BZ Results Sites & Buzz Mail

[Mitch Gallant]

For many of us who don't use BZ results there may not be much to gripe about. Many of us have shopped for new providers and heard BZ Results pitch. Although they put on a very clean, scripted and thought out presentation, I personally can't wrap my head around the BUZZ MAIL and the look & feel of the BZ Results sites.

In my experience, the instant you land on a BZ results site you know it. The button shapes, the layouts and the whole feel are re-purposed across the thousands of sites on the web. In my opinion, that’s not good.

The BUZZ MAIL is the other point of contention I have with BZ. To qualify my criticism, BZ will create and supply new Buzz Mail templates specific to your request and although I don’t have exact figures, I’m under the impression it’s a very expensive request. They sell the buzz mail hard. At first glance it seems to be a useful tool, and mixed with some common sense, should be effective.(not sending the same piece 2 or 3 times to the same person) In my experience though, the novelty wears off very quickly, especially if you’re customer shops two or three dealers using the BZ platform and receives the same number of identical Buzz Mails. In my opinion, that’s not good.

We all should know that customers want to feel special, emotions are a big part of the sale and when corresponding via email the more personalized the better. When someone feels treated like an honored guest, they believe the entire experience throughout the ownership of the vehicle will be just as exceptional. So if you’re hitting them with the same message as Billy down the road, you loose a lot of pull and sales. In my opinion, that’s really not good!

Any dealers using or shopping BZ care to defend or give an account of their first hand experience?

 

[JohnnyMac]

Mitch - so is BZ Results the only web provider you take issue with out of the list that Alex and Jeff have put together?

 

[Mitch Gallant]

Mitch - so is BZ Results the only web provider you take issue with out of the list that Alex and Jeff have put together?

Johnny - BZ results is certainly not the only web provider I take issue with. There will be others I offer my opinions on but BZ was at the top of the heap for the reasons I listed. I'm genuinely interested in hearing what folks have to say about BZ, if there are success stories they ought to be aplauded and if there are warnings lets get them out in the open.

 

[neil]

Mitch I can tell you that when I was in the car business I was fortunate enough to grow our internet sales into one of if not the largest dedicated internet departments in the Southeast. We sold 85 - 100 cars per month start to finish online for several years... until I left.

While I can't comment on the dealerships current results because I simply don't know... but after I left they moved to BZ. I personally go to the sites and cringe at the fact I get hit right off with a Save $250 coupon, then search for new car inventory to only never find it as the site tries to force feed me an 800 number to call. While maybe not all of the BZ sites are set up this way... but theirs sucks now. What consumer would want this?

The guys I chat with at the dealership from time to time say... Yeah, it works good more people just call, they are local, we don't have to deal with trade ins from far off and delivering cars outside of our market. WHAT?

I can also tell you that the internet department that was once delivering 85+ cars a month is no longer. It's busted up and the one guy they were about to blow out last month just got promoted to Internet Sales... it's the same ol crap.

My advise is to look at options which provide you with an online shopping-to-purchase experience that you would personally use if you were the customer. Hope that helps.

Johnny - BZ results is certainly not the only web provider I take issue with. There will be others I offer my opinions on but BZ was at the top of the heap for the reasons I listed. I'm genuinely interested in hearing what folks have to say about BZ, if there are success stories they ought to be aplauded and if there are warnings lets get them out in the open.

 

[Indie Results]

As someone who does SEO for a living BZ is by far the worst of all vendors. I wont even get into what it takes to get them to mock up a PPC landing page...or maybe I will...they want to charge you $750.00. I have had some success with BZ SEO clients but most often we are way more effective if they take the $5000 a month they are spending, go with a better vendor, and commit a little more to SEO. I don't dislike them as much as I do Cobalt, but at least Cobalt is "somewhat" flexible.

 

[neil]

I agree... and the sites that I am speaking of are for a company that has been in business for 75 and with BZ has a PR Rank of 0 - Another site has a PR Rank of 1 that is in the same dealer group.

As someone who does SEO for a living BZ is by far the worst of all vendors. I wont even get into what it takes to get them to mock up a PPC landing page...or maybe I will...they want to charge you $750.00. I have had some success with BZ SEO clients but most often we are way more effective if they take the $5000 a month they are spending, go with a better vendor, and commit a little more to SEO. I don't dislike them as much as I do Cobalt, but at least Cobalt is "somewhat" flexible.

 

[Mitch Gallant]

This is great insight guys, please keep it coming. You've touched on some points I was weary of, but the SEO is a great piece of data to have. I'm shocked that they would try to charge such an inordinate price for such a rediculously simple page - in my experience any PPC or other purposed landing pages I've built on my own, I know the message I'd like to convey with appropriate graphics I've created.

Are there still any big dealer groups with BZ? Anyone having any luck with them? ...digging for positives seems to only ferret out more cautions and warnings. What happened to JohhnyMac...come on brother, step up.

 

[Alex Snyder]

These guys do pretty well with BZ: Herb Chambers Dealerships - Official Homepage of Herb Chambers Companies serving the Greater Boston Massachusetts Metropolitan Area - but they're not just stroking a monthly check and walking away.

However - there sure are a lot of inconsistencies on their site. Try getting back to the home page after clicking on Free LoJack. Or do an inventory search from the group site. If you have pop-ups disabled (like me) it doesn't work. But they have a Page Rank of 5 and I'm jealous!

 

[Jason Walter]

I personally have had great results with BZ. I have been using them for years. I believe you can find issues with any company out there these days. With that said what we have done is to make sure that BZ provide us with the tools and training to acheive our vision. If there was ever an area in which they could not do so we just made it happen ourselves. The best thing I can suggest is that whoever you choose...make sure you cultivate a good relationship with them. I have no issues getting something I need out of BZ and their products.

Good luck to you...

 

[kevinfrye]

I know many dealers got onboard with BZ after seeing Ralph Paglia's success with Courtesy Chevrolet. My primary concern was differentiation with your competition, as we had several GM dealers in our market all using BZ, and a local shopper was getting the same exact "Buzzmails" from multiple dealers in their area...