• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

DealerRater Credibility

Hey Kiteness2,

I'll do the best I can to answer your question. This is a stretch, but did you happen to use the same username to write a DealerRater review for a Toyota dealer in New Jersey back in 2011?

Why is this dealer's score higher on DealerRater than on Yelp, YP, G+ etc.? Here are a few possibilities:
  1. DealerRater scores are unique in that we only count the last 24 months of reviews toward a dealership's score. This creates a level playing field for all dealers. We don't want anyone resting on their laurels or being unfairly punished for things that happened more than 24 months ago. We are the only review site that I'm aware of that does this. Consumers generally show a strong preference for recent review content. As for Yelp, I don't think they count the filtered reviews into their scores either and that alone tends to skew the score lower.
  2. We truly seek out a WIN-WIN for the consumer and dealer when there is a negative review. We don't believe that a store that partners with us EVER wants a customer to have a bad experience or that they will willingly mistreat a customer for a "quick buck." We teach and train that customer service is a marathon event, not a sprint. Our certified stores are strongly encouraged to "make it right" with a customer when possible and we find that our certified dealers are extremely successful at fixing relationships and problems. Again, they wouldn't partner with us if they weren't trying to do right by the consumer. This is why I asked if you had written a review before, that same username was able to engage in a conversation with the dealership they reviewed and we have every hope that an amicable solution was discovered in that conversation. Far more often than not, that is the outcome.
  3. There are plenty of negative reviews for this dealer on DealerRater, we certainly aren't whitewashing anything. In the current stack rankings there are over 30 dealers in that DMA that are outranking them.
  4. This dealer may be very comfortable sending their happy customers to DealerRater. We are one of the easiest sites for consumers to use. Yelp and G+ have some very high hurdles for consumers to jump in order to post and it may very well be that this dealer prefers to send their happy customers to a site that they know will most likely be able to collect a review without the consumer being filtered etc.

I hope that helps explain the apparent disparity. It most likely isn't a single factor, but a combination of all of these things.

If I can be of any assistance to you, please don't hesitate to call or email.
Ryan
 
Yikes, they have a 6 on Google, I didn't think that was even possible.

For my opinion. Dealers only push customer who have good positive experience to leave a review on DealerRater, the bad ones they don't even mention it. Before I started working at a dealership, I had never heard of DealerRater and I have purchased a lot of vehicles in my life. Yelp, Google, YP, etc are all publicly known so people are more apt to know their reviews are going to be seen there or know at lease know those review sites exist. DealerRater is really an unknown from the public and since it's exclusive to automotive unless a dealer pushed it onto a customer it remains an unknown.
 
For my opinion. Dealers only push customer who have good positive experience to leave a review on DealerRater, the bad ones they don't even mention it.

I think you'll find some dealers that are active here that disagree with that opinion.

Before I started working at a dealership, I had never heard of DealerRater and I have purchased a lot of vehicles in my life. Yelp, Google, YP, etc are all publicly known so people are more apt to know their reviews are going to be seen there or know at lease know those review sites exist. DealerRater is really an unknown from the public and since it's exclusive to automotive unless a dealer pushed it onto a customer it remains an unknown.

How many consumers come to your Grand Island page through Google search for your business name only? Dataium refers to Google as the "Taxi" from classified sites to the dealer's site. This is a pretty strong attention grabbing sign on that "Taxi" since it is the first thing you don't own, wouldn't you agree?

anderson of grand island.jpg

This kind of surprised me...You are from a certified dealership group my friend, and you guys appear to be doing a great job. Do your team members at this dealership know that THEY index in SERP1 for their names? If showroom visits pre-purchase have dropped to 1.8, that is JD powers number, what differentiates your team from the rest of the sales people hoping to sell a car to that prospect that sent you a lead? Gary needs to be using this when working with his unsold prospects to build his own brand and create that trust bridge of credibility to help win the lead-to-show battle in his market area.

gary Warta.jpg

It is a best practice to introduce reviews to your unsold prospects early and often in the sales process, but I think it is a mistake to think that they won't find them on their own. Google virtually assures that they will, but remember Google's goal is to put the searcher on the content that is most relevant, and often BEFORE they ask for it. I'd bet that the second search after a business name was the business name plus "reviews" enough times that Google just moved the review content into the first search. Give the searcher relevant content!

Last thought:

In classified ads we say "the car is the star." If they remember you and your team during the time they are in market and forget who we are entirely, I'm happy! We don't want to charge you tons and spend millions of dollars on consumer facing campaigns that brand DealerRater. DealerRater's job is to help the dealer and the sales team member shine brighter than we do...

Can we chat this week? I want to make sure that we are taking good care of you and arming your team with whatever you need!
 
It isn't difficult to get reviews. I did a great deal of exit interviews with customers. I wanted find out what brought them in, set up for a good CSI, give them another point of contract and get reviews.

A few months ago, I made a large index card with one free oil change and several discounted oil changes. It had the logo of the dealership with the 1(800) number at the top. On either side of the oil change coupons, I had two QR codes. One to DealerRater and the other to the dealerships online Service appointment application. At delivery, the salesperson would scan the DealerRater QR code, with the customer's smartphone, which takes them directly to the review. It is nice that the customer doesn't see any of the other reviews. After the review, the salesman would scan the other QR code and set a service appointment three months in advance. I actually got much of the idea from Ryan, so it is legitimate. The dealership that I did this for got nine reviews in a week to ten days. I printed up a few which cost nothing. They had more printed for next to nothing. Their score jumped dramatically. The cashier just drew a line through the coupons as they were used.
 
Ryan -

I'm not sure if you miss interpreted the point I was trying to make or if I didn't fully explain what was in head - which is more than likely the case. But, I love everything about DealerRater and what you provide for our dealership - the tools (integration on our sites), user review system and ratings, the referrals, SEO benefits, the simplicity, etc, etc. You make my life easier with the ability to integrate those reviews into our dealership sites. I wasn't trying to downgrade the importance you have on our dealerships. I know we try to use DealerRater's system with everything we do.


The point I was trying to make is that people know Yelp, Google, etc. are used for local user reviews - everything from dealerships, to restaurants, to bars, to services, to any business imaginable. They are just top of mind review sites. I asked the 4 people in front of me what sites they would go to and write a review on about Anderson. All 4 said Google, 2 said Yelp, and 1 mentioned Facebook. Without direction from someone at a dealership, most people would never know to go to DealerRater to leave a review. We send emails to every sold customer to leave a review on DealerRater and use the DealerRater reviews within our sales process, but dealers can conveniently leave out mentioning or asking for a review - especially if it's going to be a bad one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
The point I was trying to make is that people know Yelp, Google, etc. are used for local user reviews - everything from dealerships, to restaurants, to bars, to services, to any business imaginable. They are just top of mind review sites. I asked the 4 people in front of me what sites they would go to and write a review on about Anderson. All 4 said Google, 2 said Yelp, and 1 mentioned Facebook. Without direction from someone at a dealership, most people would never know to go to DealerRater to leave a review. We send emails to every sold customer to leave a review on DealerRater and use the DealerRater reviews within our sales process, but dealers can conveniently leave out mentioning or asking for a review - especially if it's going to be a bad one.

I have to agree with this. All of it. A smart consumer can likely reach the same conclusion on their own - in the same way that they tend to assume testimonials listed on the website are hand picked.
 
The point I was trying to make is that people know Yelp, Google, etc. are used for local user reviews - everything from dealerships, to restaurants, to bars, to services, to any business imaginable. They are just top of mind review sites.

That they are indeed - given the vast number of verticals they cater to you are certainly more likely to have heard of them. Where Yelp starts to become less relevant, however, is in the auto industry as a review collection and promotion mechanism. If you take a common dealer customer the likelihood of their review being filtered on Yelp is extremely high because chances are they aren't a "Yelper". What does this mean to a customer? A frustrating experience because that customer took the time to write a review on Yelp, only to have it filtered and not seen by others. We no longer include Yelp in our Push feature because this experience was relayed to us by both consumers and dealers.

Without direction from someone at a dealership, most people would never know to go to DealerRater to leave a review.
Out of the blue? Maybe not. Once they search your dealership on Google? Different story.

sansone.jpg

Given that ~70% of dealer traffic comes from a dealer name search, that's a powerful place to have your reviews show up. But that's probably preaching to the choir as Anderson does VERY well with their web presence.

Chip-
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
Ryan -

The point I was trying to make is that people know Yelp, Google, etc. are used for local user reviews - everything from dealerships, to restaurants, to bars, to services, to any business imaginable. They are just top of mind review sites. I asked the 4 people in front of me what sites they would go to and write a review on about Anderson. All 4 said Google, 2 said Yelp, and 1 mentioned Facebook. Without direction from someone at a dealership, most people would never know to go to DealerRater to leave a review. We send emails to every sold customer to leave a review on DealerRater and use the DealerRater reviews within our sales process, but dealers can conveniently leave out mentioning or asking for a review - especially if it's going to be a bad one.

I think the last part of what you said is interesting. We have a phenomenal body of reviews on our DealerRater page at this point. I tend to think it almost looks phony. Every single one of those reviews is authentic. I pretty much use the strategy you touched on to moderate my reviews. If I know of a customer who had a complaint or even a marginal experience I certainly don't go out of my way to solicit a review from them.

I do sometimes think if I was a customer and saw a Dealership page with all 4 or 5 star ratings I would be skeptical. I also wonder how aware the consumer base is of DealerRater's presence. I honestly don't here it mentioned to often. It's a great tool and customers would be wise to utilize it. I just haven't gotten the impression that it's caught on yet.