In this case, I think it was a learning experience for them. I consider myself part of the Refresh community and I'm sure they had never met one of "us". I believe this vendor group found me positive and knowledgeable. It was not what they expected. I continue to do business with them; infact, I have increased my expenditure. I talked to my rep today and another one of their reps visited this morning. I had this type of relationship when I was in Dallas and it continues in Phoenix.
DealerSocket, get your act together (RANT)
- Thread starter NTIV10
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In this case, I think it was a learning experience for them. I consider myself part of the Refresh community and I'm sure they had never met one of "us". I believe this vendor group found me positive and knowledgeable. It was not what they expected. I continue to do business with them; infact, I have increased my expenditure. I talked to my rep today and another one of their reps visited this morning. I had this type of relationship when I was in Dallas and it continues in Phoenix.
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I like that!!
Doug, thanks for speaking up and taking up for the community. It astounds me to hear this but not surprising. You'd be amazed how many calls I've received from vendors asking me to remove a thread or comment; not to mention the several siest and desist letters over the last several years. Most of them have found their way to the trash can.
Most are afraid of accountability.
I saw this thread a few months ago and really didn't understand. I used DealerSocket for about five years but that was three years ago. I recently went through an install of DealerSocket at both of my stores. I was actually excited to have it and the ILM we were using was ancient. One of the first things I was told, "you won't recognize DealerSocket having been three years". Actually, there were some changes but it was the same CRM that I was fond of. What I didn't recognize is the level of customer service. During the first install, I asked the rep to make sure that my ISMs had visibility of each others leads and could take the lead and reassign it (to themselves) if it was 5 minutes old. Didn't happen. They have a utility called List Builder that is way complicated. I asked them to build one, for me, where I could do a simple search for any customer that inquired about a certain model over lets say 6 months. I was assured that this was no problem but that didn't happen. The following week, we had the second install but with a different couple of reps. I asked them to do the same things, for me. Didn't happen. After they had left, I called tech support and asked for the same things. It took three calls and the average wait was 15 to 20 minutes. I gave up on the utility but my guys can see each others leads and take them when necessary. Talking with other people around our small group, this is a company that has grown too fast. I saw a post where they got 90 dealers in 90 days. On the over an hour that I was on hold, I heard numerous times where they have a 90% retention rate. For those that don't know me. I am approaching 500 comments on DealerRefresh. This is the first time that I have been critical of a vendor. DealerSocket is a good CRM but there are others out there. If there is a next time, I'm going to do some serious shopping.
You are right about List Builder. It is a very powerful tool but could be built in a much more intuitive way. Not every dealership has a computer programming that can think through the database using Logic statements to find the data you need. Once you get the hang of it, it gets better but it could be so much easier to use.
As for customer support, if I have a serious concern, I do not even bother calling them because the first level of support know less than I do about the system most of the time and I spend more time trying to explain what I am trying to accomplish than they do it trying to fix it (which most of the time they can't.) I would recommend reaching out directly to your account rep and letting him either help or contact a higher up in support that can help with your issues.
I will say this, as many issues as I have had with DealerSocket, there have not been many that were not fixed once I got to the correct person. But just list with ListBuilder, it should not have to be that difficult.
I had an issue with DealerSocket, today. I called tech support, on a Saturday, and got right through. The lady wasn't able to help and said she would escalate the ticket. I wasn't too optimistic. I walked out of my office for a few minutes and was paged for a call. The tier two person was calling. I walked back to my office and noticed that he had already tried calling my cell. He had identified the problem and walked me through resolving it. Honestly, I was impressed.
Ha I heard some complaining about DealerSocket not working in other browsers. Seems like you've never heard of ADP CRM? Requires Internet Explorer, no mobile app, outdated UI, the list goes on. I'd trade for DealerSocket in a heartbeat.
