Leaving Dealer.com in 2018....where did you go next?

[MichaelJ]

So, for those who have been with Dealer.com for a long time and left for someone else in the last 12 months: Who did you go with and why?

Dealer.com is the only website provider the dealer I am now at ever used. So that must be 20 years! This year we switched to Dealer Inspire and they have been great. When I notified some long term contacts there every one of them knew what company I was switching to before I finished telling them. They are clearly losing share.

The primary reasons for the change were #1 Website Speed, mobile in particular and a general change of attitude from the folks in Burlington. Having been bought out, I realize that they have to produce numbers, but things are changing. The technical expertise is harder to reach and they are becoming more "salesy." They seemed to be turning into a typical "help desk" where you deal with rookies and the ticket gets escalated as needed. That's a tough adjustment when for so many years the solution was a direct call to your advisor. Virtually every monthly review was laced with a sales pitch. Happy with DI & would recommend them.

 

[John V.]

Happy with DI & would recommend them.

Thank you Michael,
Is there a particular package you are one AKA: Dealer.com Core w/DR Elite - but the DI version of it? Besides site speed is there something that they do especially well that DDC is lacking in? How is the Advertising and fee structure? Sorry for all the questions but appreciate any feedback you have.

 

[Alex Snyder]

In full disclosure, I used to work for Dealer.com and am still close to a number of folks there. Some of my friends there believe @John V. was a Digital Advisor out of Burlington a while back. Not that it makes a huge difference to what's being said in this thread, but it would help to disclose that if you're comfortable doing so John.

If true, then I totally get your first 3 points. It also helps put some extra color on your last 3 points too.

Let me be clear, I do not think your history changes what you're saying at all. You bring up some valid pluses and minuses that many would agree with. If anything, as a former Earthling, there is much more depth to what you're posting.

 

[John V.]

Hi Alex,

Yes, I was at Dealer.com for almost 4 years from 2011 - 2014 as a Senior Digital Advisor. I am actually working for one of my old clients now who hired me while still employed DDC. I chose not disclose that because I did not want it to affect anyone's responses or steer the conversation in a different direction.

I would prefer to keep the conversation about what vendors people have went with after a tenure with DDC and why if possible.

 

[Alex Snyder]

I would prefer to keep the conversation about what vendors people have went with after a tenure with DDC and why if possible.

:thumbup:

I am a giant fan of Wordpress-backboned sites at the moment. It has been mentioned time and time again, on DealerRefresh, that there are security vulnerabilities due to Wordpress being a major attack source. During your time at DDC you know all too well, that attacks come at any platform, so I wouldn't let that be too much of a concern on a Wordpress site.

The two Wordpress vendors I have looked at the most closely are Dealer Inspire and Dealer Venom. Dealer Inspire is the better known entity with more years in the marketplace, OEM agreements, and is owned by Cars.com. Dealer Venom is a scrappy little startup that is much newer to this landscape. No matter how much @Alexander Lau dislikes the owner of Dealer Venom, it is worth getting a demo of.... unless you don't like hungry startups.

 

[John V.]

:thumbup:

I am a giant fan of Wordpress-backboned sites at the moment. It has been mentioned time and time again, on DealerRefresh, that there are security vulnerabilities due to Wordpress being a major attack source. During your time at DDC you know all too well, that attacks come at any platform, so I wouldn't let that be too much of a concern on a Wordpress site.

The two Wordpress vendors I have looked at the most closely are Dealer Inspire and Dealer Venom. Dealer Inspire is the better known entity with more years in the marketplace, OEM agreements, and is owned by Cars.com. Dealer Venom is a scrappy little startup that is much newer to this landscape. No matter how much @Alexander Lau dislikes the owner of Dealer Venom, it is worth getting a demo of.... unless you don't like hungry startups.

Thank you Alex - DI is on my short list. Never heard of Dealer Venom but I am fan of hungry start-ups so I will give them a look as well.

 

[CameronDV]

:thumbup:

I am a giant fan of Wordpress-backboned sites at the moment. It has been mentioned time and time again, on DealerRefresh, that there are security vulnerabilities due to Wordpress being a major attack source. During your time at DDC you know all too well, that attacks come at any platform, so I wouldn't let that be too much of a concern on a Wordpress site.

The two Wordpress vendors I have looked at the most closely are Dealer Inspire and Dealer Venom. Dealer Inspire is the better known entity with more years in the marketplace, OEM agreements, and is owned by Cars.com. Dealer Venom is a scrappy little startup that is much newer to this landscape. No matter how much @Alexander Lau dislikes the owner of Dealer Venom, it is worth getting a demo of.... unless you don't like hungry startups.

Thanks for the shoutout @Alex Snyder. We have been quite busy here at Dealer Venom - we have added many new features and enhancements to our platform since we met with Alex and @Jeff Kershner back in March, as well as prepping to scale - with recent volume of new clients. We have made significant updates across the board from design, framework, features for back-end users, and much more. Hence our recent absence from the forum!

As for the personal 'tiff' between our CEO and the one member on this site, they had a history years ago - before the inception of DV at a previous company. I have nothing to do with that and it plays no part into our business.
With my professional responsibilities at the company - I stand behind our product and services 100%. The team we have built here is committed to excellence and I invite anyone for a demo - even just for curiosity - to see the value we offer, as well as the power we have put at the fingertips of our clients with our latest platform.

Every company starts somewhere - we do still consider ourselves a startup @ less than 150 sites - but judgments shouldn't come too quick. Looking at a Dealer Inspire, just 4-5 years ago, they were also just a startup - and the dealerships that had the tenacity to look for a better way, benefited the most from working with DI in the early stages of their growth. The dealerships who have been working with us feel the same way.

We are looking forward to our journey ahead of helping more dealers improve their online success, leveraging new technology and data to create new possibilities for dealers, and growing our business.

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@John V. I will send you a DM if you are interested in connecting to see what we have to offer!

 

[craigh]

:thumbup:

I am a giant fan of Wordpress-backboned sites at the moment. It has been mentioned time and time again, on DealerRefresh, that there are security vulnerabilities due to Wordpress being a major attack source.

As much as they are common, that doesn't mean everyone is patched against them.
There are numerous automotive WP vendors who have not patched public exploits that have been disclosed for months.

If someone like DealerVenom wants to succeed as they scale, they need to be paying more attention to that.

 

[CameronDV]

As much as they are common, that doesn't mean everyone is patched against them.
There are numerous automotive WP vendors who have not patched public exploits that have been disclosed for months.

If someone like DealerVenom wants to succeed as they scale, they need to be paying more attention to that.

100% agree with @craigh. Our latest build is on our own "Lite" version of WP and those types of security exposures were addressed from Day 1. WordPress as a downloadable platform is very code heavy, slow, and insecure - as has been mentioned a few times here. We made modifications to offer desired dealer customization, to simplify the back end use, along with a few other fun and unique items

 

[craigh]

100% agree with @craigh. Our latest build is on our own "Lite" version of WP and those types of security exposures were addressed from Day 1.

Not sure I see the evidence of that, but doing that properly could have some benefits.
It also means you have to manually patch exploits though, so it has a heavy trade-off on manual updates.