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Doing Twitter the Wrong Way
This post originally appeared on J.D. Power Automotive Online Review and has been re-posted here on DealerRefresh with permission. Posted by Amit Aggarwal.
Why would someone follow your dealer on Twitter?
Last year, I asked “Why would I follow a dealer on Twitter?” My premise was that people will follow someone on Twitter if they can get something out of it. Too often, dealers were just pushing specials and not giving people a reason to follow them. As a counter example, Courtesy Hyundai of Georgia (@HyundaiAtlanta) regularly tweets car care tips, a topic that has the potential to draw followers who will then also receive other information about the dealer and may choose to participate in conversations.
Seven months later, Courtesy Hyundai continues to mix tweets regarding car care, Hyundai vehicles, industry data, and dealer information and now reaches 2,364 followers. The tone is conversational and there’s clearly a person behind the account as evidenced by the tweet frequency – nearly all tweets come during work hours.
Contrast this approach with that of East Coast Automall (@NISSANandVW), shown below. The account produces over 17 daily tweets at a constant frequency throughout the entire day. Who wants to receive automated tweets at 4am? There’s almost no conversation, with few replies or retweets.
@NISSANandVW (and related accounts @NewJerseyNissan and @TriStateVW) each have over 23k followers, which seems to have been achieved by following anyone who’ll follow back, even those accounts that are essentially telemarketing / spam. This boosts one’s follower count, but accomplishes little else.
Fortunately, East Coast Automall seems to be in the minority. Other dealers on Twitter at least attempt to use the medium in a productive way.
The tweet cloud for Suzuki of Wichita (@suzukiofwichita) demonstrates the warmth of personal interaction, with words like happy, congratulations, thanks, and welcome showing up frequently. @suzukiofwichita also frequently links to other social media content (e.g. Facebook, YouTube)
Richmond Ford (@richmondford) hasn’t tweeted since November 2009, but still has 8,867 followers. The historical tweet stream shows a lot of brand content, especially retweets from @Ford.
While there may be no one “right” way to use Twitter, there are clearly some wrong ways. I’ve highlighted some dealers with large followings, most of who seem to offer something of value to their followers. If you can’t do that at a minimum, then don’t do it at all.
How is your dealer using twitter and is it working?
Why would someone follow your dealer on Twitter?
Last year, I asked “Why would I follow a dealer on Twitter?” My premise was that people will follow someone on Twitter if they can get something out of it. Too often, dealers were just pushing specials and not giving people a reason to follow them. As a counter example, Courtesy Hyundai of Georgia (@HyundaiAtlanta) regularly tweets car care tips, a topic that has the potential to draw followers who will then also receive other information about the dealer and may choose to participate in conversations.
Seven months later, Courtesy Hyundai continues to mix tweets regarding car care, Hyundai vehicles, industry data, and dealer information and now reaches 2,364 followers. The tone is conversational and there’s clearly a person behind the account as evidenced by the tweet frequency – nearly all tweets come during work hours.
Contrast this approach with that of East Coast Automall (@NISSANandVW), shown below. The account produces over 17 daily tweets at a constant frequency throughout the entire day. Who wants to receive automated tweets at 4am? There’s almost no conversation, with few replies or retweets.
@NISSANandVW (and related accounts @NewJerseyNissan and @TriStateVW) each have over 23k followers, which seems to have been achieved by following anyone who’ll follow back, even those accounts that are essentially telemarketing / spam. This boosts one’s follower count, but accomplishes little else.
Fortunately, East Coast Automall seems to be in the minority. Other dealers on Twitter at least attempt to use the medium in a productive way.
The tweet cloud for Suzuki of Wichita (@suzukiofwichita) demonstrates the warmth of personal interaction, with words like happy, congratulations, thanks, and welcome showing up frequently. @suzukiofwichita also frequently links to other social media content (e.g. Facebook, YouTube)
Richmond Ford (@richmondford) hasn’t tweeted since November 2009, but still has 8,867 followers. The historical tweet stream shows a lot of brand content, especially retweets from @Ford.
While there may be no one “right” way to use Twitter, there are clearly some wrong ways. I’ve highlighted some dealers with large followings, most of who seem to offer something of value to their followers. If you can’t do that at a minimum, then don’t do it at all.
How is your dealer using twitter and is it working?
The Worst Question You Can Ask Your Customer
- Off Topic & Everything Else
- 4 Replies
“When were you hoping to purchase one?”
On the phone or in person, I hear salespeople ask this question all the time.
I am going to share a story in which I was able to learn a valuable lesson early on in my career...
Back in the mid 80’s I was working for a Mazda Volvo dealer as a salesperson. It was a Saturday in early April and the weather outside was that of a summer day. It was the first real nice day after a rough winter. Days like these brought people out of their homes in large numbers. By noon I had closed my first deal of the day. My manager told me: “get back out there and get me another one Thibeau.” That wasn’t very hard to do since the lot was crawling with ups. Considering myself an expert on sizing up the right prospect, I approached a young couple looking at the Volvo’s. After introducing myself, they asked me if they could drive a couple of the different models. I asked them that famous question we salespeople like to ask: “when were you hoping to purchase one?” They replied with, “probably next year.” I instantly went from having a great day, to wondering, “why me?” I made small talk while I thought about having to spend valuable time test driving these folks who had no intentions of purchasing today. Meanwhile my peers were feasting on real customers who were here to buy. Not wanting to be left out of the feeding frenzy that was taking place, I finally said to my customers, “folks, I only get paid if I sell a car and since you’re not here to buy one today, I really need to find somebody who is. If you would like to come back on Monday or Tuesday I’ll be glad to let you take a few cars for a test drive then.” I was quite surprised when the couple told me that they understood. They informed me that they would just look around and come back another day when it wasn’t so busy. So I gave them a card and off I went in search of my next sale. I found another customer and ended up spending the next few hours selling a gentleman a Mazda. During that process I noticed that one of the other salespeople had latched on to the couple I had dusted earlier. I watched as he actually took them on several test drives. What really amused me was the fact that this was a salesperson with whom I often competed with for sale rep of the month honors. While digging through keys at the key board, I actually laughed at him and told him he was wasting his time since these folks were not buying until next year. Well an hour later I see him working numbers with the manager. Shortly after that I see them in the business office talking with the finance manager. I later found out that the young couple I dusted had actually purchased two brand new Volvo’s. Well needless to say my peer was the one laughing and I was left humiliated. Not to mention I ended up losing sale rep of the month honors to him by one unit.
I digested that experience and vowed that I would never make that mistake again. What I had done is let those customers sell me. They changed my way of thinking instead of me changing theirs. When asking “how soon were you planning to purchase one?” you’re allowing the opportunity to ruin your attitude. This will lead you to skipping steps and thus you won’t take your customers seriously. Assume every customer you come in contact with is ready to buy today. When they tell you “no” several or more times, then and only then have you earned the right to ask: “when do you think you’ll be ready to purchase one?”
You’ll also notice I mentioned in my story that I thought I was an expert when it came to sizing up prospects. Well trust me when I tell you, there’s no such thing as an expert when it comes to sizing up prospects. You keep doing that and you’ll get burned sooner or later. They’re all prospects and they should all be given the million dollar presentation.
One would think this story was geared for a salesperson, but there’s also a message here for sales managers. This is probably happening in your dealership today. Often it’s the person you think is your best salesperson. Your best salesperson may be achieving his/her success while blowing through your customers. That’s why it’s so important that we make sure every customer is being logged (including phone-ups) and track true closing percentages. I’ve seen cases where a top salesperson will sell 20 vehicles off 200 prospects and the dealership will put him/her on a pedestal. Where had the dealership taken those 200 prospects and dispersed them to the rest of the salespeople who were achieving a 20 percent closing ratio, the dealership would have actually closed 40 sales instead of the 20. If a salesperson is getting 200 prospects in a month, it’s because the other salespeople are letting him/her get away with it. Normally this is due to laziness and a non competitive environment. As a manager it’s your job to make sure this doesn’t happen in your store. So how are you going to ensure that this doesn’t happen in your store? I could make some suggestions, but I would rather the community share their suggestions in the “comments” section.
Contact At Once! Celebrates Two Million Dealer Chats
- By bpulseadmin
ATLANTA, GA – January 6, 2010 – Contact At Once!, LLC, (contactatonce.com) the leading provider of dealer live chat software and other internet marketing tools that move online lookers into live conversations with dealerships, announced today that the ContactAtOnce! dealer live chat service powered its two millionth live chat conversation. The company also released statistics and trend data showing dramatic industry-wide growth in the use of dealer live chat for online automotive marketing.
ContactAtOnce! shared the celebration by providing a commemorative plaque to the dealership that took part in the landmark live chat conversation.
“The popularity of text-based communication has exploded, including SMS text messaging on mobile phones, Twitter, and instant messaging services such as Google, AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and Facebook, so it naturally follows that many consumers prefer text–based communication while car shopping,” said Hayes. “As the leading provider of dealer live chat software, with over 6,000 dealers using the
ContactAtOnce! dealer live chat service every day, we have made it easy for dealers and other automotive website providers to capitalize on this trend, as evidenced by the dramatic growth in chat conversations depicted in this graph.”
The inclusion of dealer live chat in online automotive marketing of all types is a significant industry trend. In the past year, major automotive sites such as Cars.com, CarsDirect.com, and CarSoup.com have added chat features to advertising packages, while thousands of dealers have added chat features to their own websites, landing pages and eNewsletters. Chat technology isn’t new, but
ContactAtOnce! has taken the it to a new level for the automotive industry by making it easy for dealer sales personnel to use, personalizing it for consumers with real images of dealership staff, and eliminating the need for expensive, less effective external call centers through “presence aware” smart technology that knows when dealership personnel are ready and able to chat. By enabling integration with aggregator sites like Cars.com, the ContactAtOnce! dealer live chat service multiplies the number of potential customers connecting with dealers via live chat.
Despite nearly 200% growth in the number of automotive live chat conversations during 2009, Hayes estimates that less than 20% of auto dealers currently use live chat. That will likely change in 2010 though. “We expect the vast majority of dealers will be chat-enabled before the end of this year, compelled by the business benefits, easy-to-use technology, and widespread support by major automotive sites.”
About Dealer Live Chat Provider Contact At Once!, LLC:
Contact At Once!, LLC is the leading provider of dealer live chat and internet marketing tools for automotive sales,
apartment leasing, and other industries where consumers conduct research online before visiting a dealership or
office. The ContactAtOnce! service typically moves at least 25% more website visitors into live conversations with
sales people by utilizing a suite of technologies such as presence, IM/chat, VoIP telephony, video chat and text
messaging, resulting in increased revenue and a better return on marketing expenditures. ContactAtOnce! is the only solution with features specifically for vertical search websites and over 35 such sites, along with thousands of
merchant businesses, are using it today. Find out more at www.contactatonce.com.
ContactAtOnce! shared the celebration by providing a commemorative plaque to the dealership that took part in the landmark live chat conversation.
“The popularity of text-based communication has exploded, including SMS text messaging on mobile phones, Twitter, and instant messaging services such as Google, AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and Facebook, so it naturally follows that many consumers prefer text–based communication while car shopping,” said Hayes. “As the leading provider of dealer live chat software, with over 6,000 dealers using the
ContactAtOnce! dealer live chat service every day, we have made it easy for dealers and other automotive website providers to capitalize on this trend, as evidenced by the dramatic growth in chat conversations depicted in this graph.”
The inclusion of dealer live chat in online automotive marketing of all types is a significant industry trend. In the past year, major automotive sites such as Cars.com, CarsDirect.com, and CarSoup.com have added chat features to advertising packages, while thousands of dealers have added chat features to their own websites, landing pages and eNewsletters. Chat technology isn’t new, but
ContactAtOnce! has taken the it to a new level for the automotive industry by making it easy for dealer sales personnel to use, personalizing it for consumers with real images of dealership staff, and eliminating the need for expensive, less effective external call centers through “presence aware” smart technology that knows when dealership personnel are ready and able to chat. By enabling integration with aggregator sites like Cars.com, the ContactAtOnce! dealer live chat service multiplies the number of potential customers connecting with dealers via live chat.
Despite nearly 200% growth in the number of automotive live chat conversations during 2009, Hayes estimates that less than 20% of auto dealers currently use live chat. That will likely change in 2010 though. “We expect the vast majority of dealers will be chat-enabled before the end of this year, compelled by the business benefits, easy-to-use technology, and widespread support by major automotive sites.”
About Dealer Live Chat Provider Contact At Once!, LLC:
Contact At Once!, LLC is the leading provider of dealer live chat and internet marketing tools for automotive sales,
apartment leasing, and other industries where consumers conduct research online before visiting a dealership or
office. The ContactAtOnce! service typically moves at least 25% more website visitors into live conversations with
sales people by utilizing a suite of technologies such as presence, IM/chat, VoIP telephony, video chat and text
messaging, resulting in increased revenue and a better return on marketing expenditures. ContactAtOnce! is the only solution with features specifically for vertical search websites and over 35 such sites, along with thousands of
merchant businesses, are using it today. Find out more at www.contactatonce.com.
What Happened on DealerRefresh in 2009?
Let me be the first to comment on your 2009 best of.
Glad it's gone! Hello 2010
Glad it's gone! Hello 2010
Why hasn't CRM sold me more cars?
- CRM, ILM, Chat, Desking, Emails, Phone, SMS
- 37 Replies
Point #1 really rocks! It's true, it's not abt the technology, it's what you do with it!! And ditto on everyone seems to only focus on NOW! Hence, faces risk of losing their old customers as sales person go on a chase after new ones, and neglecting the old customers who bought from them, and probably would buy & refer...IF the sales person bothers to keep the connection going.