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Alex Jefferson · Jan 15, 2009

Stan- I'm curious how you integrate what you are doing with this with your long term strategy...meaning 90 days or more. Do you use email marketing campaigns after 60 days to take the place of customized responses? What do you think about the effectiveness. We have done them sporadically by not consistent so we haven't gotten that part of it down to a science yet. What does everyone else think about this?

philipzelinger · Jan 15, 2009

I have learned that service sells cars so after 30 days I start integrating service offers as a "secondary" hook. If they had a trdae that I can service - not limited to my client's brand if his fixed operations is on the job - then I introduce an offer to keep their vehicle in shape pending their trade-in when they are ready so they can preserve it's appraised value and stay safe.

I also include a reassurance that if they already purchased elsewhere - no worries! I apologize for losing their "sale" - congratulate the assumed winner and then offer to keep them as a customer with our "Adopt A Customer" program for future service. I usually attach a tacid condition that they allow us to place our license frame or decal on their car to identify them as a "Preferred Customer" with V.I.P. discounts for service and future sales and referrals since I can afford to lose a sale - but not a customer - or a friend!

After all, what are friends for!

mattwatson81 · Jan 15, 2009

One of the things we offer and recommend is sending similar vehicles to what the customer inquired upon in the emails be sent to them. So 30, 60 days from now when your auto responders go out, the emails will be different every time and show fresh inventory that is similar to what they inquired upon.

Jan 14, 2009

I like this topic, it is awesome. I used to work off those templates like , "Are you still in the market?". They worked well but as times got tougher I got in the habit of getting creative. Instead of having an automated follow up system for my emails, I would create templates similar to what would be sent out in an auto follow up process. These emails would be manually sent out by internet reps simply because I would start to teach them to engage in thinking outside the box and trying out new things. I never did it like Jeff mentions, but it seems like I can learn from Jeff because this is very creative. I am also getting in the habit of adding market statistics on my introductory emails to use as a way of complimenting the customer. Now, in terms of using automated emails...I only suggest it if you are working in a small store where you are the only ISM having to deal with leads, calls, delivering the car, and some managerial duty. Even still a process should be fine tuned to work properly. Perhaps a mix of some automated emails like the ones that go out from upper management and a process of newly typed up ones that are really personalized.

Also, a thing I once did was separate my process for new and used. A new car lead I used to work for 73 days and upto 90 days depending on the product, the store, the crm, and internet department setup. A used car lead should not be worked for more than 30 to 40 days. A used car customer is interested in a vehicle which means they are ready to buy that specific vehicle within a few days, they know there are no others like it. If you are still trying to sell that customer the same car after 30 days, chances are they already bought a similar car somewhere else. What if that specific car was sold to someone else or wholesaled? Now you are wasting your own and the customer's time. Be creative, if that car is gone and you have not sold this customer, start to offer alternatives. Do a morning lot walk and keep an inventory list updated every day.

Jan 14, 2009

We must be creative in our responses, and understand that the customer needs a break from the non personal routine interaction. You have got to think that people want a break from the ordinary. I think these days we all crave it. In your Marketing Message, or email response, (I think) you must break away from the ordinary. Throw away the auto responders. Cut the bull crap replies. People don't want to be fed that crap. I don't think they ever did. I guess some are just glad they got a response, who knows. But in these times if we cannot put together a unique targeted response to a vehicle request, we are not trying. Plain and simple we should just do something else. In all respects, we should, to financially survive, because we won't get the business. One great way to get that response and to find out where the heck you stand is to use humor.

Today I asked someone if they might have fallen off a cliff. And made the statement that - "that was hard to do in Indiana but was just making sure". It opened them right up to a response. It was putting a human touch to something instead of a canned one that deserves no response. You should even put this in the subject line to get it opened. Like, "I'm really worried now, are you OK?" This may seem silly to some. But we are all human beings here. People need to relate to someone and not someone's CRM-ILM crap. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for humor and there are definitely not places for it. You should be able to figure this out.

Breaking things down to looking at where their email is being sent from. Work, home, a business you know something about. A name that seems familiar. Google them. Presume, instead of not thinking or caring. Look at your response twice to see how you might be able to make it just a little bit better. Maybe misspell something to not look prefabbed. There are people who must make perfect templates. they don't sell cars, they make or sell templates.

Just like in face to face selling, there are keywords that will get a response after you have busted down the door and let yourself in. Until you do some busting , there will be no chance for a sale.
Wendell

umer.autojini · Jan 14, 2009

Boy, this seems like lot of work...

We have all shopped competition... 90% don't even do the first call

philipzelinger · Jan 14, 2009

Communication is the key to developing and maitaining any relationship. The application described in the service drive for text messaging updates on the status of a vehicle while it is being repaired is not only a convenience for the consumer but a profit builder for the dealer. In today's consumer driven world suggesting needed service is almost impossible when the customer first pulls up since they are already defensively expecting the "upsell." Many customers drop off their vehicle and continue with work or errands while the requested repairs are being performed and the "down time" of contacting them to get permission to do the work - in many cases even the work that was requested pending an evaluation - costs everyone involved in time, money and inefficiencies.

The text messaging solution offered is a "win-win" application of an accepted communication tool that has yet to achieve its full potential. We are living in a cell phone - PDA - text world that demands instant access to information and this system definitely fits the profile.

bpulseadmin · Jan 14, 2009

LEE, Mass.—Jan. 14, 2008—autoRevenue, an industry leader in delivering a full suite of cost-effective customer contact solutions to auto dealerships across the country, and a division of Dominion Enterprises, announces the release of @utoText™. @utoText™ enables auto dealerships to enhance their customer experience during the service appointment lifecycle through a simple hosted portal. Dealers will have easy access to build a database of opt-in text message subscribers and communicate in real-time to gain approvals for repair orders, send service status updates, notify when a vehicle is ready, and text appointment reminders to customers.

Brice Englert, general manager of @utoRevenue© commented,

“Text is another effective push-medium for auto dealerships to directly communicate with their customers and nearly guarantee an impression of that message. Customer loyalty now is more important than ever and simple, efficient communications will increasingly be demanded by the ever-more-busy consumer. Launching @utoText™ at NADA 2009 is the perfect time for us to showcase our dedication to innovation and enable dealers to revolutionize the way they communicate with customers yet again.”

U.S. consumers have adopted mobile phones and, in-turn, text messaging at a rapid pace. As of December 2007, there were 255.3 million mobile phone subscribers in the U.S. These devices have quickly extended beyond voice communications to mobile computing, thus driving a consumer’s “time on device” to record levels. This advent in technology has allowed consumers to always be online. As a result text messaging provides a direct channel for quick, assured delivery of communications.

Consumers increasingly are embracing commercial text messaging for the convenience - fewer phone interruptions and no chasing voicemail. They can respond instantly to a RO approval request from the service department, allowing quicker turn times on service bays. With 75 percent of all mobile subscribers using text messaging, the opportunity to improve CSI and drive efficiency is available today.

About @utoRevenue:
@utoRevenue™ (www.autorevenue.com), a division of Dominion Enterprises, is based in Lee, Mass. As a first-mover in permission-based email marketing solutions for retail auto dealerships, @utoRevenue has evolved to offer a complete line of marketing services including email, email collection, online appointment scheduling, direct mail, voice messaging, and e-newsletters.

About Dominion Enterprises:
Dominion Enterprises is a leading marketing services company serving the automotive, enthusiast and commercial vehicle, real estate, apartment rental, and employment industries. The company’s businesses provide a comprehensive suite of technology-based marketing solutions including Internet advertising, lead generation, CRM, Web site design and hosting, and data management services. The company has more than 45 market-leading Web sites reaching more than 16.7 million unique visitors, and more than 450 magazines that with a weekly circulation of 4.3 million. Headquartered in Norfolk, Va., the company has 5,400 employees in more than 200 offices nationwide. For more information, visit Dominion Enterprises

bpulseadmin · Jan 12, 2009

Cobalt Group Releases Its Annual Automotive eShopper Experience™ Study

A comprehensive survey of automotive shopper response practices by dealerships

SEATTLE, January 12, 2009 — Cobalt, the leading provider of automotive digital marketing solutions and services, announced the release of the Automotive eShopper Experience Study, the largest and longest research initiative of its kind in the industry with results from dealerships representing thirty OEM brands. At the industry level the study shows substantial improvement in the quality of the online automotive consumer’s experience, but from a low performance baseline. A key finding in this year’s report is the significant improvement in the performance of the Chevrolet brand to scores exceeding all of its volume peers and to levels approaching Lexus, the industry’s perennial champion.

Since 2004, Cobalt has conducted the industry’s largest and most comprehensive online consumer experience studies through its eMystery Shop™ service. This year marks the release of the first comprehensive overview of the shops’ results, as well as a ranking of the top five performing OEM brands for 2007 and 2008. The study was conducted by presenting highly qualified sales opportunities to dealers through their websites and monitoring the timeliness, thoroughness and quality of the dealer’s response to the consumer’s inquiry. Response content was judged on how completely the dealer answered the shopper’s questions, as well as their professionalism in the initial contact.

Key Findings:

Tough times have made dealers more responsive to shoppers. The Automotive eShopper Index™ is an integrated score of the overall effectiveness of dealership lead handling practices, which can be tracked by brand and trended over time. Using this index, the average of all brands improved from 30.5 to 39.0 on a 100 point scale from 2007 to 2008, driven primarily by an uptick in dealers responding to a higher percentage of leads. However, there remains room for improvement, especially in the area of response quality.

Dealers do not respond, by email or phone, to one in four shoppers submitting leads.
When they respond, dealers are following up more consistently with an average of 3.1 follow-ups (vs. 2.0 in 2005).
If a shopper asks for the price of a new vehicle, they will be given this information less than 25% of the time.
Only 13% or responding dealerships provide the shopper with information about the benefits of their particular brand or vehicle.

Brand Rankings

At the top of the brand rankings, Lexus dealers hold the top spot based on the timeliness of their responses. However, the significant news for 2008 is Chevrolet’s leap from its 2007 ranking at 15th place, to its second place overall ranking in 2008. Chevrolet dealers delivered major improvements across the board in response rate and response quality. VW took a third-place ranking overall based on a combination of lead response time and relevant lead response content. Additional ranking information is available in the study whitepaper.

“As the leader in automotive digital marketing, Cobalt invests in research on all aspects of the online automotive shopper experience,” said Chris Reed, Chief Marketing Officer of Cobalt. “We are pleased to provide the automotive industry with the insights they need to improve consumer engagement and marketing efficiency.”

To download the full 2008 Automotive eShopper Experience Study white paper please visit www.cobalt.com/emystery. To learn more about Cobalt’s eMystery Shop program email [email protected].

About Cobalt:
Cobalt is North America's leading provider of automotive marketing services. For thirteen years, Cobalt's mission has been to help automobile dealers and manufacturers increase their retailing effectiveness and profitability. Cobalt provides marketing services to half of the automotive dealerships in the United States, as well as automotive dealers in Canada and Mexico. Cobalt’s marketing services are endorsed by approximately two-thirds of the world's major automotive manufacturers.

Apr 29, 2012

Hello,

If you are willing, would you please make your visitors aware of our attempt to organize victims of RipOffReport.com in order to put enough pressure on Google, Yahoo and other search engines to completely de-index RipOffReport.com from search results. Although Ed Magedson is a heartless opportunist, if it weren't for the search engines he would be irrelevant to the rest of the world.
www.BadForPeople.org

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www.facebook.com

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www.facebook.com

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www.facebook.com

I recently filed a lawsuit against both Google and RipOffReport.com for civil conspiracy. If you download my lawsuit complaint as filed, you can read my theories on what I call the “humiliation algorithm”. In a nutshell, Google, by elevating RipOffReport.com results on any given search, repulses users of the search engine from the organization that there were looking for, thus causing them to click on GOOGLE AdWords® thus driving revenue from the ad click through at the expense of the business injured because of RipOffReport.com. Naturally, if the user clicks on the ripoff report link there is a 2nd bite at the cherry for Google because RipOffReport.com also distributes GOOGLE AdWords®.

More information is available here:

www.BadForPeople.org

Thank you in advance,
Michael Roberts.
Organizer

Oct 21, 2009

I think that reputation management is extremely important to having a successful business, and looking at ripoffreport.com from a consumers’ perspective is a very important thing to consider. For a consumer, when they find bad reviews, they aren’t taking a large amount of time to figure out how viable the source is. The consumer sees good reviews and bad reviews, period. If you want to maintain your target consumers’ attention then you need to have a well maintained reputation.

As terrible as ripoffreport.com is, it is never going to go away. There will always be a ripoffreport.com whether it is the actual site or the review section in maps.google.com. Someone somewhere will always be posting something bad about your business. The important thing to remember is that in order to have a successful business you need to have some form of reputation management.

Feb 20, 2009

I haven't seen it mentioned on here and since it is highly topical, thought I would post it. I hope I'm not trampling all over the promotion thing, but I am not affiliated with this company (and in no way will benefit from their gaining business) in any way and I personally feel it is a fantastic tool.

When concerned with your on-line reputation, which all dealers should be, you need a monitoring tool to see what has been posted on the Web. You need to look at it all: blogs, forums, consumer sites, images, videos, etc. I know its a lot, but all of these things can be used in a negative attack. Now the reason for my post:

There is a service that does a great job of monitoring all of this. It is called trackur and can be found at www.trackur.com They have a 14 day free trial offfer for anyone to test the system.

I would strongly suggest anyone concerned about monitoring their online reputation take a look at this service. I think it will be worth your time.

Al Carl
Reynolds Web

Jan 26, 2009

Thanks. I just believe that our expressions should remain humble. You all have some interesting points and those links were a great addition to add to my point of how important dealership online reputation management. There is one company out there that I believe will eventually become as huge as autotrader but in the terms of reputation management. I am sure you all know which company that is because I know it is the first company that comes to my mind when thinking of about positive reputation management.

Jan 26, 2009

Stan, very well put. Let us speak our minds and not be attacked for giving our opinions.

I made a comment and was brutally attacked for advocating a site I thought did a great job for dealers.

I was also accused of working for that site.

We can all get along and I appreciate your words.

Joseph "Joey" Stivick, Jr

Jan 26, 2009

Note to all vendors who are puzzled. See Brian's post above. It is a classic in social marketing success.

His message is pure and simple, it says to me (aka Buyer)... "Hi, I am Brian; here is some info to help you in this area... I am a SEO in our industry. Visit my site or call me anytime, I'm here to help."

I read his post visited the sites he referred to and bookmarked his site.

Hey! There's a lesson to us all here!

Note to dealers:
If you "hang" in car forums around your community and the audience knows you're a car dealer, your mission is to support the community... period. LET YOUR LINK TO THE SELLING. Do not get yourself into naked promoting and for sure, don't get upset at how short sighted your community members are for not seeing the value in your offers!

You'll be chum in the water.
Joe

Brian Pasch · Jan 25, 2009

I would like to add two other sites that are popping up for negative posts, which include:

www.complaintsboard.com and www.merareview.com

Also keep in mind that Yelp.com, Yahoo Local and InsiderPages are often included in Google Maps and related searches so check all these sites for positive and negative posts and take action accordingly.

Jan 24, 2009

Wow can't we all just get along here? We are all car guys of high caliber and we all manage the industry as a whole when it all comes down to it. You guys are all great to know and I am glad to be friends with all of you and hang out with you here at NADA. I think that this site really was created for us to speak our minds as well as follow new trends and share knowledge. I do not think that fighting or starting to get negative at one another is a good thing. I had the chance to see Mark today and I respect him he is a good man and has a lot of great things to talk about. I also got to see Jeff today and as always, I love the guy he is brilliant and this site is amazing. Jeff needs extra special respect because he is the master and this is his baby and for that I will be grateful. I have not written anything in here about RedNumbat because I do want to be spammy as Alex mentioned. I think it is fair to mention CarFolks and RedNumbat but not write an article about it because if we want to advertise it we should pay and get a link. However, if we write an article about a vendor it should be to discuss reviews and opinions of what a great service it provides or what damage it can do. This was my reason for writing this article. Let's all get along and be happy, life is too short. Let's keep our names and reputations clean because it is a small world and we cannot afford to ruin that with nonsense.

Jan 23, 2009

Hey Pistell. I dont work for Carfolks.com so shove it. I just think they do a great job. Mind your own business. My comments are my own.

Jan 23, 2009

Sorry if I disagree but it appears you are approaching this from the typical dealer reactive strategy. Did you wait for all of your customers to tell you they are on the Internet, or did your dealership build websites before all of your customers were online?

I don't think people should wait for consumers to jump on the Carfolks bandwagon, because if they do, by that time most of the reviews for dealers will be negative, just like those other rating sites. My point is, a service that is beneficial for the industry is worth discussing and exploring.

Jeff, when he started this blog highlighted best practices and talked about cutting edge technologies and processes. That attitude seems to have changed. It'd be nice to see a return to discussing new products, services and practices that will help our industry. We still need all the help we can get. You Alex are usually ahead of the curve in many areas and your perspective is always insightful. Please continue helping your peers. All the best.

Jan 23, 2009

Mark,

I like what you're trying to do, but your approach to selling it is very spammy. You have calmed that approach down substantially in the past few months, but it doesn't take much to realize what was posted in this thread was some of the same. I think that's what Joe was calling "Joey" out on.

Neither CarFolks, Dealer Rater, or the Rip-off report have ever come up in my daily talks with various sales professionals around the Hampton Roads marketplace. Those things are only spoken about amongst people who frequent Dealer Refresh. Once customers start using those things they'll gain more weight.

I have noticed that Dealer Rater is gaining a lot of ground in the DC market. Maybe the market I work in is a little behind the times on these things?

Jan 23, 2009

Alex and Joe, I thought the idea for this blog was to share tools and positive things dealers and salesmen can do to build their business. What Joey and Joe Webb shared is right on the money.

My question for you Alex and Joe, is why hasn't there been an article on Dealer Refresh about what Carfolks.com is doing for the hard working sales professionals in this industry? When I search for Dealer Rater in your search box they come up 8 times, a search on Carfolks has only two entries and one is just a sponsorship mention. So bottom line: Is an interview with Alex Synder more important than telling 200,000 auto sales people they have a FREE tool to protect and build their reputation online?

Jan 23, 2009

Joe - I love you man.

Jan 23, 2009

Joe err.. Joey.

So how long have you been working for CarFolks? Tell your boss to buy some ad space here, you'll get more sales that way.

Joe

Jan 22, 2009

There is. It is called CarFolks.com. It is pretty cool.
CarFolks.com can help dealers. It is FREE for every sales person in
the country. This posting speaks about all the reasons a site like CarFolks is needed in this
industry.

CarFolks is a good idea whose time has come, and beneficial for the industry.The value CarFolks can provide is huge!

Jan 22, 2009

Too bad there isn't a social network/review site that allows sales people and dealerships to talk about all the good things they do for their customers.

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