- Mar 21, 2012
- 807
- 1,073
- Awards
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- Ryan
"Framed" Reviews - A Good Thing...? Yes!
Ok, it’s 2014 and pretty much everyone knows that our dealerships’ reputation and online reviews are important. Yayy for us for catching on! So now we love promoting that we’re the #1 Rated Ford Dealer in California, DealerRater Dealer of the Year, in business for 100+ years, etc. However the issue is that we tend to only promote this in our advertising – television, radio, newspaper, website, etc. What about when we actually succeed in getting the coveted customer into our dealership and they are sitting in front of our salespeople and on the fence about buying a car?
Although your reputation and reviews may have influenced this customer’s decision through their research to stop by, they have most likely forgotten about all of that that now or it’s not at the top of their mind. All they are mainly worried about now is getting the right vehicle at the right price. Their big purchase defenses and second-guessing start to kick in when it comes time to committing to the purchase and the car dealership’s industry of being sleazy may start to come to the top of their mind. They may start to question their decision, even if we are providing them an absolutely amazing Ritz Carlton or Disney-like experience. With this internal questioning comes some scary things for us as car dealers: deciding to shop us on their smartphones or even worse just leaving and saying “they’ll be back.”
How do we remind them about why they chose us in the first place and reassure them that they are making a good decision? Sure a salesperson could go through the “Why Buy From Us?” spiel but the customer’s defenses are up and they see it as just that: a sales spiel. What if we could subconsciously remind the customer of all the reasons they chose us and how they are smart little cookies for doing so? Even if you don’t agree with my potential scenario I’ve framed (no pun intended) above, I think you’ll agree this is a good idea regardless. The answer to this is a simple as a picture frame! And ok I suppose it’s 2014 after all so let’s opt for a wifi digital picture frame. Oh we fancy, huh?
I apologize for the Drake reference; now let’s get to the meat and potatoes of the post. So we have this wifi digital picture frame, are we going to put on our social media logic hats and fill it with cat memes? No we’re going to fill it with this salesperson’s delivered customer pictures and screenshots of their glowing online reviews. We’re also going to have a couple slides dedicated towards our USP’s (Unique Selling Proposition) / “Why Buy From Us?”. And we want more of these online reviews right? Well let’s throw in a slide dedicated to reminding the customer that we value their opinion and would love them if they reviewed us online post-purchase.
So now let’s go back to our customer scenario highlighted initially. Our customer is sitting their across from the salesperson on the fence and waiting for the salesperson to come up with numbers, track down the keys, get a trade-in appraisal etc. Instead of the customer getting out their smart phone, they notice this picture frame with all of these fancy schmancy powerpoint-esque transition and their attention instantly gravitates to this picture frame. They may not even realize what they are doing. I know when I’m sitting in the doctor’s office I’m bored and look around for something interesting. About all they have that is interesting is that How Much Does it Hurt?” emoticon
:| chart. Yes I admit I may have memorized that after just one visit. Let’s do that at our dealership, albeit give them something a little more interesting to look at. Enter your exciting looping slideshow, they are seeing all of these happy good looking customers with their cars and 5 star reviews and now it is all coming back to them like Déjà vu: “Oh yeah, I spent hours researching last week and this dealership was by far the best of them all. I’m so smart and am making a great decision. Jeff the salesperson really is hookin’ me up.”
Ok maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but this digital picture frame is sure to have some sort of effect on the customer, maybe a subconscious reassuring effect. Even if it increased your closing ratio 1% wouldn’t it be worth it? Well I suppose that depends on cost…and you’re in luck Chuck. Thanks to China we can get one of these fancy wifi digital picture frames for $75-$150 depending on what brand and how many inches desired. For this example let’s just go with the most raved about and largest 11” frame out there for $150. Multiply that by 10 salespeople and our total investment is $1,500. Your first car deal influenced / saved by these picture frames will instantly pay for this entire endeavor and from here on out it will be gravy. So YES darn tootin’ it’s worth it! Sure it’s tough to track the ROI but at this minimal investment it’s just common sense to do.
Now you may be thinking, hold the horses sure it’s cheap but what about the time and upkeep necessary…I don’t really want to plug these 10 picture frames into my computer weekly to update with new pictures and reviews. Well that’s the magic of wifi because as you’re uploading your delivered customer pictures onto facebook (which you’re doing right?) you can easily push it out to the picture frame(s) wirelessly and instantly. That’s what I call Staples easy.
So what are you waiting for? Go buy some of these digital picture frames and get them out on the sales floor on every salesperson’s desk today! It’s little things like this that can improve the customer experience and result in higher closing ratios and in turn more sales. What do you say DealerRefreshers?
Ok, it’s 2014 and pretty much everyone knows that our dealerships’ reputation and online reviews are important. Yayy for us for catching on! So now we love promoting that we’re the #1 Rated Ford Dealer in California, DealerRater Dealer of the Year, in business for 100+ years, etc. However the issue is that we tend to only promote this in our advertising – television, radio, newspaper, website, etc. What about when we actually succeed in getting the coveted customer into our dealership and they are sitting in front of our salespeople and on the fence about buying a car?
Although your reputation and reviews may have influenced this customer’s decision through their research to stop by, they have most likely forgotten about all of that that now or it’s not at the top of their mind. All they are mainly worried about now is getting the right vehicle at the right price. Their big purchase defenses and second-guessing start to kick in when it comes time to committing to the purchase and the car dealership’s industry of being sleazy may start to come to the top of their mind. They may start to question their decision, even if we are providing them an absolutely amazing Ritz Carlton or Disney-like experience. With this internal questioning comes some scary things for us as car dealers: deciding to shop us on their smartphones or even worse just leaving and saying “they’ll be back.”
How do we remind them about why they chose us in the first place and reassure them that they are making a good decision? Sure a salesperson could go through the “Why Buy From Us?” spiel but the customer’s defenses are up and they see it as just that: a sales spiel. What if we could subconsciously remind the customer of all the reasons they chose us and how they are smart little cookies for doing so? Even if you don’t agree with my potential scenario I’ve framed (no pun intended) above, I think you’ll agree this is a good idea regardless. The answer to this is a simple as a picture frame! And ok I suppose it’s 2014 after all so let’s opt for a wifi digital picture frame. Oh we fancy, huh?
I apologize for the Drake reference; now let’s get to the meat and potatoes of the post. So we have this wifi digital picture frame, are we going to put on our social media logic hats and fill it with cat memes? No we’re going to fill it with this salesperson’s delivered customer pictures and screenshots of their glowing online reviews. We’re also going to have a couple slides dedicated towards our USP’s (Unique Selling Proposition) / “Why Buy From Us?”. And we want more of these online reviews right? Well let’s throw in a slide dedicated to reminding the customer that we value their opinion and would love them if they reviewed us online post-purchase.
So now let’s go back to our customer scenario highlighted initially. Our customer is sitting their across from the salesperson on the fence and waiting for the salesperson to come up with numbers, track down the keys, get a trade-in appraisal etc. Instead of the customer getting out their smart phone, they notice this picture frame with all of these fancy schmancy powerpoint-esque transition and their attention instantly gravitates to this picture frame. They may not even realize what they are doing. I know when I’m sitting in the doctor’s office I’m bored and look around for something interesting. About all they have that is interesting is that How Much Does it Hurt?” emoticon
:| chart. Yes I admit I may have memorized that after just one visit. Let’s do that at our dealership, albeit give them something a little more interesting to look at. Enter your exciting looping slideshow, they are seeing all of these happy good looking customers with their cars and 5 star reviews and now it is all coming back to them like Déjà vu: “Oh yeah, I spent hours researching last week and this dealership was by far the best of them all. I’m so smart and am making a great decision. Jeff the salesperson really is hookin’ me up.”Ok maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but this digital picture frame is sure to have some sort of effect on the customer, maybe a subconscious reassuring effect. Even if it increased your closing ratio 1% wouldn’t it be worth it? Well I suppose that depends on cost…and you’re in luck Chuck. Thanks to China we can get one of these fancy wifi digital picture frames for $75-$150 depending on what brand and how many inches desired. For this example let’s just go with the most raved about and largest 11” frame out there for $150. Multiply that by 10 salespeople and our total investment is $1,500. Your first car deal influenced / saved by these picture frames will instantly pay for this entire endeavor and from here on out it will be gravy. So YES darn tootin’ it’s worth it! Sure it’s tough to track the ROI but at this minimal investment it’s just common sense to do.
Now you may be thinking, hold the horses sure it’s cheap but what about the time and upkeep necessary…I don’t really want to plug these 10 picture frames into my computer weekly to update with new pictures and reviews. Well that’s the magic of wifi because as you’re uploading your delivered customer pictures onto facebook (which you’re doing right?) you can easily push it out to the picture frame(s) wirelessly and instantly. That’s what I call Staples easy.
So what are you waiting for? Go buy some of these digital picture frames and get them out on the sales floor on every salesperson’s desk today! It’s little things like this that can improve the customer experience and result in higher closing ratios and in turn more sales. What do you say DealerRefreshers?
