Mike Blumenthal on Onsite “Review Stations” and Google

[ryan.leslie]

? What are you talking about, this is a topic for Google Reviews NOT Dealerrater..

Good news, we get to agree on something. This post is clearly NOT about DealerRater. I never said anything about DealerRater or DealerRater policy, because it doesn't apply here. It is curious to me that after several requests from others here to identify yourself, which you have not done, you seem to be fixating on the company I work for instead of the content of my post. I want people to know where I'm coming from when I post. In this case, I know a little bit about this particular topic. Just because I'm transparent about my employer doesn't make every post a commercial.

It's PERFECTLY fine for a REAL customer to post a REAL review in store...Customers are posting them at home anyways, not different then them posting them in the store.

Did you read the link this post was about? You've stated as fact the point of discussion. Why do you believe this to be true?

So far you've posted, and defended how a dealer can post reviews. Are you posting reviews on behalf of a customer or defending that practice here? You seem to be blending "in store collection" and "posting on behalf of."

Again this is not Dealerrater, and I know your team will complain about it being wrong, unethical, etc etc.. Because that's your business, no offense. Dealers doing this are fine, it's time they moved away from Dealerrater anyways, that place is just cashing in on dealers and forcing them to keep their reputation in line. You don't see Yelp, Google, AOL, etc etc doing that..

This isn't about DealerRater and honestly, I'm done seeing valuable threads disappear down the rabbit hole due to needlessly defending against a poster with a clear motive, or in your case no clear identity. Update your contact info and pm me. Your last line in the quote above proves to me that you don't know what you don't know about the monetization of specific review platforms. I'll be happy to walk you through this if you are interested.


Back to the topic of this post, which was in store collection of reviews on Google. Just because you CAN, does that mean you SHOULD?

 

[JamieS]

There is one store in Miami that has arguably THE most reviews I have ever seen on Google and I really want to know how they are doing this. It has got to be an onsite review station. I just checked and they have 1,363 reviews. Has anyone ever heard of ANY business having that many reviews?

 

[bzweifel]

Can we please just act like a real ligitimate industry for once in the history of automobiles. This mindset of "do what you can get away with, not what's right" is what got us here in the first place. I'm tired of paying for the sins of the men who have come before me. This job could be so much easier than it is. Can we please stop this mafioso blackhat bullshit? Where is the line? When does this stop? What's preventing a new close of "if I discount this car another $500 , will you take delivery today and write a 5 star review?"

I can already see it coming. Someone's going to be trying to explain why the numbers are higher than their email quite; a man will walk around the corner and say "hi, I'm Chris Hanson with Dateline NBC. Can you explain the difference in these quotes for me." or "can you explain these reviews your posting for customers?"

 

[yagoparamo]

Can we please just act like a real ligitimate industry for once in the history of automobiles. This mindset of "do what you can get away with, not what's right" is what got us here in the first place. I'm tired of paying for the sins of the men who have come before me. This job could be so much easier than it is. Can we please stop this mafioso blackhat bullshit? Where is the line? When does this stop? What's preventing a new close of "if I discount this car another $500 , will you take delivery today and write a 5 star review?"

I can already see it coming. Someone's going to be trying to explain why the numbers are higher than their email quite; a man will walk around the corner and say "hi, I'm Chris Hanson with Dateline NBC. Can you explain the difference in these quotes for me." or "can you explain these reviews your posting for customers?"

It seems that we believe that we can buy our way thru the reviews and we can't. That customer you mention can go to Yelp, Google, Dealer Rater, etc and leave a bad review if the experience turns negative afterwards. Leaving one review is not the ends of it.

The reason why these dealers have a lot of good reviews is because any dealer has more happy customers than unhappy customers by nature and these guys are just putting the effort to gather those reviews.

 

[JamieS]

It seems that we believe that we can buy our way thru the reviews and we can't. That customer you mention can go to Yelp, Google, Dealer Rater, etc and leave a bad review if the experience turns negative afterwards. Leaving one review is not the ends of it.

The reason why these dealers have a lot of good reviews is because any dealer has more happy customers than unhappy customers by nature and these guys are just putting the effort to gather those reviews.

I agree 100%. I just have never seen a review number over the 1,000 level before and it stuck out to me. We are in the middle of developing a customer service team with the purpose of teaching and guiding all employees in everything customer service. We brought in an outside professional to assist us with this development as well, sort of an occupational therapist that's also helps in team building. The days of unhappy customers only telling friends and family about their experiences are well behind us. Not being a part of what we're doing is simply not being tolerated at this point and several folks have been relieved because of it.

 

[kcar]

There is one store in Miami that has arguably THE most reviews I have ever seen on Google and I really want to know how they are doing this. It has got to be an onsite review station. I just checked and they have 1,363 reviews. Has anyone ever heard of ANY business having that many reviews?

1,000+ Reviews? They'd have to be doing at least 3-4 a day for a year straight... Which would mean they'd need around 1300+ customers a year as well with Google Accounts. Spread across 2-3 years, and you're only looking at 1-2 a day.. (Which isn't too sketchy or impossible).. How high traffic is that store? I'd imagine they are going the route of in-store collection, or they are using a paid service to post them for them.. But either way, that's a bit over the top.. I think any dealer should feel comfortable with 60-120 reviews, and satisfied in the 200 range. Not to say you should never stop trying to keep going after that..

 

[ed.brooks]

1,000+ Reviews? They'd have to be doing at least 3-4 a day for a year straight...

Search "Miami Car Dealer" and they will come up. I won't link to it or call them out by name (in case I'm wrong), but damn the reviews look so fake.

If Mike Blumenthal is right, and Google makes a change, those reviews could be wiped out in a heartbeat.

 

[yagoparamo]

Search "Miami Car Dealer" and they will come up. I won't link to it or call them out by name (in case I'm wrong), but damn the reviews look so fake.

If Mike Blumenthal is right, and Google makes a change, those reviews could be wiped out in a heartbeat.

Unless they have a hard copy in a paper of that review signed by the customer, then how can you claim faul play?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I'm completely opposed to having consumers reviewing their experience while at the dealership. It's defeats the REAL purpose of reviews and as far as I'm concerned - completely discredits review sites all together.

"Google’s policy is clearly contrary to the industry norms" IMO this might be due to having difficulties in getting consumers to rate their experience on Google places.

"Firstly it seems coercive. If a customer is in your store, they can’t very easily say no and more importantly, they might not feel free to leave a fully honest or negative review." PLUS let's be real - how much time is a consumer really going to take to rate their experience at the dealership while standing there at the review station. The quality of these reviews I bet would suffer. The best part of customer reviews (good and bad) is getting honest feedback so you truly know where you're doing great and where you might need to place some additional focus for better customer service.

Not to turn this into a DealerRater thread but IF you can get past using reviews for nothing more that a Marketing ploy, you would have a better understanding and appreciation on how you can use the service to better your dealership all together.

 

[kcar]

Search "Miami Car Dealer" and they will come up. I won't link to it or call them out by name (in case I'm wrong), but damn the reviews look so fake.

If Mike Blumenthal is right, and Google makes a change, those reviews could be wiped out in a heartbeat.

Wait a second... 1,300+ Google User REVIEWS, and ONLY 19 Google +1's on the homepage.. Something isn't right here... Plus, they show off the reviews, but there's nothing on their website that tells customers how to post reviews or where to post the at.. Plus they don't have the inventory, they have 200 new cars, 93 used cars, no way they are moving enough inventory for that many customers..

Next is YELP, 16 reviews.. Almost ALL are negative, 2 stars.. DealerRater only 157 reviews..

Also, I'm 90% sure I know which company they are using.. It's one that will post all those reviews for you, something I frown upon myself..

I'm going to have to say this is not legit or done by customers at home.. (My own personal opinion, but it just doesn't add up). I'm going to guess we've found our first dealer that MAY be abusing the system already..