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Autotrader to add Dealership Reviews

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#22
Stefan said:
Jeff, you said it: Who are the top players?

How many more places do we need for reviews? Is craigslist, Carfax and every other dealer partner (vendor) going to jump on reviews...?

Think about it, we currently need reviews on Google, Yelp, FB, DealerRater, citySearch, Angie's list, I love X dealer .com, Presto, OEM, Edmunds, Cars, now AT...

"We are 5 starts on Cars"... or "We are 4.5 stars on AT " ... is any of this of true value to a consumer or dealer? After the sale or SERVICE we have to send the customer to Cars and AT to post a review... really? We are creating few monsters ...

How about our CRM system? We already have the ability to collect customer feed back using email surveys, the problem is they are not integrated anywhere... soon if not already, companies like DDC and VIN CRM might integrate this with your website ... are the other partners going to recognize and integrate this reviews?
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DealerRater provides some widgets and feeds that allow website providers to host the reviews on a dealers website. DealerOn does a nice job with hosted reviews on the VDP.

We can't stop online review revolution. Too much supportive data around the impact is has on the consumers decision. It's not going to get any easier to manage. More and more sites will offer consumer reviews - as we are seeing it happen already. Embrace and conquer!

Check out this e-book. One of many around the significance of reviews - Just Released: The Marketer’s Guide to Customer Reviews | Grade.us Blog - thanks to Ed Brooks for sharing this on facebook earlier today.
 
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#23
Jeff Kershner said:
More leads or more "walk-ins"? :)
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Ha ha, I guess you heard that before.

Now what would be NEW would be to have customers review Autotarder Vs. other sites. Why don't they rate the user experience in their own site on several categories:

Speed, information access, advertising, etc.

That will do more for everyone as an industry that having reviews aboiut the people that we serve when there are plenty of companies specialized on that already.
 
#24
I sound frustrated don't I? I'm actually not :)

Getting reviews should get easier with time ... it's still "Day One"


Jeff Kershner said:
DealerRater provides some widgets and feeds that allow website providers to host the reviews on a dealers website. DealerOn does a nice job with hosted reviews on the VDP.

We can't stop online review revolution. Too much supportive data around the impact is has on the consumers decision. It's not going to get any easier to manage. More and more sites will offer consumer reviews - as we are seeing it happen already. Embrace and conquer!

Check out this e-book. One of many around the significance of reviews - Just Released: The Marketer’s Guide to Customer Reviews | Grade.us Blog - thanks to Ed Brooks for sharing this on facebook earlier today.
Click to expand...
 
#27
Ryan Leslie said:
Hey Yago,

I bet they did just that in a focus group and found out that they needed to show consumer's reviews in order to keep them on site longer! ;)
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In the end it doesn't matter. Once Google Cars deploys across the U.S. Autotarder is toasted.

If I was a dealer depending on Autotarder leads I would start to look for new avenues to get traffic intermediately.
 
#28
The true sad story about this is the fact that Cars.com added reviews 2 years ago and has gathered several hundred thousand of reviews for the dealers and it took Autotrader 2 years to react.

If the reviews are a good thing to have for participating dealers, why 2 years wait? If they are not good to have for participating dealers, why now?

I believe Cars.com did this at no cost to the dealers and that so far this has been a positive experience for everyone. If Autotrader could have monetized this they would have probably had reviews a lot sooner than 2 years.

I can't help to wonder what other technological advantages we should have on their website that could be generating leads that dealers may have to wait 2 years to get. It seems that only if it can be sold in a new package they are interested in developing the technology.

I'm ranting about Autotrader because I believe they have lost focus. I don't want to argue whether they should charge more or less for their services but as the market leader they used to be I will argue that their search for El Dorado with relentless acquisitions put the focus somewhere else other than generating leads and improving their website properly. You think that this is not important to me as a vendor and that I may have an ulterior motive for this but I beg to differ. Anyone that brings down the ROI on digital advertising affects what we all do. Every company that answers to the corporate expansion plans rather than the dealer's interest turns the dealers agains what we do in digital media. I believe in and love digital advertising.

Going into 2014 so far the biggest news is that Autotrader will have reviews 2 years after Cars.com has had them. What improvement should we expect next? Will they just copy another web advertiser feature?
 
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#29
VVAuto1 said:
Ryan, thanks for the heads up! Its nice to know where not going to have to add a review site to get customer reviews.....

Any insight on where the reviews will be pulling from?
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They're using a company called Bazaarvoice to do the work for them, doesn't answer the question really... I had a demo with them a few weeks ago to see how we can use them for our own customer reviews, specifically on products and services rather than overall dealership reviews. Very comprehensive offering for the review and reputation space. Looks like Cars.com is leveraging them as well.

LINK
 
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