Web 2.0 Essential for Dealers to Survive Economic Crisis

[Tony Weaver (blog)]

Allowing customers to have full reign of your site would be a huge step, no doubt about it. After much thought on this idea, and after taking a beating the other day from people on this site in another posting, I decided to investigate this alleged customer phenomenon quoted as, “After the dark economic clouds clear, the sun will be shining on a new era – one in which consumers will be able to spend money, but will only be willing to do so with companies endorsed by “people like me.” Woe betide auto dealers who are not onboard and ready with Web 2.0 then.” I do not know why, but after reading that comment, the hype of Y2K comes to mind. “Never mind that. Let’s be positive!” they say!

Just the other day, after reading this post, I was thinking about purchasing a space heater for my home. In the interest of saving time, I went to the Wal-Mart website to see what they had listed for sale. I found what I was looking for and read the reviews on the product. There were two positive remarks and one negative remark. Satisfied with the positive feedback, I went to Wal-Mart last night and bought the space heater. Did the comments regarding the heater sway my decision? YES, of course they did!

Well heck, maybe it would be great to have customer comments on new or used vehicles on our site. What could be the harm? After all, if the comments are made by real people, everything should be fine - especially if our dealership is customer service orientated.

I figure that there would need to be some checks and balances. For example: requiring any person, wishing to leave a comment, to have their email verified before the comment is posted. I actually tried to leave a comment on Wal-Mart.com and there was a process I had to follow to have my comment posted on the site. Basically, I had to be a real person. I have found this to be the case on most other sites. They will not allow someone without a name and a confirmable e-mail to post on their site. This process prevents people from ranting or making lewd remarks.

Yesterday, I took this whole idea of customer reviews a step further. My dealership group is spread out across a couple of states so we have three website providers. I contacted each of these companies and pitched the idea of adding customer reviews or maybe a question and answer section (like the one on e-Bay). All three venders shot down the idea. The rep at each website provider told me to just use the “News” or “About us” section on my site(s) and put written testimonials with pictures, or video testimonials up. They all treated me as if I was absolutely insane and I thought I was for asking them because I new what the outcome would be…

So guys and gals, if you want this, you are going to have to request these reviews to be built to your sites now! Or, like the author of this post indicated, we may become victims of this Web 2.0 phenomenon - or not…

 

[Audrey Knoth]

Hi, Tony: How interesting about your reading the reviews about the space heater and then making your decision. This is absolutely the way consumer purchasing behavior is going. If consumers don't find reviews on a retailer's web site, they google for them elsewhere. By keeping their websites closed off to customer reviews, dealers are not going to prevent customers from putting their opinions online about the vehicles they bought and the service they received. They are simply going to cause customers to find other places on the web to post them. I agree there has to be review of submitted customer comments for senseless ranted and lewd language before they are posted ... and consumers generally understand and accept the necessity of that process. Managing the comments is important in another way, too, because the dealership can post responses to any comments it feels are negative. These responses could be things like, "Thanks for pointing that out to us; we looked into it and took care of it this morning" ... etc, etc, etc. Web 2.0 isn't going away for dealers ... it's just the smart ones will get on board now so they are ahead of the curve for whatever Web 3.0 is going to be.

 

[Tony Weaver (blog)]

Audrey,
Yes, now find me a vender that will actually do it. Maybe in two years??? Automotive web site venders are always late in developing the what is happening now stuff. Hopefully, dealer.com will work with me on this...

 

[Edward Brown]

Thought provoking post, Audrey. I can see 2009 becoming the year of dealer Web 2.0. A surprise may be the use of Web 2.0 inside organizations as differentiated from strict marketing. Use of Web 2.0 internally could positively impact the use of such tools for customer facing activity by training the entire dealer workforce on Web 2.0 concepts and tools.

I agree with you that smart dealers will look at this slow period as the time tackle a new model like Web 2.0.