Dealer.com - Dealer Website Vendor Profile

[Mark Bonfigli]

Gary, curious if we took care of all of your issues? I looked up your history with us and see over 30 pages of documented service, including tech support calls, issues resolved after hours, special email support, custom changes to our account and so on. I think that customer service can be a challenging thing for the client and the vendor sometimes because much of it relies not only on the service itself but the understanding of the parameters of the service itself. I am here at 11:30pm looking at your account and I see that we have done everything possible to continue to make your dealership happy.

If there are issues, dealers can always contact me and let me know if our team is not taking care of things. Every website marketing company has issues with integrations and inventory data and we pride ourselves on having the very least of them.

This can only be learned if you have had the experience of trying multiple services and experiencing them all. With that said we are always striving for perfection and will continue even if it may be "impossible"

I can be reached at [email protected] with any thoughts regardless of being a large client, small client or potential future client. I am here to help dealers succeed.

ps- Steven, please email me direct and I will make sure we get you all the info on the Chrysler websites as soon as it is available.

Mark Bonfigli
President, CEO
Dealer.com, Inc
[email protected]

 

[Joe Mescher]

Michael Lane, COO of Dealer.com, was the keynote speaker of Champlain College's "BYOBiz" entrepreneur series this evening in Burlington, VT.

Wow, Michael has passion to spare! Listening to his company's plan to innovate and grow while keeping their customers success job one was inspiring.

Thanks for your thoughts and insight Michael!

 

[Tony Weaver (blog)]

Are you still looking for a site Jeff?

What more could Dealer.com do? They have already created the worlds greatest dealer website. Before anyone has anything bad to say about Dealer.com you need to go to the Checkered Flag site… Now that is a site that says, “we believe in the Internet!”

But for you regular Joes like me, here are my thoughts..

First off, to the few above who claim to have problems, let me explain something. Every site I have managed from other web site providers has had problems. You know, Dealer.com is continually changing and evolving. You may not see it, but the platform your site sits on is changing daily, improving, helping your site for example, index better... If you prefer to have a stagnant site that does not keep up with current times, call Cobalt, I got their number if you need it…

Seriously, if you are having problems and something is effecting the efficiency of your site -like missing pictures, or something, it will all get worked out. They always figure it out. Have you ever thought of the possibility that what ever is wrong is originating from your inventory manger program? Having pictures of used vehicles missing on my site will not stop me from selling cars. I just put a good description in on each vehicle! I am being serious here. In this business you have to overcome obsticals. No pictures getting to your site? Be proactive and make it work in the interim.

But, if your rep is not handling your request in a manner you do not approve, ask for your issue to be elevated to a higher level, like your reps boss. You can even go around your rep if you want. Dealer.com has never ignored any of my complaints, issues, or requests. Heck, Mike D. is even at your disposal! Issues resolved!

I once had a problem with something (not my rep) and it was immediately dealt with. BTW be careful what you put in a blog, as they (DDC) are watching you! LOL

EVERY time I come up with something new for our site, my Dealer.com rep finds a way to make it happen. I could list 100 things, but no need.

I might also add that in my opinion the Dealer.com back end tool, the "smart site composer," is the best back end tool out there. Honestly, I have not seen them all, but I have worked with quite a few website providers over the years and Dealer.com does it right. And, I have to add again, my rep was excellent as he helped me learn the program. My rep is also continually letting me know about what changes are coming in the near future, and when new tools are available to me in the composer.

As far sales success? Our conversion rate was at 8% last month, not including our instant messages, and leads from Black Book which are both housed on our site. So with those included, I figure we were at more like a 10% conversion ratio. That is unheard of (I think)... Not to mention the phone traffic…. Funny, I had someone from another dealer who has a Dealer.com site say in delaerrefersh.com that my site is weak! Yeah right! Well maybe, sometimes when my spelling is off, but I got to spell pre owned three ways for Google… (If anyone does not know why you have to do that, start on this site from page one…) Anyway…

Our site indexes very well, as it is easily manipulated to move up the ranking with very few tweaks from our geeks (I do it).

Time spent by visitors on our site doubled last month from prior months, and is up to 10 min per visitor this month (must have something to do with video on my site). Yeah, we are getting a lot of traffic, a lot of leads, and a lot of sales!

As far as design goes, well obviously they can do just about anything. Just think about what all the other web site providers are doing, they are not even in the same league. I would say that Dealer.com wants to embrace anythng essential as fast as they can build it. They may not be all the way there yet, but they are years ahead of the competition.

And Jeff, if you are still looking for a site, and want to talk over Dealer.com with me again, I can give you an update from our last conversation. Call me…

Great comments!

 

[Clay]

The problem with Dealer.com is their lack of flexibility and the carelessness of their reps. They really are incompetent. Upbeat - but really unwilling to go the extra mile to make a client happy. Can't wait for our contract to end!

 

[Systems Admin]

Dealer.com has been a big problem since our company has signed up for it. I have been an engineer for over 20 years, so its not just some issue with my desktop configuration - they run really clean. Pc's seem to start slowing down the longer my users stay logged in to Dealer.com..to the point that a reboot is the only way to get our machines back to normal. Within a few hours....same issue. Keeping in mind...everyone here uses the same DMS, Same internet connection (for the record its a 4.5mb link) and the same other software (Outlook - Office - Etc). The only difference is Dealer.com on the users desktop. Theres a hole in the code that is eating up resources over time - especially in the Internet Leads and Email applications.....Im tired of asking support what version of IE and add-ons they want. I have even gone so far as to rebuild the entire OS and ONLY have them load outlook and Dealer.com.....Same issue.....

 

[Systems Admin]

For the record - those who praise it's usefulness...arent actually usint it daily...are you?....

Try it from the internet sales side and see if you still feel the same.

I have even had the same issue at other peoples pc's outside my organization......

Got some great salesmen there at Dealer.com...thats for sure.....how else can you possibly 'sell' a car salesmen.....

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

I really hate it when people hide behind a fictitious name to complain, Systems Admin. Why can't you "man or woman up" and use your real name? If you've got issues like these with any system, you should talk to them - report the problem. If you're a Systems Administrator your biggest pet peeve should be people not letting you know when there is a problem, so you can fix it.

We don't have the same issues you are stating here. I have 14 people who use Dealer.com's Control Center and 5 of them are constantly logged in. We have not found it to slow our systems down, and some of these folks are on out-dated systems.

Maybe you should look at your own network and your desktops/laptops - if they're having issues with Office and a website that's a sign! Try putting FireFox on one or two machines. Make sure you download it from Mozilla.com and make sure it is version 3.5. If that doesn't work, then you're going to need to take a screen shot of a freshly booted system against a screen shot of the resources of a depleted system showing the difference in browser resources between the two in Task Manager. Of course, you have to make it fair and only have Dealer.com's Control Center going in the browser resource comparison. Send the screen shot to your Dealer.com account rep, and if you're not happy with the answer let me know: [email protected] - I'll get you to another person there.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

We have over 10 dealer.com websites mandated through OEMs so we are always using Dealer.com Control Center. Have to say..we/I have never run into issues that "Systems Admin" has described.

 

[Joe Pistell]

I have never used a Dealer.com site and I can honestly say that I have never run into issues that “Systems Admin” has described either.

Just bein' an as*

 

[mikesayre]

dealer.com has a killer system overall, and the whole vibe u get from dealing with them is just cool, great people.

when i visited their offices last year i was blown away, it's like a little googles campus... absolutely topnotch, no shortcuts, rick G even bought me my fav peanut butter and banana sandwich (w/a touch of honey)from the dealer dotcom cafe.

in this lightning fast world we live in of online marketing, other companies are bound to meet or exceed DDC's stuff.

I'm a huge fan right now of DealerON's stuff, basically think of a puzzle board and the pieces are widgets, distributable, embeddable, interactive, and trackable. Dealers can easily change up their website in 1 minute and give it a whole different look and feel. Their conversion is incredible too.

I think eCarlist has it going on, those guys are super talented.

For data collection and a rock solid system Autolotmanager is very nice too, exceptional CS too, bad thing is they're only in OH, MI, IN, KY

i'll end with one of my favorite inspirational songs... enjoy

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqxnm6t3QMw&feature=PlayList&p=9AF7045EB2E21830&index=0&playnext=1


-Sayre