New Ways to get online reviews for sales and service?

[JamieS]

I would recommend a dock for the ipad if you're going that route (that would be one disgusting touchscreen!).

Yago; that's a very nice looking review site. Similar to Presto Reviews but I like the links to all the review sites. Can I ask what your experience with Yelp is? It seems no matter what I do they only display the negative reviews prominently to ensure review validity. I've read business requesting that all of their info be taken down permanently because of this.

 

[yagoparamo]

Yago

I really like that site you built for $150.00. So exactly how do the dealerships encourage that. My idea is to purchase an ipad and have it on the cashier's desk and when checking out we give them an opportunity to do one right then.
Ty

The IPAD is the best solution, give one to cashier, one to F$I, and--YES--have one in the tower. How many times the GSM or UCM goes and closes a hard deal? 20 times a month? He can ask on those to get a review.

Is it legal to give them something in return for filling one out?

Is only illegal in Lybia and look at what happened to Gadaffi!

Seriously, some sites may have a rule against it and I understand. I think Dealer rater doesn't like reviews coming from the dealer's IP address (so get an IPAD on a 3G).

But all we are doing is asking people whether they ahve enjoyed doing biz with us. Everytime I go to Vegas when I do the check out they ask me "how was the room/hotel/service/etc". We are just asking people to record it so we can show the world.

Just on advanced mode now; don't ask people to open new accounts to leave a review on Yelp or Google. Ask them whether they have an existing account and if they don't ask them to leave a review in a different site (plenty of choices!).

For Dealer Rater, ask customers that don't want to leave a review now or that don't have time to go to your site form home and then go into dealer rater.

Also most people are still in love with ipads so maybe it will be a cool thing to do at the window for the customer. I do not personally have an ipad but love to play with them when i can. Thoughts? thanks for the replies by the way!

So far really good feedback with dealers that we are using the IPAD. We use DROIDS in the field for other work (we collect data and photos with them) but for reviews stick to APPLE.

Buy an OTTER box, for $100 you will make the IPADS sales person proof.

 

[yagoparamo]

I would recommend a dock for the ipad if you're going that route (that would be one disgusting touchscreen!).

Yago; that's a very nice looking review site. Similar to Presto Reviews but I like the links to all the review sites. Can I ask what your experience with Yelp is? It seems no matter what I do they only display the negative reviews prominently to ensure review validity. I've read business requesting that all of their info be taken down permanently because of this.

Don't dock the IPAD, be brave and buy IPADS for all your sales guys. What do you have? 10 salesguys working at any given time? They can show videos, reviews, use it to get reviews, answer emails, get into the CRM, send emails to customers, etc. For $4000 one time (10 IPADS plus 10 Otter boxes) you can do all that.

The difference berween what we do and Presto is that we don't brande them with our name. I thought that Presto was a bit deceiving because they almost look like a 3rd party site. I wanted this to be your site, period.

We also do the second piece of this which is the reviews site for those people that don't have any accounts Clyde Revord Review

Look how those index (both the Ilove site and the reviews site) 3 times in 1st page and 3 times in 2nd page clyde revord - Google Search

This is one of the most interesting things that you can do nowadays to integrate reputation and SEO toguether for a few hundred bucks. Notice that the reviews site also have the Craigslist ads rlling on the side!

Several dealers have noticed leads coming from the reviews sites (please be kind on this comment--I'm just paraphrasing until I have more data), so I think there is a sales opportunity here.

For the money and how many positive things are involved you should get your webmaster to build these for you and RSS your inventory on them. You should also RSS your reviews back to your main site.

Check this site: Evergreen Auto Lending : Home

Reviews are RSS at the bottom.

 

[ryan.leslie]

tbullard,

I see that you haven't posted here much and I'm not sure how long you have been lurking and reading posts, but I want to make sure you know why I'm NOT going to give you a dynamite sales pitch and tell you everything that is GREAT about DealerRater even though I believe very strongly in what we do and I'm confident you would have good success with certification.

DealerRefresh is the best of the best because the community largely self-regulates the sales pitches. This is truly an "Ideas" forum and unless you ask specifically about a product or company you won't see many Vendors successfully toting their wares. Also, this search tool Joe created is awesome for this kind of research. Search and see what the community has to say, and you are likely to find Yago and I disagreeing about some of the things he's already posted in this thread like branded pages... (trying to save us both from doing that one again.)

So let's talk about ideas:

I am looking to really ramp up my process and try to really start focusing on getting online reviews via dealerrater and so on. Does anyone have any best practices of how to get your customers to fill out honest reviews?

Kudos for seeking out the "Honest Reviews" not just the positive ones. You are positioning your store well to see immediate value. Too many vendors and consultants have popped into this space focusing on controlling a means to secure positive only reviews and they are missing so much of the value proposition. Again, search the forums for more info on this, but a negative review that improves your processes is NOT a bad thing.

Involve your team: DealerRater has seen a huge lift in submitted reviews after we implemented the My Reviews pages and started stack ranking the employees by review count. If the team understands that they are getting value from the effort you won't have to push it down on them and they become an asset instead of an obstacle.

Is it legal to give them something in return for filling one out?

It isn't a good idea to offer an incentive to the reviewer. What happens to the credibility of all the reviews that they read about you when they walk in and see signage that openly promotes that you are "paying" for them? "No wonder they had so many good reviews" is not what you want them thinking.

The other consideration is what happens when they feel differently after they leave. One post from a reviewer that didn't get their spiff due to a clerical error and you have a stiff breeze aimed at that house of cards. It is a much better play to spiff your team.

...we give them an opportunity to do one right then.

I'm going to start a new thread on the topic of collecting reviews in the store because it hasn't been discussed directly yet. I personally think it is counter-intuitive to ask a customer to write a review in the store and invites some unique challenges that aren't worth the payoff. More to come...

Last thought, I know you mentioned us by name in your original post so I'm assuming you have looked a little bit at the certification program. Feel free to call or email if want that dynamite sales pitch.

 

[bzweifel]

backround info:
cradle to grave ISM

IMO Do not give out anything to a customer for a review and Do not have a customer fill out a survey at the Dealership on any form of technology even if it isn't your IP Address. I don't care how convenient it is, it's tacky and it goes against everything that a review is supposed to be. You will highly offend some customers. You could also run into being flagged on various websites.

We've been with DealerRater for 6 months now and I'm very pleased with them. The #1 benefit is the customer not needing a login or account. DealerRater seems to think from a mindset of "how can I make this as easy as possible for a customer AND a dealer."

As far as process goes. Don't over think this too much. The process that I use is:

1. Provide good service, really good service.
2. Hand the customer the dealer rater card at delivery.
3. Tell them that you are trying to get your name out there on the internet so you can build a Strong foundation to further your carreer and provide for your family.
4. Send them the template email that asks for the review and provides the link.

The first step is commonly overlooked from what I have seen.


Ryan, I have to ask, what is the Deal with GooglePush? Is it up and running yet? I have to handle the department until further notice and want to get that up asap. Help a DR member out and get it handled. The URL is there, the act of pushing is not lol.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Right on Blake. Too many people miss the core of reviews and focus on nothing more than the marketing aspect. It's as you said "tacky".

 

[bzweifel]

Right on Blake. Too many people miss the core of reviews and focus on nothing more than the marketing aspect. It's as you said "tacky".

Thank you, Jeff. I don't believe that we are in direct competition with Younger, so I hope you don't mind me asking for advice.

Your dealership is the #4 ranking MD dealer on DealerRater but that doesn't do you justice since you have almost 643 reviews. I noticed that you aren't using their push feature to Google Places. Why? Does google look down on it?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[yagoparamo]

I think we are mixing 2 things here;

First:

"how/when/where to get reviews"

Second:

"What channel should I use to put my reviews on"


Don't confuse those 2.



Dealer rater is a great channel with very knowledgeable people like Ryan; just ike Google places is a great channel, and Yelp, and Cars.com, and Edmunds, and pretty soon the Pope wiull have his own auto dealer review channel.

The process in all of them involves several things in the discussion here. The site that I showcased www.ilovebarriervolvo.com is a tool to get that process implemented. Dealer rater is in many of these sites that we create (and so it is part of ilovebarriervolvo.com).


One thing that is very different from all the sites I mentioned before (Google, DRater, Yelp, etc) than your own channel is that you can't re-use the reviews on those sites. Contractually those sites OWN the reviews your customers add on them. So you can't do things like re-using your reviews like:

At the bottom of this site ilovebarriervolvo.com

or this finance site Evergreen Auto Lending : Home

or on this blog (right side bottom) Barrier Volvo – Bellevue Volvo Dealer -

 

[bzweifel]

I think we are mixing 2 things here;

First:

"how/when/where to get reviews"

Second:

"What channel should I use to put my reviews on"


Don't confuse those 2.



Dealer rater is a great channel with very knowledgeable people like Ryan; just ike Google places is a great channel, and Yelp, and Cars.com, and Edmunds, and pretty soon the Pope wiull have his own auto dealer review channel.

The process in all of them involves several things in the discussion here. The site that I showcased www.ilovebarriervolvo.com is a tool to get that process implemented. Dealer rater is in many of these sites that we create (and so it is part of ilovebarriervolvo.com).


One thing that is very different from all the sites I mentioned before (Google, DRater, Yelp, etc) than your own channel is that you can't re-use the reviews on those sites. Contractually those sites OWN the reviews your customers add on them. So you can't do things like re-using your reviews like:

At the bottom of this site ilovebarriervolvo.com

or this finance site Evergreen Auto Lending : Home

or on this blog (right side bottom) Barrier Volvo – Bellevue Volvo Dealer -

IMO reviews should be a trump card, not a billboard.

 

[ryan.leslie]

Do not have a customer fill out a survey at the Dealership on any form of technology even if it isn't your IP Address. I don't care how convenient it is, it's tacky and it goes against everything that a review is supposed to be. You will highly offend some customers. You could also run into being flagged on various websites.

Blake,

I'll check on your Push url in the morning if I can borrow this quote. I think you nailed it. There is a gigantic difference between asking a customer to complete a review at their leisure and asking a customer to complete a review RIGHT NOW at the dealership.


When was the last time you went to dinner and the server asked for their tip after the salad? What kind of tip would you give them? Ever tip the barber before they spin the chair? Best Buy ever walk you to the tablet section and ask you to fill out their survey before you go? Ever pay the shoe guy after just the left shoe? Ever leave ebay feedback before your item arrives?

Point is when is the sale completed in the customer's mind? Before they go into F&I; when they get the keys; when they drive off the lot; when they get that follow up call the next day? If you are asking for the customer to complete a review BEFORE they FEEL the deal is done it's tacky.

IP tracking and GUID tracking are important considerations, but this is the heart of the issue. I can't think of any other business that does this. Why is the dealership the only place were this kind of "tackiness" passes for a good idea in order to try to control the responses? Follow Blake's advice and control the response when you "Provide good service, really good service."