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Ranking of Reputation Sites

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ChelseaLR

Feb 24, 2014
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Chelsea
#1
We're in the process of changing our process for soliciting online reviews. It's long overdue, of course.

By asking our customer's that have positive surveys to leave a review, I hope they'll leave one review in return. 2 or more is a bonus of course, but if they only left one, which review site is the most important?

Google?
Facebook?
Yelp?
Edmunds?
Cars.com?
DealerRater?

Or perhaps another site? So, what review site holds the most weight?
 
Last edited:
#2
Read this second page of this thread, and you will learn a lot.

http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/why-yelp-should-seriously-eat-s-and-die.3810/

Google is good for SEO, but your customer must have a Google ID to leave a review. That will eliminate a lot of them.

I am going to have someone build our own review site. I like Daniel's really well. Manny talks a lot about this in the other thread. I am just tired of depending on 3rd parties for all of this stuff. Yes there is an element of credibility what comes with a 3rd party vendor, but there is also brain damage and the hostage factor.

I want simple and to the point reviews, and I want control of them. I don't mind posting a 3 star review if I get one.

In my opinion, there is a difference between a Review and a Testimonial.
 
#3
Tallcool1 said:
Read this second page of this thread, and you will learn a lot.

http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/why-yelp-should-seriously-eat-s-and-die.3810/
Click to expand...

Here is another thread from the DealerRefresh archive that may be worth a skimming too. We discussed this at length in Nov of 2011: http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/dealers-flooding-review-sites-fake-user-reviews-1879-5.html

Tallcool1 said:
Yes there is an element of credibility what comes with a 3rd party vendor, but there is also brain damage and the hostage factor.

I want simple and to the point reviews, and I want control of them.

In my opinion, there is a difference between a Review and a Testimonial.
Click to expand...

I agree that there is a difference between a review and a testimonial that is more than simple semantics. Reviews are Earned; Testimonials are Owned. You are talking about the consumer confidence disparity between earned vs owned media that transcends automotive. All marketers are dealing with these topics right now.

Owned media (think paid adverts on radio, TV, and Newspaper, Infomercials for OxyClean etc.) will always be challenged to have the same credibility to the consumer as Earned media (think traditional word of mouth, watercooler endorsements from coworkers, and advice from Grandma.) It is no doubt easier to control the message of Owned media because you OWN it. You either paid for it or you have complete editorial privilege over the content... and the consumer KNOWS this. With Earned media you may not get the exact branding message or the perfect image you desire, but the positive sentiments are 100% genuine because they aren't compensated by anything but altruism... and the consumer KNOWS that too.

Unfortunately, the perceived "brain damage" that comes from not having control of the content is likely what makes the content valuable to the consumer.

My opinion is that you need both to satisfy the consumer's current desire to virtually poll their peers. There is nothing wrong with having a testimonial feed or site with your owned media so long as you disclose that it is a highlight reel of sorts, but you shouldn't expect that to satisfy the consumer's desire for earned media, and for that they will likely be researching reviews on 3rd party sites. That said, I would not try to pass owned media for earned media.
 
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#4
Our Google website analytic's show 75% of mobile hits are on IOS devices, and that means the default review site is Yelp on IOS. You may not want to ignore Yelp, and like Google, they require registration. DealerRater is good for your dealer website.
 
#5
Google has the most value, but DealerRater is far easier to achieve.
Pull customers, send follow-ups for Google reviews to those with 'email CONTAINS gmail' and send DealerRater followups to the rest.

DealerRater will always have more legitimacy than the testimonials page you make in your own CMS or the on-site review tool you offer customers.
 
#6
Ryan Leslie said:
Here is another thread from the DealerRefresh archive that may be worth a skimming too. We discussed this at length in Nov of 2011: http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/dealers-flooding-review-sites-fake-user-reviews-1879-5.html



I agree that there is a difference between a review and a testimonial that is more than simple semantics. Reviews are Earned; Testimonials are Owned. You are talking about the consumer confidence disparity between earned vs owned media that transcends automotive. All marketers are dealing with these topics right now.

Owned media (think paid adverts on radio, TV, and Newspaper, Infomercials for OxyClean etc.) will always be challenged to have the same credibility to the consumer as Earned media (think traditional word of mouth, watercooler endorsements from coworkers, and advice from Grandma.) It is no doubt easier to control the message of Owned media because you OWN it. You either paid for it or you have complete editorial privilege over the content... and the consumer KNOWS this. With Earned media you may not get the exact branding message or the perfect image you desire, but the positive sentiments are 100% genuine because they aren't compensated by anything but altruism... and the consumer KNOWS that too.

Unfortunately, the perceived "brain damage" that comes from not having control of the content is likely what makes the content valuable to the consumer.

My opinion is that you need both to satisfy the consumer's current desire to virtually poll their peers. There is nothing wrong with having a testimonial feed or site with your owned media so long as you disclose that it is a highlight reel of sorts, but you shouldn't expect that to satisfy the consumer's desire for earned media, and for that they will likely be researching reviews on 3rd party sites. That said, I would not try to pass owned media for earned media.
Click to expand...

Ryan,

Great post, regardless of the fact that you work for DealerRater.

Thanks

Clint
 
#7
Tallcool1 said:
Ryan,

Great post, regardless of the fact that you work for DealerRater.
Click to expand...

He can't help the fact that he works for the most successful option.
I would love to say there's multiple options in this area, but I've seen the numbers and I can tell you that if you are going to have an online reputation, you might as well invest in DealerRater and advertise it. I don't see that many customers organically deciding to use DealerRater, but as we started saying "Check us out on DealerRater" we started to get alot more traction.

The alternative is just having no reviews on any sites, which I see quite often. Typically this ends when negative experiences start getting posted online.
 
#8
ChelseaLR said:
We're in the process of changing our process for soliciting online reviews. It's long overdue, of course.
Click to expand...

Hey Chelsea, Welcome to DealerRefresh!

I think it might be helpful to understand what your new process is going to look like. Have you nailed that down yet or are you trying to figure out which sites matter so that you can create a process around a target site? Some of the sites you mentioned are very particular about where a review is written, some are not. If your new process is to request reviews onsite that won't work with some of the 3rd party platforms in your poll. I think the community will give you better feedback and advice with a little more information on what you are trying to achieve with the poll.

This needs to be said here too. Reviews are just an indicator of consumer experience. No legitimate process for review collection can fix a systemically poor consumer experience. "How do I get more reviews" is different than "how do I get enough positive reviews to diffuse the 25 negative ones I get each month?"

If you are going through the trouble of changing your review solicitation process it is a great time to think about tweeking small things in your process to improve consumer experience as a whole too. There are some really smart people here that can give you thoughts and opinions on that subject too.

Again, welcome! I think you are going to like it here.
 
#10
Tallcool1 said:
Ryan,

Great post, regardless of the fact that you work for DealerRater.

Thanks

Clint
Click to expand...

Thanks Clint! My DealerRefresh affiliation actually predates my DealerRater one. :)

I owe this community more than I can possibly repay. You won't see a "pitch post" from me here, EVER! That I can promise you.

craigh said:
He can't help the fact that he works for the most successful option.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind words Craig!

I tell everybody that it is the most successful option BECAUSE I work here. ;)

CHEERS!
 
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