"Last thing; develop a secure credit application that can be sent to a CRM or lead management tool. Having to log into a separate account to retrieve a finance application not in your format is a pain."

Great suggestion Chris. I have been against having numerous unnecessary systems for a long time.

I'd like to see these companies move to a more fluid business model. So many of these third party lead providers get stuck in their ways. I think Jeff is going to comment on this further, but in a nutshell, times are changing and most of these companies are not.

The classified vendors, AT Car.com Vehix, need to remove the leaks from their sites or change their pricing models. Dealers are being taken advantage of in these relationships and most do not realize it.

The maxim in online marketing is "Content is King and Traffic is Supreme" and they are charging dealers to provide them content to monetize the traffic it brings in above and beyond the fees collected from the dealer.

I would say all of the above. Like everything lately, third party lead providers are evolving. Companies like Autotrader seem to be making a stand that they are advertising, just like newspapers, t.v. and radio. They, according to my rep, do not provide leads.
Others, like Vehix and the like, count leads as the way they prove their worth. But, unlike most of them Vehix used to come to the dealership to go through the leads to see which ones actually sold.

Going forward:

I don't care about unique hits, page views or search impressions. I care about how many people I received and of those people how many I sold. To me, that is the purest form of ROI.

Website click throughs and maps are subjective.

I would love to see these companies develop a way in their tools to track the sold, the price point, days in stock etc. I also would love to see 3 rd party vendors get away from roof top pricing. I have 23 vehicles at one store and 300 at another, why are they charged the same thing?

Charge per vehicle uploaded. Allow the dealers to be more unique. Offer BHPH products. Don't say that you are a partner, then sell the same package to everyone else.

Last thing; develop a secure credit application that can be sent to a CRM or lead management tool. Having to log into a separate account to retrieve a finance application not in your format is a pain.

To summarize; get better at the little things. These companies are like the yellow pages; they tried so hard to make it easier that the average person of intelligence doesn't get it.

WOW Alex, stirring up the pot on a Friday? This should be a well read topic with all of the vendors on this site!

I read here daily and generally choose not to post, but I came across the autodealermonthly.com Dealer's Choice Awards last week and instantly wondered what Jeff, Alex, Joe and the others from the DR community thought about it. I hope I'm not off topic. But how do DR reader's wants and needs from a provider line-up with the "results" of these awards?


Looking forward to following this one,
JL

We have used DealerFire for the past 2 years and the results have been incredible. They have helped us build a CUSTOMER FRIENDLY site, no flash, easy for our customers to use, navigate and see on all devices. I love having a website that I can add content on the fly and the architecture is extremely SEO friendly. The increase in car sales and service speaks for its self. Keep up the great work and incredible dealer support DealerFire.

Our dealership has been partners with DealerFire for a few years now and we have been very satisfied with them as our website provider. We have always loved the design of our sites and DealerFire has been able to maintain a fresh look to them over the years.  I also think the customer service has been impressive.  They respond to my requests in a timely fashion and maintain very quick turnaround times.  I would absolutely reccommend DealerFire to another dealer who was looking for a new web presence and who expects their provider to go the extra mile to ensure their success.  

We signed up with Dealerfire about 7 months ago and I am completely satisfied. Their Support Staff is professional, easy to work with, and efficient with handling all of our needs. I would give Dealerfire a 10 out of 10!

These guys provide a GREAT webpage, and provide EXCEPTIONAL support.
The reason I am loyal to dealerfire is the service. Leif, Per, Paul and the whole team are SO responsive they provide the best service everytime. I seriousy feel as if they work for ME and only ME!

A quick note on Dealerfire. We had a problem a few years past, we had dealer endorsed websites that did a job but not the job. We wanted to be excellent in every aspect of our dealership from top to bottom and than go beyond excellent. Dealerfire has not only helped us achieve excellence like we wanted, but they exceeded expectations. Our website consistently achieves a top spot in all web page searches, and we have consistently exceeded our previous years average for hits, transitional leads, and final deliveries. From our first selling experience with Kristen, to the service after the sale with Kristen, Leif, Per, Edsel and the rest of the technical team, the experience has been A-1.

An amazing aspect of the company is that they are so fluid. Always changing and always evolving you can expect they don't rest on their laurels. When we need something changed or added to our website, it is almost instantaneous and done with quality.

Using Ignite, which allows you to change basic information on the website (salespeople, bios, hours, etc) is user friendly and has an intuitive interface.

If anyone would like to have any questions about our experience please feel free to call me at 800.459.6840, I would be glad to help.

The support staff is THE BEST! Very fast response times and great communication.
Beth Henke
Customer Communications
San Diego Volvo
San Diego CA

Eric,

Just wanted to send a quick follow up to let you know that everything went (relatively) smoothly Wednesday night and Auto Plus version 2.0 hit the streets of Northeast Wisconsin on schedule this morning. We still have some minor issues to work out, but overall I'd call it a smashing success. Thanks to you and everyone at Dealer Fire for helping making this possible. Your team did a great job and special thanks are in order for Per as well as Farrukh and his team, at least one of whom stayed on through the night to make sure the feed was ready for us on time.

Many thanks, and have a great weekend All!

Nick

Nick Wood
Operations Manager
[email protected]
920-676-7529

Wisconsin Automotive Publishing LLC
AutoPlus/Max, Auto Gazette & BullsEye Distribution

awesome tech support team, they teach you how to edit everything yourself and NO request is too custom for them. I haev thrown a lot at them and they never complain or act as if I'm a bother, etc. They are appreciative and have an attitude of gratitude. we were with Cobalt before and they barely knew what SEO meant compared to DealerFire. We now have a 'turn on a dime' small company coupled with established big company-like results at a very fair price. highly recommend Matt Cole, he has been our sales rep and has stayed involved for months now after we've signed up to make sure we are getting everything we need and even recommending great ideas/changes to consistently improve our sites. his personal cell is ALWAYS on and he doesnt know what 'work hours' means. a true hardworking hungry professional that loves what he does and has the team to back it up and execute!

awesome tech support team, they teach you how to edit everything yourself and NO request is too custom for them. I haev thrown a lot at them and they never complain or act as if I'm a bother, etc. They are appreciative and have an attitude of gratitude. we were with Cobalt before and they barely knew what SEO meant compared to DealerFire. We now have a 'turn on a dime' small company coupled with established big company-like results at a very fair price. highly recommend Matt Cole, he has been our sales rep and has stayed involved for months now after we've signed up to make sure we are getting everything we need and even recommending great ideas/changes to consistently improve our sites. his personal cell is ALWAYS on and he doesnt know what 'work hours' means. a true hardworking hungry professional that loves what he does and has the team to back it up and execute!

Here's the report. Sorry for the last link as it wants you to log in:
http://www.slideshare.net/jchura/top-100-rankings...

Nothing happens until you sell a car! Since we have had Dealerfire we have!!! In fact last month River View Ford was ranked among the top 50 dealers in the Nation and tied for #1 in Illinois by Ford Direct for Internet Sales. To put this in perspective the dealer that tied with us sold over 3x's as many overall cars YET we tied them in Internet sales!

Dealerfire has provided unparalleled service creating a unique website that harnesses the power of social media integration and maximum conversion opportunities. I especially have to thank Matthew Cole, Brad Strand, Leif Richards, and Russ Miescke (to name a few) for their support and really putting an all out effort into making hennessyfordstores.com a great website. It was the best customer service I have experienced after being in the automotive industry for over 12 years.

If you're looking for a "plain Jane" website then Dealerfire is not the company to choose. However, if you're looking for a customized design and have ideas that you want to convert to reality then Dealerfire IS your company. Please feel free to contact me for additional information regarding Dealerfire.

Here's a link to Ford's Elite Sales Internet Report for last month:
http://tinyurl.com/22s5qcr

By bringing together cutting edge design and technology, DealerFire has taken BroadwayAutomotive.com to a new level; creating a virtual dealership that maximizes our customers’ online experience and sets our website apart from our competitors in the marketplace. The entire staff of DealerFire has consistently offered us truly top self support that exceeds every expectation. From our first planning meeting, through design process, through the site launch, and now in an ongoing maintenance phase, DealerFire has consistently come to the table with unique ideas, a solutions based approach to challenges faced by automotive consumers shopping online, and has worked with us to develop an overall online strategy to provide maximum advantage for our dealership in the digital marketplace.

Service is outstanding, staff is wonderful, functionality is perfect. We could not be happier with our relationship with dealerfire. Great people.

Service doesn't stop once your website is desgined....its ongoing. This is a top notch website provider with top notch people working for them. Their number one priority is making sure you are completely satisfied! They customize to what you need and want and are quick to get the job done. Without a doubt we know we made the right decision choosing Dealerfire as our web provider!!!

We chose Dealer Fire from a list of ASMA winners last fall for many reasons:

Search Friendly, Little to no Flash, mobile friendly and they customize.

We have found them to be on top of current trends and they never say NO.

Dealerfire was hired by our dealership group to build a portal site for our campus. What we got was much more.

Since we started working with Dealerfire last year, they've assisted us with the creation of our blog, implented many custom adjustments to our websites and answered many of our questions about social media. They even created flash ads for our Dealerrater pages. I regularly bounce new ideas off of Dealerfire's support team, and they consistently get back to me with realistic goals and prices if applicable.

Dealerfire helped us break into new territory as a car dealership, all while being courteous, friendly and patient. And you really can't ask for much more than that.

After 10 months of research and weighing our options our dealer group signed up Dealerfire and they have done nothing but exceed our expectations . Site is great , have tripled the amount of time our clients stay on our page , have doubled our leads generated from the site and have doubled the sales from leads generated from our site in just the first month !!! The content team really came together for us , and our account advocate was always there to help guide us through the transition . If you thinking about any of the others STOP and call these guys first ... they will do you right !!!

We did an extensive search for a new website provider and Dealerfire was our selection. Our decision to go with Dealerfire was a great one. The site is very pleasing to the eye but more importantly the SEO architecture is extraordinary. It seems almost everything is indexed and is easy to read for the web crawlers. In addition, the service is wonderful. Their combination of great production and accomodating service makes them hard to beat!

I did not realize that such a great company with great service and great people still existed like DealerFire! They are THE most professional, fast and on top of it company! They have changed our placement in the industry and are always there to handle whatever needs my company asks for! I recommend it highly and then some! Thank you again for what you have done and continue to do for our business!

Lief Richards and his entire staff at Dealerfire have gone above and beyond with the development of our 8 new websites. We are a high demand customer and Dealerfire has met our needs with great speed and flexibility. It is a pleasure working with them. Would definitely recommend them.

-Castrucci Auto Group, Cincinnati & Dayton, Ohio