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Juls

Juls

Rust & Dust
Feb 11, 2011
28
0
First Name
Julie
#1
Ok...I need some help. How do you get customers to actually do reviews? They say they will, they say they are happy with everything, but the review never gets done. I know some of the problem is how time consuming it can be to register on the sites to do a review. Any ideas or suggestions???
Thanks!!!
Julie
 
#2
It seems obvious, but first, I think they have to WANT to. So let's say you've given them the ultimate experience. I have seen dealers who incentivized their staff to solicit them with some success. You are probably aware that consumer sites recognize if you have a boatload of 'likes' from the same location (like your showroom IP address). But many people use a cell link for their internet on their phone and tablets.

In my personal experience, the easier something is for a customer, the more likely it will happen, so even if they are in the showroom staring at their phone, i would email or text them a direct link so they can just click through. You can also program this into EVERY email message going out on your CRM.

There is always bribery, like a $5 gift card to starbucks or whatever. Hope these help.
 
#3
Juls,
We are starting our review campaign tomorrow. Here is what it involves:

Pick one review site to work on for the entire month.

Spiff the salesperson or service writer for each review (You can either do a dollar amount or make it a contest with the most reviews at the end of the month winning a larger cash prize)

Offer the customer something like a free oil change, car wash, restaurant coupon.....

The process to obtain the review will work like this: The customer will get a follow up call after a sale or service and be asked if they have a few minutes free. if not ask to call back at a better time, if yes make sure they were happy with everything. Explain the importance of reviews for not only the dealership but also the individual salesperson or service person. Tell them since they have a couple of minutes you would like to send them an email with a direct link to the review site. You can even stay on the phone and have them open the email to make sure it went through ok. Thank them and have them stop by to pick up their freebie or offer to mail it to them after they fill out the review.

This should help get the review since we are already qualifying the free time and making it as easy as possible to get to the review site. It is important to stress that the salespeople should see increased referrals from their names appearing in the reviews. Make sure they leave at least their first name and last initial and use the salesperson or service writer's name for tracking.

Hope that helps.
 
#4
We do most of that now. The customer get a call the day after a sale or service and then I send out an email with links ( maybe I should just put 1 link in the email? ) Dealerater was doing pretty good, but then the reviews just stopped.
Julie:)
 
#5
Juls said:
We do most of that now. The customer get a call the day after a sale or service and then I send out an email with links ( maybe I should just put 1 link in the email? ) Dealerater was doing pretty good, but then the reviews just stopped.
Julie:)
Click to expand...

I think the important part is sending them the email while they are on the phone. Are you spiffing the salespeople? They are your best chance of getting the review since they have already built the rapport with the customer.
 
#6
I just got the OK to try this for a month. I am putting out a spiff for the salespeople. I agree that it's the salesperson that needs to push for the review. Thank you so much for the suggestion!!! We'll see how it goes!!!

Julie:)
 
#7
Julie,

Can I give you a call at your store? I just spent some time reviewing your DealerRater staff pages and I think I can help, but I'd rather talk with you offline about it if that is okay.


Midwest Ford,

I think you have a lot of great ideas, but I'm NOT a fan of spiffing the customer to write a review. You are flirting with what the FTC calls a "paid endorsement" that you'd need to disclose to remain compliant with the rules governing false advertising. That may feel like a stretch, but I don't think the payoff is worth the risk. From a much more practical standpoint, I worry that the consumer might feel like all the reviews they read beforehand were bought with an oil change too. If anything goes wrong later they will be quick to make that information very public. I've seen that happen before.

I'm not trying to be a raincloud, but I think that you may want to eliminate that part of the plan. Let your team provide such great service that the customer will WANT to tell their story when asked... no compensation required.

Ryan
 
#8
Hello Julie

What we have done recently with our Dealerrater account is to set up a new "short" domain name that changes up to our Dealerrater webpage.

For example you could perhaps use something like www.pnreviews.com (i.e. Palmetto Nissan reviews) and have the URL change up to go to your specific Dealerrater webpage. ( Of interest, the redirect of a URL is known as a 301 permanent redirect and in our case we set up the shortened domain name we use with Godaddy and they offer free re-directs). This way the customer can enter an easy to remember SHORT domain name to place their review on your Dealerrater page (and you brand your dealership name).

I had our local print shop create a perma-stamp with our new “reviews” domain name and stamped every one of our Dealerrater cards.

Your perma-stamp might look like this ( 2 lines).

www.pnreviews.com
Palmetto Nissan reviews
I explained the reasoning and the process to each sales person and showed them the ease that a customer now has in being able to type in the short URL on-line to place a review.
Happily, I now see most of our sales people handing out the Dealerrater cards and pointing out to the customer how easy it is to find our REVIEWS webpage. There has been a definite uptick in reviews being submitted (more have been placed in the last 4 weeks then in last 6 months).


Just a thought: Each sales person or any dealer personnel could even create a short domain name utilizing their own name which changes up specifically to their own Dealerrater review webpage. For example: www.johnsmith.com or www.johnsmithreviews.com. This way they brand their own name and make it easy for customers to place a review.

The bottom line is making it really easy for the customer to place a review by removing their need to enter a long(er) URL or to have to search the Dealerraters website to find your specific dealership review page.


Hope this is of value to you

John
 
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#10
Ryan Leslie said:
Julie,

Can I give you a call at your store? I just spent some time reviewing your DealerRater staff pages and I think I can help, but I'd rather talk with you offline about it if that is okay.


Midwest Ford,

I think you have a lot of great ideas, but I'm NOT a fan of spiffing the customer to write a review. You are flirting with what the FTC calls a "paid endorsement" that you'd need to disclose to remain compliant with the rules governing false advertising. That may feel like a stretch, but I don't think the payoff is worth the risk. From a much more practical standpoint, I worry that the consumer might feel like all the reviews they read beforehand were bought with an oil change too. If anything goes wrong later they will be quick to make that information very public. I've seen that happen before.

I'm not trying to be a raincloud, but I think that you may want to eliminate that part of the plan. Let your team provide such great service that the customer will WANT to tell their story when asked... no compensation required.

Ryan
Click to expand...

That is a good point about spiffing the customer Ryan. I will probably drop that part of the plan. Thanks!
 
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