DaveNovotny said:

We are dealing with a few reviews from someone that hasn't visited our business. We look in the DMS and CRM, nothing to be found with their name. As well as nobody in service recalling the situation. We have replied and asked them to reach out to us with their concerns and reported to google. Still waiting on google's "pending decision".

I am hesitant in wanting to deal with a company like this as well due to the same concerns you all have with access to the business profile etc.

I was asked to look into these companies, and I appreciate all of your feedback and thoughts!

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My advice would be to respond publicly with that information if they refuse to reach out. A potential customer seeing how you respond to the inevitable negative review is just as important as them reading your good reviews. It is okay to reply with "I have no record of you ever communicating with us or visiting our business". In the past, I been very direct and called out how rude a customer was to our employees and how they took our car overnight and smoked in it, etc. If all your reviews are perfect then customers will just call BS.

Just roll with it.

I have never disputed or attempted to have a review removed. I have replied to a few that I believed were posted in error or that I disagreed with.

What are you dealing with Dave? Did you have someone hammer you with 10 different email addresses and have all of their friends hammer you as well?

Alex Snyder said:

If the FTC gets their way, transparency will be forced on dealers overnight.

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It is long overdue. Well, in my opinion it is long overdue.

Ryan Everson said:

Or I guess we can just wait for the CARS rule

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RE, @Alex Snyder showed me his full transparency 'out the door' UI and I jumped out of my chair. With my car-shopper hat on, the completeness of fees was inspiring (i.e. the unknowns are now known).

Alex Snyder said:

Happy Birthday DealerRefresh! What were you doing 19 years ago?

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We have two salespeople that are the same age as DealerRefresh...

joe.pistell said:

haha, alex, I was hunting thru Archive.org to find CF's "buy your car in your PJ's" and found this old school avatar
https://web.archive.org/web/20060713150122/http://www.checkeredflag.com/

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Wow! Our DealerOn site prior to moving to Dealer.com (when the pajamas stuff came out). This was the time when you were not cool unless you had a talking lady on your website

Alex Snyder said:

May of 2005, I was the Director of Ecommerce at Checkered Flag

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haha, alex, I was hunting thru Archive.org to find CF's "buy your car in your PJ's" and found this old school avatar
https://web.archive.org/web/20060713150122/http://www.checkeredflag.com/

Back in the day, I had left Bresee Chevrolet and moved to Sun Auto Group as marketing dir.
Here's the home page I inherited

https://web.archive.org/web/20050209124636/http://www.usedcarking.com/

I helped Homenet improve the platform so much, Jesse Biter, Homenet CEO gave me a dev team to build UsedCarKing from my photoshop mocks. (be nice, I'm not an artist!

https://web.archive.org/web/20110808060847/http://www.usedcarking.com/

I was the cradle-to-grave "Internet Sales Manager" at Williamson Honda in Lincoln, NE. I carried three phones. My cordless office phone on one hip, my personal Razr in my pocket, and a Palm phone on the other hip that was tied to the phone number on all my AutoTrader and Cars.com listings. I'm totally getting cancer somewhere in that region soon SMH.

If the FTC gets their way, transparency will be forced on dealers overnight.

In May of 2005, I was the Director of Ecommerce at Checkered Flag living in Virginia Beach.

I found this in my archives. It's a mock of a new search UI (created while I was Head of Marketplace at CARS.com). It never saw the light of day but I still like the concept

User story: I know the YMM of what I'd like to buy, I have some fav features, but IDK much about the trims.

The mock attempts to display the trim hierarchy and help the shopper visualize, as you move up or down the trim list, display what changes. The shopper picks their favorite trims and clicks submit....

Result:

A new search UX

My mission was to get creative and think of new and unique search experiences. My design goal was to assist the power user. This mock would be easy to Improve by adding price filters (i.e. under $xx,xxx) , add deal bucket filters. Then to stimulate repeat use, add new arrival filters (i.s. VINs you haven't seen yet), price changes since your last visit and 'likely to sell soon'.


p.s. inspired by the Kayak 'multi-date' power shopper Grid UI...


It was a 1st draft, be nice to me hahaha

Good convo/insight --

I also have 2 comments to expand a couple made on the show:

1 - No one is listening to ALL these calls. And, I support my statement during the show yesterday... randomly listening to 10 calls a day was probably one of the best things you can do. You will find patterns and problems == voicemail abandons, 22 transfers to talk to someone, little Billy not asking for appointment, etc etc.

2 - If you are a person that values call recording, pay attention to legislation in Congress that is attempting to do away with automatic recorded phone calls - even for announced calls ("the following call may be recorded" ...). They are attacking this from 2 angles == consumer privacy //and// workplace surveillance. The workplace surveillance angle is basically saying "we don't like you holding your employees accountable".

Its actually a great concept - as the old way of "please enter your PIN" at the end of the call was fraught with problems, mainly salespeople forgetting to enter their PIN/Code.

I think the real pain is going to be the logic for a new event/lead vs matching it to an old one. Like, do all calls from same caller ID match and event/lead? For how long? Does it match to unclosed/lost events? Or also to closed/sold events?

Here’s another take:

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Brian Michael West said:

photographers name is Ethan and he does stellar work!

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ooo... very nice

Damn nice booth with killer lighting.
#MoneyNoObject
Used 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe For Sale at Sewell Lexus of Dallas | VIN: 1GNSCNKD8NR287501

DrewAment said:

I was always trained, and to this day believe, that it is a salespersons job to "sell" the vehicle and the sales MANAGERS job to control gross.

Salary (min wage) ++ flats that escalate retro with volume or volume bonuses.

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I think that is true in a system in which there is abundant sales management staff. However, in a used only dealership doing modest volume there isn't always a sales manager there to control the gross. It is not uncommon for me to work a deal with my salespeople via text or phone. I can help them with numbers, payment calculations, trade appraisals, but I can't physically walk out and grab ahold of every deal the way a dedicated desk manager can (if they are willing).

This is what I truly love about the car business. There are so many different ways to run a car dealership. They all make it work. I see some things that make me shake my head in disbelief, but the store is extremely efficient and profitable.

Tallcool1 said:

I would never do a flat. I want my sales staff fighting for gross, just like me.

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I was always trained, and to this day believe, that it is a salespersons job to "sell" the vehicle and the sales MANAGERS job to control gross.

Salary (min wage) ++ flats that escalate retro with volume or volume bonuses.

Ryan Everson said:

No consent popup:
❌ Autotrader
❌ CarGurus
❌ Edmunds
❌ TrueCar
❌ Asbury
❌ Group1
❌ Driveway
❌ Carvana
❌ Chase
❌ Wells Fargo
❌ CapitalOne
❌ Target
❌ Walmart

Has consent popup:
✅ ComplyAuto clients

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Toyota Smartpath Websites -- default to accept all cookies, no consent popup. The link to change your options is in the footer.

joe.pistell said:

Best explanation so far:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/musk-disbands-tesla-ev-charging-team-leaving-customers-dark-2024-04-30/?AutomotiveVentures

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Total conjecture here.

Seeing that Tesla was receiving money from the US federal government to increase the charging footprint and knowing just how shady our government is, it is possible Elon made one of his signature F-You's. Who knows what kind of blackmailing-quid-pro-quo our government may have thrown at him?

• Boost sales numbers and hit monthly goals by identifying areas for improvement in your team's performance through real-time, professional mystery shopping evaluations
• Protect your dealership by ensuring your team consistently delivers accurate brand messaging and complies with legal requirements during customer interactions
• Improve employee morale and retention by investing in a long-term partnership with a mystery shopping company that provides targeted training and fosters a growth mindset

Best explanation so far:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/musk-disbands-tesla-ev-charging-team-leaving-customers-dark-2024-04-30/?AutomotiveVentures

Matteon said:

When you offer annual guarantees of 52K, do you provide this as a commission plan or draw? I am seeking something straightforward.

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Straight Commission.

If the salesperson's Gross Annual Wages have not exceeded $52K on 12/31, they are paid the difference.