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Cars.com Followup Emails With Other Dealers Inventory

Have you all read your agreement with Cars.com and found any language stating they can share your data with 3rd parties, or push your data to any 3rd parties? I'd also look at your agreement date, the last time the vendor went up on price, did you sign a new agreement and read it, did you look for 3rd party data share/push language? Of course the reps didn't know, if they know, they might tell.

We read and review every contract front to back. When we used Firstlook, I refused to sign the data share agreement to share our sales transactions data with Edmunds, Polk, and the others. And we made sure Dealer Track DMS does not push any of our data to TrueCar since the 2 are in bed together.

Dealers that don't read the agreements create these problems for everyone and then we all go, "uh-oh". I think our dealer peers are starting to wake up to making sure they read what they are signing, in some cases its too late. We all know Edmunds, TrueCar, etc is sharing your sales transactions data with the consumer. They walk in our showrooms knowing what you have been selling cars for, so naturally they want a better deal, some dealers will give it because they are chasing volume bonuses from OEM's. And guess what, that lower deal gets shared then too and the whole cycle starts again, lowering profits for everyone.
 
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our first round of testing of the email campaign came to a conclusion and now we’ve made tweaks based on insights and feedback. The next phase of our test will include some revisions to the
campaign, including building in more time for the dealer follow-up process, highlighting the original vehicle at the top of follow-up emails and highlighting additional inventory from that dealer. These revisions will continue to provide consumers the relevancy they want in addition to providing our dealer customers stronger benefits and value too.

The 1st round, and Cars.com has made tweaks!! :thinker: Is anyone else thinking maybe the next phase they are going to possibly serve up cheaper like models to the customer saying that they are delivering 'a better experience for the consumer because they were able to help the consumer find the best deal'? And don't forget, with THEIR email campaign - while your BDC email campaign is running to - just filling up the consumers inbox.

our goal is to help shoppers move closer to purchase, and before instituting the campaign, 58% of email lead senders were already returning to the site after submitting a lead. What that means is consumers require additional information, and our goal is to provide that while empowering our dealer customers to influence the process.

I agree that consumers need additional info, or it wasn't really the right car once they talked to the dealer. Why not just let them come back without the additional options and email campaigns! If they needed more info, they would come back on their own because they already came to you, plus you already have 58% returning after a lead submission. Why not serve up an email that ask if the dealer followed up, did they get you the info, did you buy, if not, here is your original search, search again.

We’re always looking to strike that perfect balance where it’s a win-win for both consumers and dealers alike, which is why we’re testing these campaigns first on a smaller scale before we decide how they fit into our overall consumer acquisition plans. Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback.
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I am glad to see they recognize there needs to be a win win, after all, Cars.com wouldn't exist without either. But the dealer is paying the bill, and paying for the consumer experience on their site. So, maybe Cars.com should have had a dealer panel and asked what dealers thought first. Might be nice to hear what your paying customers want, or need.
 
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I got my first follow-up this morning at 6:30AM with 8 listings, the first two on the list are from our inventory and the other 6 were competitor’s inventory.

In regards to if cars.com has the right to send our info to True Car (My rep tells me that has to do with them still sending inventory to yahoo.com cars which is now linked to Truecar.) or the fact they decided to send competing dealer info to leads on my car listings is not really my concern. It’s a free market and if that's what they want to do that's fine. But at the same time, I have the choice to send a message through the same free market principles, if I don't like what they are doing I can tell them by taking my business elsewhere.

Now on the flip side, if they are showing my competitors inventory to my customers, then my vehicles are also showing up in front of my competitors. The question is, do we as a customer feel okay with that trade-off.
 
Now on the flip side, if they are showing my competitors inventory to my customers, then my vehicles are also showing up in front of my competitors. The question is, do we as a customer feel okay with that trade-off.


Paul,

That is the key.

They show my cars and theirs, so everyone gets more exposure.

Do customers feel better this way about checking cars and therefore work better with you? Would customers check your competitor cars anyway?

I disagree with Mr. Duke that is has to be the dealer's way because they pay, I disagree that it has to be the Cars.com way because they own the system. It has [or should be] the way it creates more customer interactions, VDP views, leads and in the end, more sales.

We now live in a consumer centric society and the consumer in this case is not the dealer but the car buyer.
 
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Our goal with the campaign is to keep shoppers actively engaged in the car shopping process when they have not yet made a decision about what and when to buy. So far, the program does that very well and that’s why we plan to continue, however, it’s still in test phase, because we are also collecting data on how the program performs for dealers. Once we have both consumer and dealer results, we’ll evaluate how and if the program goes forward. As Jeff mentioned here, initiatives like this are how we get customers coming back to Cars.com and ultimately to our dealers.
 
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Our goal with the campaign is to keep shoppers actively engaged in the car shopping process when they have not yet made a decision about what and when to buy. So far, the program does that very well and that’s why we plan to continue, however, it’s still in test phase, because we are also collecting data on how the program performs for dealers. Once we have both consumer and dealer results, we’ll evaluate how and if the program goes forward. As Jeff mentioned here, initiatives like this are how we get customers coming back to Cars.com and ultimately to our dealers.

I totally understand trying to keep the customer engaged, but I don't agree with the tactics. When I saw this come to light about a month ago and climbed up the ladder to Alex Vetter, I am glad to see that some things have changed. I was getting multiple emails from cars.com with other dealers' inventory initially. I did submit a lead last week through cars, and still haven't gotten any type of follow up from cars to re-engage. I will say that they do have a great presence in re-targeting. I am guessing that this is going to change market by market and slowly go across the country. I would love to see an email that would match the customer with like vehicles within the dealerships that they submitted the lead to.
 
Now on the flip side, if they are showing my competitors inventory to my customers, then my vehicles are also showing up in front of my competitors. The question is, do we as a customer feel okay with that trade-off.

I understand from someone that there is a dealer panel involved in this, maybe Linda can answer that for us. Not sure if this is 100%, just what was shared with me. Maybe if there is a dealer panel she can share some info on your question about the trade off from their dealer panel.
 
Paul,

That is the key.

They show my cars and theirs, so everyone gets more exposure.

Do customers feel better this way about checking cars and therefore work better with you? Would customers check your competitor cars anyway?

I disagree with Mr. Duke that is has to be the dealer's way because they pay, I disagree that it has to be the Cars.com way because they own the system. It has [or should be] the way it creates more customer interactions, VDP views, leads and in the end, more sales.

We now live in a consumer centric society and the consumer in this case is not the dealer but the car buyer.

Mr? Thanks Mr. Paramo! Sorry if I didn't word it better, I don't think it has to be the dealers way, just include them in the testing. Looks like Linda said they are and I am glad to see that.


My concerns;

1. Is Cars.com offering too much info to the consumer with so many choices as we saw in Bill's screen shot?
a. Do they know what the funnel mix is, low to high funnel and could they be frustrating the consumer when they just sent a request by serving up so many more choices.

2. Will this type of marketing lead to "here's a better price in your area" marketing - essentially creating a race to the bottom line to be top consideration.

3. Regards to data being shared - are dealers, GM's, GSM's reading every contract, even when a rep says, "its just a price change" - too many dealers haven't and that's where some vendors have changed the rules and ....gotcha!
 
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You guys hit on a couple of great points, yet articulated them better than I did earlier in the chain. Yes, what we really like about the potential of this email program is that our dealers should get more exposure, as Paul rightly states, and we are providing consumers with information they want.

Relating to the dealer panel question, yes, we discussed this with a dealer panel, but to be very transparent, we had already started the testing, then our dealer advisory board came in and we added this discussion to our agenda to get feedback, good and bad, on what they thought. After we discussed all the pros and cons of the program, I would say (give or take) 60% of the group were in favor of doing this, and 40% understood why we were doing it, but weren't extremely happy about it.

But as the CMO and the person who makes these decisions, my team and I need to at a minimum test these types of strategies, because to your points, we are a consumer centric site. We believe that offers you ultimate value. Consumer behaviors and needs change constantly as you all know, so we need to make sure we are giving the consumer what they want, while also ensuring that there is something in it for our dealers. It’s not an easy position to be in by any means, and sometimes we won’t get it exactly right, which is why we have conversations and take feedback like this to heart. But to be very clear, we never enter any program with the intention of hurting our dealers in any way, quite the opposite. I understand from your perspective that if you see something like this email campaign without explanation or background you may assume the worst. I just hope you will reach out to us and first assume positive intent, as we are very committed to providing our dealers value.
 
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