology, keeping up with the dealer down the road, blah blah blah...

People coming to a dealership web site are NOT looking for an info portal. To many of my fellow iternet directors and ISM's seem to make their website a monument to their ego, when it really should only be for one thing - getting people to call, email, or drive in.

The key is NOT convincing the web surfer to sumbit a lead. The key is staying out of their way long enough so they can contact you.

pop-up coupons: Annoying? yes. Effective? very. I expiremented with them for several months, and our conversion rate went from the high teens to the twenties. Fact: actual shoppers like/want coupons. Unfortunately, I had to yank them from our site because sales staff were printing them off for walk-in customers AFTER the manager desking the deal - the sales manager was going nuts!

## begin rant ##

I spend hours every day pouring over analytics and web logs for our dealerships internet endeavors. Something I have learned doing by this: based on what they say in the mags, most vendors and so-called 'expert' ISM's really don't know what they are talking about. I guess this shouldn't surpise me - as pointed out already by the TK rep, dealers seem to always insist on doing things to their sites that actually hurt them, and vendors are in the business of providing them with what they want.

Framing in another vendors inventory module instead of developing your own - LAME. I expect it from a small 1 man shop w/o a real programmer - not bigger vendors with an actual staff. It only took me 1 week to build an 'inventory module' from scratch. Another day to get it to feed autotrader.com. It took 1 month to build an internet lead management application. Granted, up until a year ago I was an IT consultant (ie, 'programmer for hire' ), but every city is FULL of guys like me.

Most of these companies do nothing more then make a flashy home page - yet charge out the NOSE for it. For one days labor. They whip something up in photoshop over a few hours, import it into adobe flash to make the mouse-over effects, etc; then ftp it to a web server a few hours later. Come to think of it, maybe I need to get into their business!

oh, I can't stay quiet about this -
We all get email every month from TK.
How many of us actually opted in? We didn't.
Have you tried to opt out, like we have tried doing unsuccessfully for years?
Do you know that's a felony, with an $11k fine per occurance? CAN-SPAM www.ftc.gov/spam

First off I know I am a little late to start in on this. However, I wanted to voice my opinion. Second I just found this site from a article in Wards Dealer Business and have to say there is a lot of great info on here! Hats off to Jeff!

I have been with TK for about 3 years now. Almost on a daily basis I look at the competitors to get new ideas and keep up with this ever changing technology. Since my switch to TK from Cobalt I have never looked back! Richard and his team are second to none. They added a new SEO/SEM guy that is probably one of the industry leaders in this field a few months back. Find me another website company that converts CONSITANTLY over 10.5% of traffic to leads and I may take a second look at them.

I would recomend TK to any dealer!!! (Well as long as they are not my direct comp...) =)

Just my $.02

Again Jeff great website! Probably to much info for my little brain….

I recently started working with TK, and I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed with Richard and his team. Great websites, great conversions, and incredible SEO.

(then again, I'm biased, as SEO is what I do)

Jeff,

I am suprised at your comments regarding the Dealer's Choice Awards because you obviously have not looked into how they are derived. If you took a minute to find out, you will see that they're not crap. It all depends on how well you treat your clients and how well you get out the vote. You have to do both right to succeed.

Had it been a result of ad dollar spending, BZ would have beat all of us every year but they never even placed the past 3 years! At least not in the website category. Furthermore, TK had the highest score of all vendors in all categories including names like Toyota Motor Credit and Auto Trader.

With all due respect, I would suggest some fact finding before just making a blanket statement that they are all crap.

Auto Dealer Monthly puts out a good magazine and they do not have bias on this award. Trust me on that. They called many of our clients to confirm the votes. Harlene is one tough cookie on this one.

By the way, when can we advertise on Dealer Refresh or would you consider that a "sell out"? I want to place a big banner on the top of your site. How about a Dealer Refresh I Hate These Awards Award? Better yet, The Crappiest Awards Award? You can rank the awards from the crap to the crappiest.

So many of these web site designers today are using this "cookie cutter" approach they all begin to look the same. It is like being at the super market check out counter and you see all the "trash
magazines."

If a dealer wishes to make a statement to the comsumer then they need to develope their own image and design to seperate themselves from the competition just as they would their physical property.

Take a look at Jeff's dealer site and it makes a statement, it seperates itself from the competition.

When you look at BZ and many of the other "cookie cutters" the only thing most of these dealers are able to compete on is the price. The site is inpersonal and indifferent. The clients; most opt out because they are bombarded with emails they do not want and then you have lost the client

These dealers have forgotten why they embraced the web in the first place.

The funny thing is they pay through the nose ($5-6,000.00 a month) to all have the same look and feel... Go figure.

I had stopped considering TK because of some of the comments here, then I was looking through the April Auto Dealer Monthly which had their Dealers' Choice Awards. TK not only won, but has done so 3 years in a row.

I'm starting to wonder if some of the negative comments were posted by competitors.

No Jennifer, you rock! I'm sure Vicky will be happy to see this.

I am very glad that TK Carsites is on here with Dealerrefresh! Our Dealership has been with them for quite a while now. The most impressing part of them is Customer Service! I have never been so pleased with Vicky Perkins during the time of her customer service position. Very quick and accurate. They have a large variety of tools and easy to navigate for my on line customers. I am again pleased to have the TK CARSITES recognized for what they can do and offer!

They will go out of their way to help fix a problem if any. The very nice thing on the TK Carsites has is the Digital Brochures. I send a digital brochure on the first email to the customer so it is there for them to further their purchasing needs!

You Rock TK Carsites!!!!

Jennifer Schrader
Williams Honda of Traverse City

Thank you for the feedback Sharon. Keep in mind, the 30 day free trial is still available on many of our products. We have some new stuff coming out in June I'm sure you'll like. Call us when you're ready.

I worked with TK Carsites in my prior position as Internet Sales Manager at Gary Rome Hyundai in Holyoke MA and found them to be very helpful in every aspect. Andy is superb and right on top of things. Some tools we used worked, some did not (based on customer type) but they always gave us a free trial and were incredibly helpful...and available! I plan to contact them when I start my new position. You can't beat the 30 Second Credit App for success. We had a 70% closing ratio with that.

While I think everyone here has valid points, I'd like to say that I do at least know first-hand what some of the problems are that TK faces. While industry professionals may know what's best for ease of use, SEO, etc., the dealers sometimes do not. In the event a dealer insists on having things their way, regardless of how bad their ideas might be, as a website provider we sometimes just have to accommodate. Our company has been forced into this situation on a few occasions. After being advised against it, one dealer insisted on using a third party inventory management platform and having us frame it into their site. Another dealer insisted on so many custom elements to his site that go against all web design conventions that it's truly the epitome of a bad site design. It makes it tough when you know the site you design isn't set up the way you think it should be, but since the customers pay the bills it's ultimately their call. At the end of the day both of our example dealers are happy with our services, and more importantly, happy with the amount of leads they receive. I think the "easiest to use" comment is a bold statement and don't necessarily agree with Richard, however TK has made a name for themselves in the industry, so they must be doing something right.

Corey,

Thank you for the information. However, Monster Auto Credit chose to add the browse inventory/search inventory page.

We develop websites exactly the way the dealer wants it.

We appreciate your comments.

No problem. Your site, your rules. Mod me out if you think I'm being too cynical. All I am looking for is accountability in the statements that are made in this industry.

Every statement I have made here is accurate.

No thanks. If your system is the best than you should be able to provide live examples instead of that fake in-house inventory page.

I found one at http://www.monsterautocredit.com/browseinv.html that looks like the one you're talking about, and here are issues that persist.

Still too many clicks to get to the cars. Although this particular site doesn't create popups, I still had to click 3 times to find the cars.

How many pictures do you have available for this car? I'm forced to click around and count myself.

Sure, your fake inventory page (that you've linked to twice already in these comments) might look nice by itself, but what happens when you wrap it with a website? This inventory also uses a frame to show me the content, and I must use both veritcal and horizontal scroll bars to see all of the vehicle details page. If I resize my browser the page layout breaks just like the other did.

While looking at Monster Auto Credit's inventory, I decided to sort by Make. The page doesn't tell me how many BMW's are instock, so I click BMW from the Make drop down list. At this point, the page breaks in Mozilla FireFox. The first BMW X5 series listing is way off to the right beside the Body box, making the horizontal scroll bar even longer than it was before. Now that the page is mangled I want to go back to unfiltered results. There's no button to go back to the default view now, and I must rely on my browser's back button.

While this system is a little better than the first I saw, I still won't call it the "easiest to use".

Corey,

Thank you for the SEO compliment.

You are right with Ryan Auto Mall inventory, it is a TK site but they are not using TK Inventory. However, you can check out our inventory solution at: http://tkcarsites.com/list_inv.html

We are custom, and do offer zero click inventory but it is ultimately up to the dealer to make that selection. Call us at 714.937.1239 if you would like a tour of zero click inventory.

We do appreciate your comments.

Todd,

Every company has suppliers. Even manufacturers get many components for their cars from the same suppliers yet you would not be able to tell unless you worked for a manufacturer.

For example, many manufacturers use the same software for their navigation systems yet the look, feel and navigation is different because each of them has different specifications. You may find certain ones are easier to use because of these specifications.

Because you are in the industry, you are aware that many providers use Homenet, yet from an end users point of view, they all have a different look and different navigation. This is due to the specifications provided by the website provider to Homenet.

The problem with many providers is they forget about the end user or they test products on individuals in the automotive industry. We are confident our display and details page is the most user friendly in the industry and we challenge anyone to test ours against our competition with users outside the automotive industry. Thats what TK does prior to releasing any product. TK tests with individuals using a company that focuses on people from all age groups, occupations and education levels.

Richard, I disagree. Your company is decent at SEO, but to say that your inventory system is the "easiest to use" is way off target.

I went to one of your featured dealers, Ryan AutoMall (http://www.ryanautomall.com/Used_Cadillac_Chevrolet_Cars.html). Here are the problems that I encountered...

1. It takes 4 clicks to even find cars for sale. I have to first close the pop up window. Then click Find a Vehicle, then Used Inventory. You should look into what some of your competitors are advertising as "one-click" inventory.

2. How many pictures does this car have? I don't know unless I click the car and count them myself. Your competitors will tell me before I even click on a car.

2. If I click any vehicle, it loads into a frame on the right hand side of the page. The vehicle page is too wide for this frame, and I can't see the "New Search" box. If I widen my browser to eliminate the horizontal scroll bar, the top of the layout breaks.

3. I can't read any of the text under the heading "Vehicle Inquiry" because of the choice of colors used on this part of the page.

I challenge YOU to compare TK Carsites inventory listings and detail pages to other providers from the END USERS POINT OF VIEW.

What so special about TK Carsites inventory module? It not even TK's, it is a framed in Homenet inventory module that BZ Results and many more web development companies use.

It's common knowledge that Inventory is the biggest source of leads for Dealerships. Many website providers focus on building elaborate "flashy" inventory listings and detail pages while losing site of the end user.

I challenge anyone to compare TK Carsites inventory listings and detail pages to other providers from the END USERS POINT OF VIEW. I'm confident you will see TK Carsites inventory is the easiest to use.

Check it out at http://tkcarsites.com/list_inv.html

I have you in my RSS feed.

I know Joe. Maybe you can let me borrow that crystal ball and I could find some "time" floating around in there.

I was playing around with the Homenet PDA piece last year and it was slick. Not sure what the delay is.

Thanks Joe.

Jeff