TK Carsites - Dealer Website Services Profile and Reviews

[Jeff Kershner]

Richard,

You are right, maybe I have not looked into how these magazine awards are derived, but only because I have never seen that information in print. You have to admit all the magazines have some type of "Awards Issue" and after so many they start to read like nothing more then an ad. Especially since each magazines award winners are totally different from one another.

Thanks for your comments Richard. I truly appreciate having you here and taking advantage of DealerRefresh and giving back to the readers.

As for advertising; with time I will have a new redesign and will have a small area for advertising. I would love to have you on board.

Thanks again Richard.

 

[J.D. Rucker]

I recently started working with TK, and I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed with Richard and his team. Great websites, great conversions, and incredible SEO.

(then again, I'm biased, as SEO is what I do)

 

[Chuck Capps]

First off I know I am a little late to start in on this. However, I wanted to voice my opinion. Second I just found this site from a article in Wards Dealer Business and have to say there is a lot of great info on here! Hats off to Jeff!

I have been with TK for about 3 years now. Almost on a daily basis I look at the competitors to get new ideas and keep up with this ever changing technology. Since my switch to TK from Cobalt I have never looked back! Richard and his team are second to none. They added a new SEO/SEM guy that is probably one of the industry leaders in this field a few months back. Find me another website company that converts CONSITANTLY over 10.5% of traffic to leads and I may take a second look at them.

I would recomend TK to any dealer!!! (Well as long as they are not my direct comp...) =)

Just my $.02

Again Jeff great website! Probably to much info for my little brain….

 

[Jason (blog)]

LOL - i brewed my own website for my families dealership, and conversion has never been under 16% in a year. I once replaced our entire site with nothing but a header graphic and contact form - and had a 30% conversion! With a ONE PAGE site. So much for 'engage your visitor', video tours, 360 degree inventory shots, keeping up with technology, keeping up with the dealer down the road, blah blah blah...

People coming to a dealership web site are NOT looking for an info portal. To many of my fellow iternet directors and ISM's seem to make their website a monument to their ego, when it really should only be for one thing - getting people to call, email, or drive in.

The key is NOT convincing the web surfer to sumbit a lead. The key is staying out of their way long enough so they can contact you.

pop-up coupons: Annoying? yes. Effective? very. I expiremented with them for several months, and our conversion rate went from the high teens to the twenties. Fact: actual shoppers like/want coupons. Unfortunately, I had to yank them from our site because sales staff were printing them off for walk-in customers AFTER the manager desking the deal - the sales manager was going nuts!

## begin rant ##

I spend hours every day pouring over analytics and web logs for our dealerships internet endeavors. Something I have learned doing by this: based on what they say in the mags, most vendors and so-called 'expert' ISM's really don't know what they are talking about. I guess this shouldn't surpise me - as pointed out already by the TK rep, dealers seem to always insist on doing things to their sites that actually hurt them, and vendors are in the business of providing them with what they want.

Framing in another vendors inventory module instead of developing your own - LAME. I expect it from a small 1 man shop w/o a real programmer - not bigger vendors with an actual staff. It only took me 1 week to build an 'inventory module' from scratch. Another day to get it to feed autotrader.com. It took 1 month to build an internet lead management application. Granted, up until a year ago I was an IT consultant (ie, 'programmer for hire' ), but every city is FULL of guys like me.

Most of these companies do nothing more then make a flashy home page - yet charge out the NOSE for it. For one days labor. They whip something up in photoshop over a few hours, import it into adobe flash to make the mouse-over effects, etc; then ftp it to a web server a few hours later. Come to think of it, maybe I need to get into their business!

oh, I can't stay quiet about this -
We all get email every month from TK.
How many of us actually opted in? We didn't.
Have you tried to opt out, like we have tried doing unsuccessfully for years?
Do you know that's a felony, with an $11k fine per occurance? CAN-SPAM www.ftc.gov/spam

 

[Gerald]

Jason- Interesting points you make, and with regards to the customer using your website for an information portal, I would agree, with qualifications. What I have noticed over the last several years is a pronounced movement from 3rd party websites to the manufacturers, to the dealers. In other words, as people have come to trust the content of the manufacturer and then the dealer, I have seen an increase in "fresh" shoppers on the website vs. a couple of years ago. I think it is also essential to consider what make you are selling. Most everyone knows Accord and Camry are among the highest for inquiries on the Internet. But what about the other makes? I would submit buyers like GM and Ford customers are where Toyota and Honda customers were 2-3 years ago. We very well may see a change in the dynamics of domestic customers in their research.

Pop-up coupons are VERY annoying, and that is why I use mine as a pop-behind. It is an effective tool, and is less annoying for the customer.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

How are you two measuring conversion rates?

 

[Joe Pistell]

Jason,
Love your scrappy attitude. Ya gotta put your URL in your comments (I want to see your efforts in action!)

Joe

 

[consider-it]

Highly considering the switch from Reynolds and Reynolds to TK can someone please give me some good advice? I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR FROM ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE COMPETITION TO TK BASHING THEM (REMEMBER: THAT IS NOT PROFESSIONAL). Thank you for the support!

 

[Joe Pistell]

whats your motivation to switch to a new vendor?

what made TK rise to the top?

will this switch SMC? (Sell More Cars?)
-SMC for your store?
-SMC for you personally?

 

[CONSIDER-IT]

I HAVE BEEN DOING SOME RESEARCH. OF COURSE I AM CONSIDERING MANY OPTIONS, BZ, STAYING WITH REY REY, DEALERSKINS, DATA ONE SOFTWARE, ETC. I AM JUST LOOKING FOR SOME IN PUT FROM THOSE WHO ALREADY USE TK. PROS AND CONS, ETC....

THANK YOU!