Dealers flooding review sites with fake user reviews

[Jeffrey Tognetti]

@JQuinn
1) Google Reviews will be fed into website via RSS sooner rather then later
2) As for not being able to work with the clients "behind the scenes" doesn't that phrase "behind the scenes" connotate obfuscation? Why not have an open thread (Like here) and allow people to come to their own conclusions rather then a "backroom meeting".
3) Google reviews don't feed Facebook? Do they need to? But if it was needed it is an easy fix. With the coming RSS feed, one could plug in a Wordpress review theme right into Facebook fed from a Google RSS. Or maybe this Plug In:

WordPress Plugin to Show Your Online Reviews | The Expand2Web Blog

which could be plugged in right now....

But the real way to manage a dealers reputation would be allow your customers to post on your own site, keep the thread transparent and that would show the ultimate in credibility. For example (We just posted this with permission of the dealer as an example)
Customer Reviews Bronx NY, Customer Reviews Yonkers NY, Customer Reviews White Plains NY, Customer Reviews Westchester NY, Customer Reviews Port Chester NY
Link being changed to reflect "Dealer Name Ratings + Geographic Areas"

fed from:
Write A Review Bronx NY, Write A Review Yonkers NY, Write A Review White Plains NY, Write A Review Westchester NY, Write A Review Port Chester NY
Link being changed to reflect "Dealer Name Ratings + Geographic Areas"

And it would be indexed in the search engines as a blog post and would be easily SEOd to always be at the top for "dealer name reviews" (Better ranked then Dealer Rater for the same term surely)

Quick FYI, FBML (Facebook Markup Language) has been relegated to the back burner and you can now just plug in your own managed "framed page" with reviews right into Facebook (Exactly what dealer rater does) And I think it is a $5.00 Plug-in, oh wait I'm wrong...there are free ones-
4) Sales Team Page? Any page can be simply centrally managed via Wordpress and plugged in free!
5) Best practices? There are 10's of thousands of blogs that offer content on best practices not to mention endless books on customer satisfaction. "Made to Stick" is a great one
6) Classifieds? Your website provider should be able to do this, but again Wordpress
7) Lead form? Again your website provider or Wordpress
8) Rating reminder card? Save the postage-

Hope this helps!

 

[john.quinn]

@JQuinn
1) Google Reviews will be fed into website via RSS sooner rather then later
2) As for not being able to work with the clients "behind the scenes" doesn't that phrase "behind the scenes" connotate obfuscation? Why not have an open thread (Like here) and allow people to come to their own conclusions rather then a "backroom meeting".
3) Google reviews don't feed Facebook? Do they need to? But if it was needed it is an easy fix. With the coming RSS feed, one could plug in a Wordpress review theme right into Facebook fed from a Google RSS. Or maybe this Plug In:

WordPress Plugin to Show Your Online Reviews | The Expand2Web Blog

which could be plugged in right now....

But the real way to manage a dealers reputation would be allow your customers to post on your own site, keep the thread transparent and that would show the ultimate in credibility. For example (We just posted this with permission of the dealer as an example)
Customer Reviews Bronx NY, Customer Reviews Yonkers NY, Customer Reviews White Plains NY, Customer Reviews Westchester NY, Customer Reviews Port Chester NY
Link being changed to reflect "Dealer Name Ratings + Geographic Areas"

fed from:
Write A Review Bronx NY, Write A Review Yonkers NY, Write A Review White Plains NY, Write A Review Westchester NY, Write A Review Port Chester NY
Link being changed to reflect "Dealer Name Ratings + Geographic Areas"

And it would be indexed in the search engines as a blog post and would be easily SEOd to always be at the top for "dealer name reviews" (Better ranked then Dealer Rater for the same term surely)

Quick FYI, FBML (Facebook Markup Language) has been relegated to the back burner and you can now just plug in your own managed "framed page" with reviews right into Facebook (Exactly what dealer rater does) And I think it is a $5.00 Plug-in, oh wait I'm wrong...there are free ones-
4) Sales Team Page? Any page can be simply centrally managed via Wordpress and plugged in free!
5) Best practices? There are 10's of thousands of blogs that offer content on best practices not to mention endless books on customer satisfaction. "Made to Stick" is a great one
6) Classifieds? Your website provider should be able to do this, but again Wordpress
7) Lead form? Again your website provider or Wordpress
8) Rating reminder card? Save the postage-

Hope this helps!

Wow. With all this free stuff and stuff I can do myself, I guess there's no point whatsoever in hiring a company like yours to do all this for me, huh? Not that I'd let myself be coerced into hiring you anyway.

 

[bzweifel]

I have to step in as well. Im not interested in arguing hypotheticals about why the market is the way it is, or what should be free in an 'ideal' world.

I would like to go on record and say that we use DealerRater and I feel that it's worth every penny.

Put it this way, everyone has writing paper at their office that is free to them, but business men still buy $50-$100 day planners every year to keep themselves organized and working effectively. Network television is free, but families still pay $100-$200/month for cable tv.
People on this thread are making the point that "YOU ALREADY HAVE PAPER! ITS STUPID TO PAY MONEY FOR A DAY PLANNER!"
"TV is free! It's stupid to pay for directv"

This is the same concept as DealerRater. Sure the reviews are free everywhere else, But DealerRater isnt offering just reviews. They offer a way to harness the power of said reviews, then give you the tools to easily collect, market and display the reviews to help your online image.
If a dealership has a way to do this effectively for free , then don't use dealerRater. I personally do not have a way to do this by myself, nor would I want to. That's why I use DealerRater.

It's really as simple as that. DealerRater is the review equivalent of Directv or a FranklinCopy planner. If you've never used them I don't feel your view is an accurate representation of what they offer. Plus DealerRater is the only company of my vendors that I can call anytime of the day and get an answer right away. I want to say that their support line is open until 9pm? I don't want a ticket number or email back in two days If I have a problem or question; I want answers or a solution.

p.s. The founder of this forum is the #4 MD dealer on dealerRater. He decided to implement a process well enough to collect almost 700 reviews on his DealerRater page. That's got to count for something.

I don't care if this sounds like advertising. I'm not going to sit here and let one of the good guys get bashed by people who have never used the service. Their are plenty of vendors that you could have chose to gang up on AND been correct in your justifications. DealerRater isn't one of them.

 

[yagoparamo]

Wow. With all this free stuff and stuff I can do myself, I guess there's no point whatsoever in hiring a company like yours to do all this for me, huh? Not that I'd let myself be coerced into hiring you anyway.

J,

The new web selling strategy is to give dealers too many free things to do so they must hire someone to manage them.

I think that 2011 is the first time where companies offer services or products where there is no product of their own but a service or product to manage a service or product that someone else provided for free: Social media, craigslist, reputation, etc.

Definately and interesting change.

 

[yagoparamo]

I have to step in as well. Im not interested in arguing hypotheticals about why the market is the way it is, or what should be free in an 'ideal' world.

I would like to go on record and say that we use DealerRater and I feel that it's worth every penny.

Put it this way, everyone has writing paper at their office that is free to them, but business men still buy $50-$100 day planners every year to keep themselves organized and working effectively. Network television is free, but families still pay $100-$200/month for cable tv.
People on this thread are making the point that "YOU ALREADY HAVE PAPER! ITS STUPID TO PAY MONEY FOR A DAY PLANNER!"
"TV is free! It's stupid to pay for directv"

This is the same concept as DealerRater. Sure the reviews are free everywhere else, But DealerRater isnt offering just reviews. They offer a way to harness the power of said reviews, then give you the tools to easily collect, market and display the reviews to help your online image.
If a dealership has a way to do this effectively for free , then don't use dealerRater. I personally do not have a way to do this by myself, nor would I want to. That's why I use DealerRater.

It's really as simple as that. DealerRater is the review equivalent of Directv or a FranklinCopy planner. If you've never used them I don't feel your view is an accurate representation of what they offer. Plus DealerRater is the only company of my vendors that I can call anytime of the day and get an answer right away. I want to say that their support line is open until 9pm? I don't want a ticket number or email back in two days If I have a problem or question; I want answers or a solution.

p.s. The founder of this forum is the #4 MD dealer on dealerRater. He decided to implement a process well enough to collect almost 700 reviews on his DealerRater page. That's got to count for something.

I don't care if this sounds like advertising. I'm not going to sit here and let one of the good guys get bashed by people who have never used the service. Their are plenty of vendors that you could have chose to gang up on AND been correct in your justifications. DealerRater isn't one of them.

bz,

I don't there is an argument in this thread about the value of the monetary proposition that dealer rater brings, the arguments has been about how that proposition has been brought to the dealers as well as the rules that come with it.

 

[Billy Pickering]

This has been an issue for several years. In 2006, our local (Charleston SC) newspaper was struggling and trying to take advantage of online business. They created a review website for businesses in the Charleston area.

Almost immediately our competition down the road flooded this site with 10-12 very negative reviews of our dealership while writing glowing reviews of their own. All on the same day, within minutes. To top it off, the newspaper was unwilling to "review the reviews" and remove them because they were hellbent on populating that website.

The reasons for this were evident. For several years, that dealership enjoyed being the big dog on the block while the store we were "rebuilding" languished. Once our management team was in place, things began to change. Every single customer of that dealership received followup calls from their salesperson assuring not only that the particular customer was happy with every aspect of the process but their vehicle as well. The salesperson then discussed CSI survey they would be receiving and the importance of selecting "very satisfied".

In addition to the salesperson following up, a customer service representative hired strictly for that purpose called the customer with a few days of the sale with a multitude of questions designed to gauge any dissatisfaction at all and then that representative went overboard to assure the customer became "very satisfied" and filled out the CSI accordingly.

When review sites started popping up, we started making those very satisfied customers aware of them and encouraging them to post positive reviews. As some on here know, the company I was with at that time goes above and beyond to assure happy customers that will return for their next vehicle.

If the management of a dealership is committed to running their store the right way, there's no need at all for a company under the heading of reputation management to run all over the net posting fraudulent reviews. I've had countless calls from companies willing to do that very thing the last several years.

Companies like DealerRater recognize the problems associated with review sites and have tools in place to assure their platform is legitimate and "fraud-free".

There will always be dealers that want to take shortcuts to sell vehicles. Everyone of us in the car business knows many of them if you've been around very long. As long as those dealers are around, there will be companies willing to commit fraud to make a buck off of these dealers. As we've moved forward, technology has allowed those like DealerRater to keep the frauds at bay. Things will only get better in that regard.

Good job Ryan calling them out on here.

 

[Sara Chaudhary]

Is there any way we could identify who is doing false reputation and who is genuine? May be we can list down as many as possible.

 

[Joshua Gibson]

That's fairly vague, I don't understand what you are asking completely. Do you mean at the individual level, or as a company that provides the service?
I digress.
I've been lurking and reading on here for some time, albeit intermittently.
Excellent content here, far above and beyond the quality of content of other sites. (Frequency is a little light but I'd imagine it's because everyone is too occupied in this industry to frequent a board like this too often.)

After having enjoyed my popcorn over the course of 11 pages to gather context I'd like to chime in, from a couple perspectives.

Having exited a company that offered Reputation Management, and Social Media Enhancement packages, I can say I have always had a problem with them on a personal level, and refused to sell them.
That was one of the things that raised a red flag for me as to the moral compass, and stability of said company.

Technology is certainly a double-edged sword. The Internet has taken what was effectively word of mouth advertising, (arguably the most powerful), and given the individual the ability to self-publish and have an exponential impact on their network, giving power to good old Word-of-Mouth.

It's also invited the possibility of fraud into what's likely the oldest form of advertising by anonymizing individuals, and allowing for issues outlined in the previous 11 pages.


I'm going to address something that Mr Pickering mentioned above that bothers me and has bothered me for the better part of 10 years.
We all know that dealers live and die by CSI. I sold Acuras and Toyotas for the better part of a decade before findout my true passion in Advertising. I worked for VERY respected organizations that have great names in my community.
We were still told to ask for all 5's, given scripts, processes to handle customer issues etc. I was incentivized, because my store was incentivized to have as high of a CSI score as possible. It makes sense to this point. These dealers have a fantastic reputation and it is in fact deserved, but the process is still adulterated.
Now call me an idealist, but a customer survey should be left alone as a true litmus test of how the dealership is performing.
We do what we do make a living, so of course if we can control a controllable we will.
What I'm driving at is that even if a dealer uses manufacturer CSI information/ data that data has been compromised too. People are not left alone to give an honest review, they've all been coached to some degree, and it's pretty frustrating.

IMO "Reputation Management "should consist of a way to thank those that care enough of a positive experience to spread the word of their own volition, and a way to publicly acknowledge/ address negative feedback like the BBB and allow for investigations, full disclosure, all in the public eye.
That's where the credibility lies.

Ryan, and Yago, you both bring very valid points to the table intelligently, I can also see how both of you are correct from your perspectives.
Current processes are flawed, but through evolution of technology I believe these specific issues can be addressed. The inhumanity of the process will likely always allow for an opportunity for fraud.

I've no product in this regard, and I'm here for educational purposes on this particular topic, so I've little to offer but perspective, and gratitude for a great thread.
Here's to rockin it in 2012.
Josh

 

[john.quinn]

That's fairly vague, I don't understand what you are asking completely. Do you mean at the individual level, or as a company that provides the service?
I digress.
I've been lurking and reading on here for some time, albeit intermittently.
Excellent content here, far above and beyond the quality of content of other sites. (Frequency is a little light but I'd imagine it's because everyone is too occupied in this industry to frequent a board like this too often.)

After having enjoyed my popcorn over the course of 11 pages to gather context I'd like to chime in, from a couple perspectives.

Having exited a company that offered Reputation Management, and Social Media Enhancement packages, I can say I have always had a problem with them on a personal level, and refused to sell them.
That was one of the things that raised a red flag for me as to the moral compass, and stability of said company.

Technology is certainly a double-edged sword. The Internet has taken what was effectively word of mouth advertising, (arguably the most powerful), and given the individual the ability to self-publish and have an exponential impact on their network, giving power to good old Word-of-Mouth.

It's also invited the possibility of fraud into what's likely the oldest form of advertising by anonymizing individuals, and allowing for issues outlined in the previous 11 pages.


I'm going to address something that Mr Pickering mentioned above that bothers me and has bothered me for the better part of 10 years.
We all know that dealers live and die by CSI. I sold Acuras and Toyotas for the better part of a decade before findout my true passion in Advertising. I worked for VERY respected organizations that have great names in my community.
We were still told to ask for all 5's, given scripts, processes to handle customer issues etc. I was incentivized, because my store was incentivized to have as high of a CSI score as possible. It makes sense to this point. These dealers have a fantastic reputation and it is in fact deserved, but the process is still adulterated.
Now call me an idealist, but a customer survey should be left alone as a true litmus test of how the dealership is performing.
We do what we do make a living, so of course if we can control a controllable we will.
What I'm driving at is that even if a dealer uses manufacturer CSI information/ data that data has been compromised too. People are not left alone to give an honest review, they've all been coached to some degree, and it's pretty frustrating.

IMO "Reputation Management "should consist of a way to thank those that care enough of a positive experience to spread the word of their own volition, and a way to publicly acknowledge/ address negative feedback like the BBB and allow for investigations, full disclosure, all in the public eye.
That's where the credibility lies.

Ryan, and Yago, you both bring very valid points to the table intelligently, I can also see how both of you are correct from your perspectives.
Current processes are flawed, but through evolution of technology I believe these specific issues can be addressed. The inhumanity of the process will likely always allow for an opportunity for fraud.

I've no product in this regard, and I'm here for educational purposes on this particular topic, so I've little to offer but perspective, and gratitude for a great thread.
Here's to rockin it in 2012.
Josh

Hi Joshua!

Thank you for your thoughtful response!

However, I will go on record as saying your position is naive.

I will agree with you that CSI can and is often coaxed to a large degree.

However, "asking" for an honest opinion; i.e., reminding your happy clients to complete a survey is neither coaxing a score nor unethical practice. On the contrary: a proactive stance to reputation management is smart business.

While I can understand and even pine for the day when what you wrote would be a reality, the simple truth is that hoping your happy clients say/write nice things about you is poor process; educating your clients of the necessity of doing so is good practice.

As always in this vertical, you will find cheaters and defilers. However, you cannot dismiss Best Practices in this genre as illegitmate.

 

[Joshua Gibson]

Thank you.
However, before I make an assumption as to what is exactly you are talking about, and form the appropriate response;
What position do you believe me to have taken based on what I have written?