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DealerRater not syncing with Google Places

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Mitch Gallant

Mitch Gallant

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Apr 6, 2009
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Mitch
#1
I'm losing my $h!t and can't figure out how to get DealerRater to roll up into my google places account. I've tried making sure the phone #'s are consistent and called DealerRater, consulted with a few of our vendors in the marketing space, and all I get is Google does what it does and we can't make Google do anything it doesn't want to.

It's been rolled up before for a day or two, then down for a week, up for a day and most recent, it hasn't rolled up for over a month. We don't leverage DealerRater as well as we could and THE ONLY VALUE i want from it is for our reviews to be on google when our map listings show up.

Exibit A - Places listing with one pathetic review

Exibit B - DealerRater page with 28 Reviews

Anyone have advice beyond "Can't do anything about it except wait it out." ??
 
#2
Mitch,

Looks to me like the NAP (Name, address, phone) isn't matching 100%. I don't speak Canadian but I'm assuming SK is an abbreviation for Saskatchewan, yes? Phone numbers aren't a 100% match either, but I'm not sure how to handle what I assume is the country code on your Places page... I'll make a phone call in the morning and get some clarification on that from the smart people. NAP is key to Google finding and associating the correct DealerRater reviews page to the Places pages. Any changes to NAP on either end will disrupt things. You mentioned that things were working and stopped, have you made any changes to the NAP on your Places page or DealerRater page recently?

Beyond that it pretty much is a wait on Google situation since they scrape for the data, we don't "roll it up." We have had some very persistent dealers making daily phone calls and using the "report a problem" link on the Places page with some success as well. Do you want for me to get you the number for Google?

Now, when this gets fixed we need to talk about Places being "THE ONLY VALUE" you see in DealerRater ;)
 
#3
Thanks Ryan.

Ok, I hear exactly what you're saying. You're right on the SK thing. I cannot change the google listing so we'll have to change in on DealerRater and as far as the phone numbers are concerned I'm not sure why it shows with the +1 before the 800 number. I've changed it back to our local # and will contact dealerRater to get that changed as well.

I realize you guys don't "roll it up", that's simply the term I was using to reference getting our reviews onto google.

I'd love more feedback on some tactics to use DealerRater as more of a value prop!

Speaking of tactics:light:, what other players are on DealerRater in Canada? I'd love to use DealerRater in some print ads and refer to our dealership as the "#1 DealerRater Dealer in THE COUNTRY" or something like that.... even though we haven't yet cracked 30 with our reviews. :lol:
 
#4
Mitch Gallant said:
I realize you guys don't "roll it up", that's simply the term I was using to reference getting our reviews onto google.
Click to expand...

There is a lot of confusion as to how review content makes it to the Places page. Joe's comments on Places pages and listings from this article are a great read and highly recommended.

Mitch Gallant said:
I'd love more feedback on some tactics to use DealerRater as more of a value prop!
Click to expand...

What's the hockey equivalent to a softball over the middle, open net and a line change? ;) You tee'd that one up so high I'm afraid to swing at it.

I'm super-sensitive to anything that smells like a salespitch on this forum, I don't like reading them anymore than anybody else. That said, I am really proud to be a part of the DealerRater team and I'm excited to talk about what we do well. I was an enthusiastic fan before I had the opportunity to work here and I was really surprised at how many dealers stopped by the booth at DD10 just to say "thanks and keep up the good work." I'm going to assume most Refreshers are already aware of the importance of reviews and DealerRater's ability to assist with monitoring and managing reputation, if not PM me and I'll setup a demo for you. Here are some of the things I've been saying to my dealers recently. Hopefully this gets your creative juices flowing.

I've told a lot of dealers that if you are just building reviews and not leveraging them to close unsold prospects you are only scraping the surface. The point of building reviews is to leverage them. Peer Reviews are important to customers! Google will do some of that for you in the Places Page, but the sky is the limit and the more progressive stores are already finding new ways to get the most out of the RSS feeds and individual pages we supply. I have multiple dealers running radio campaigns that highlight their #1 ranking in their PMA, one dealer put a similar message on a billboard, one is using QR codes and custom URL's to drive customers to leave reviews, several have terminals on the showroom floor dedicated to the state directory for their make so their reps can walk prospects through their great reviews and competing stores not so great reviews, one is using that 32nd photoslot for a DealerRater certified tile, Kershner posted a great video on sharing individual reviews to your Fanpage, Sales reps are sharing their personal reviews on their personal Facebook pages...and then there are the Alpha type dealers out there gobbling up ad space on the site to create a further competitive advantage...

I'll end with this. The best tactic is to get your staff trained. Take advantage of those 6 weekly trainings and put everybody through. One of your people will have that lightbulb moment and start building and leveraging reviews and force the rest of your team to take notice when they are getting slayed on the sales board. The early adopter will drag the middle up and you probably don't want the guy that is afraid to ask for reviews because he thinks they will be negative.

Sorry for the long post and I hope that helps...
 
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#5
Two of my stores are having the same problem as well. One did have information that was slightly different between Google and Dealerrater. The other matched exactly. Not sure what is going on with the syncing between the two sites, but hopefully it gets fixed soon.
 
#6
I've since made sure that the NAP (Name, Address, Phone #) are matching and have seen some small improvements. The reviews haven't moved onto the search results page yet BUT on my places listing it's showing 3 reviews from dealerRater, which aren't counted in the review count or showing stars but at least they're on there. I have to assume they will start to roll up all of them soon... my hope anyway...
 
#9
Great News Mitch. I'm now running into some issues with Google places out of nowhere. My Mitsu,Toyo and MB dealer places pages are all flipped around. Just happened too. And I was just getting ready to pull the trigger on Boost as well.
 
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