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Knowledge is Power!

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As Digital Dealer approaches, I’m reminded of how important it is to stay knowledgeable and current on industry trends and best practices.

The speakers at  the conference offer a wealth of information that are invaluable to dealers and present an opportunity to pick the brains of the best and brightest. I know that whenever I attended, I left with ideas and strategies that I could implement immediately upon my return to enhance or improve my online marketing strategies.

We should all strive to learn continuously and better ourselves. If you get so set in your ways that you think you know it all, that’s when you become stagnant. Stay sharp and on top of your game. There’s not a lot of job security in our industry but the more indispensable you make yourself, the more security you will have. Rather than being the hunter in an economy with a 10% unemployment rate, you will be hunted.

Whether you are able to attend conferences or not, use the tools available to you to enhance yourself. If they’re not provided for you, don’t use that as an excuse. Get them yourself.

I had the opportunity to attend a Grant Cardone conference early in my career and made an investment in his training material. Prior to that, I had not been provided with any tools. It was the best decision I ever made and I can tell you that I went from making an average salary to six figures within 2 months.

Recently, I’ve been reading Seth Godin. He offers a lot of great self-motivation and practical advice on how to think about things in a different way.

Be powerful. You are your own best resource.

My Apple iPad Review

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I’ve had my iPad for almost 2 weeks now. It’s time for my review.

I was skeptical of it to begin with. I have had an iPhone and I loved  it but dumped it because I got tired of paying 2 cell phone bills. No big deal. As fabulous as it was, it certainly wasn’t the best at what I wanted a cell phone for – making phone calls. I do love iPods as a music device though and I am, in general, a Mac fan. So along comes April 3rd and my “need-to-have-the-latest-gadget” DNA strand kicks in and takes me to a Best Buy to get one. I got there 2 hours before they opened and was 4th in line. Thank God Best Buy (or Apple) didn’t advertise that they were going to be carrying iPads on launch day!

The first impression I got from my iPad was awe. It is fast. It has a beautiful screen. The UI is easy and sleek.

Of course, having a brand new iPad is like having a brand new iPhone or iPod Touch.. it’s not much good without apps.

As I mentioned earlier, I had an iPhone at one point so I had some apps in hibernation in my iTunes. I promptly synced my iPad to get those apps. I did not sync my music, however. I have no plans of carrying my iPad around like an 80-eras jam box on my shoulder nor clipping it to my waist for a jog. If I want music, I have an iPod.

The iPhone apps look horrible on the iPad. They are the size that they would be on the iPhone and either centered on the screen or stretched to fill the screen which makes them pixelated. I’ve only come across one iPhone app that must have provided a free iPad upgrade because it fills the screen natively and looks fabulous (1Password).

So I downloaded a few apps after doing a little research on them. I didn’t want to drop money on useless apps. There are some good free ones though. I’ll get into my favorite apps in a second.

I don’t want to get into all the technical specs just know that the iPad is awesome. I got the 16GB Wi-Fi model as I couldn’t see myself needing more space then that. If you have an iPhone, you know what the “experience” is like. It’s easy to use and fabulous to look at.

Battery life is, so far, what was advertised… about 10 hours. Of course this will vary depending on what you’re doing on the iPad.

I haven’t had any issues connecting to Wi-Fi networks (as some have reported) and it works with my Verizon Wireless MiFi fabulously.

I did have the opportunity to travel with it and it did everything I needed it to. It is also a big plus that the TSA has determined that you don’t have to take it out of your carry-on bag to go through security.

Since an iPad is only as good as its apps, I’ll go into those (or at least the ones I’ve tried out) and give a quick review of my favorites.

Pages – fabulous word processor by Apple made specifically for the iPad. A must have as the iPad does not come with any software to type things into other than Notes. It can read Word documents and save to a Word document. ($9.99)

Numbers – a great spreadheet program by Apple for the iPad. It can read Excel files but it cannot (for the moment) save to Excel format (which makes it kind of useless). My guess is that, due to the backlash about this missing feature, Apple will fix this. ($9.99)

Videos – iPad included video player to watch your videos with. I was concerned that the picture quality would be crap seeing as the video was formatted originally for an iPhone screen. Good thing I was wrong. Videos look fabulous. I’m glad they didn’t try to “up-sell” us to HD movies like they did when they went from the DRM protected songs to the “iTunes Plus” (ie. non-protected MP3s) versions. (Included)

Mail – The iPad mail client is awesome. Reading e-mail is intuitive, easy and fun. (Included)

Calendar – I’ve magically figured out how to sync my Blackberry, Mac, iPad and Outlook to one calendar on my iPad. It’s not perfect but it works. GoToMeeting invitations through Outlook appear as gibberish, though, which is annoying. (Included)

Bento for iPad – a great database program for the iPad. Easy to use and powerful. ($4.99)

Things for iPad – a great organizational tool for task management. The calendar feature included on the iPad doesn’t seem to have a task management feature so if you like “to-do” lists, this is a great one. ($19.99)

iBooks – it’s an e-book reader. It is really cool looking and the UI and animation is fabulous. (included)

Kindle for iPad – another e-book reader. I’ve had a Kindle for a long time now and love it. This will allow you to read any of the books you’ve purchased through your Kindle on your iPad. UI is not as sleek as iBooks. (Free)

Netflix – I was not a Netflix subscriber prior to owning an iPad. I signed up for the free trial just to see how it worked. The program is fast and the videos stream quickly as Netflix adjusts the video quality based on your connection speed. I’m keeping the subscription just for the iPad. I haven’t even had them send me any physical DVDs. I don’t want them. (Subscription-based/ $8.99 per month)

ABC Player – Freaking awesome. All the ABC shows on demand. Looks and works beautifully. (Free)

Twitterific – my favorite Twitter client for the iPad. Works and looks great and its easy to use. Probably not for the power-user though. I upgraded to their non-ad version (Free or $4.99 for upgrade)

USA Today – Reading a newspaper on the iPad is an awesome experience with this app. It’s free for now but will be subscription based come June. (Free currently – subscription based in the near future)

1Password – I don’t know whether this is an iPhone app that was upgraded to an iPad app or what. I just know that I bought it as an iPhone app. In looking on the iTunes store, it looks like they basically upgraded me for free. This is just a secure program to keep track of the thousands of log-ins, passwords, email accounts, etc that you have. ($14.99)

PDF Reader Pro Edition for iPad – A must have for the iPad as you cannot read PDFs on the iPad natively. This one handles large files well and has easy transfer to the iPad via Wi-Fi. ($2.99)

GoToMeeting – Yes, Citrix made an iPad app that will let you attend a GoToMeeting on your iPad. Looks and works great. (Free)

Yahoo Entertainment – Who knew Yahoo could create a fabulous app for the iPad? TV listings and more. Hunt around and you’ll be surprised how full-featured this app is. (Free)

eBay for iPad – I’m an eBay junkie. This app has a beautiful interface and you can manage your eBay activities from it. It could be better but it will do for now. (Free)

Plants vs. Zombies HD – Very fun and addictive game. I never played it on the iPhone but it got well-deserved rave reviews for the iPad so I bought  it. Worth every penny. ($9.99)

Labyrinth 2 HD – OMG! I’ve never played this game before but I’m a fan now. It’s basically just a “move-the-ball-around-a-maze” type game but it looks incredible. It uses the accelerometer feature and it “looks” like it’s in 3-D. Take the free version for a test drive. I did and then bought the full version. ($7.99)

Flight Control HD – Fun game that looks great on the iPad. ($4.99)

RealRacing HD – Spectacular racing game that looks fabulous on the iPad. It uses the accelerometer to drive the car. Just like on the iPhone but bigger and better looking. ($9.99)

Magic Piano – Fun little music generator. It’s really something you have to play to experience. You can even have duets with someone halfway across the world. ($2.99 when I bought it although I saw it for $.99 the other day)

Scrabble for iPad – Just like the board game. Looks and plays great. You can play single player vs the computer or with friends. Way cool if you have an iPhone cause you can use the iPhone as your tile rack. Board games rule on the iPad! ($9.99)

So those are the apps I like so far. I have more but the other ones either haven’t impressed me much or I haven’t used them enough to form an opinion.

My criticisms of the iPad are as follows:

  • The iPad back isn’t flat. It’s kind of curved a little so it doesn’t lay flat on a table.
  • Stare at it too long and your eyes hurt. This is probably just a brightness setting that I can tweak but it’s like staring at a computer monitor for too long – except, in the case of reading, it’s a foot from your face. This part will determine if I keep reading e-books on my Kindle or if I switch to reading on the iPad. I’ll know after my upcoming trip which will happen as I plan to give it a thorough test.
  • It gets kind of heavy if you’re using it laying down.
  • lack of Flash support
  • lack of multi-tasking (although that may be coming with the iPhone 4.0 OS)

I could see a wealth of practical uses for vendors and the automotive industry and I plan to write another article eventually with some ideas. The iPad may be the resurgence of the tablet computer. I’ve always been a fan of tablet computers so this is welcome in my opinion.

Anybody else have any thoughts or know of some great apps that I haven’t mentioned, feel free to comment! I’m definitely interested.

And The Winner Is… (Summary of Auto-Related 2010 Webby Nominees)

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The Webby Award nominees for 2010 have been announced.

Why should you care?

The nominees provide a great resource for your marketing efforts. You can look at the sites and marketing campaigns and get great ideas that you can implement into your own online marketing efforts. I’ve summarized the ones that are directly connected to the automotive industry below but don’t neglect to look at the others.

If you want to see the complete list, you can see it here: complete list

Websites – These sites illustrate great visual design, functionality and usability.

Category: Automotive

Every 5 seconds (Toyota)- http://www.toyota-screensaver.ru
Porsche Panamera Website (Porsche)- http://panamera.com/#/home
Prius GOOD Website (Toyota) – http://awesome.good.is/ecosystem/index.html#/get-started
The GTI Project (Volkswagen)- http://awards2.digivault.co.uk/?p=493
Toyota Prius Website (Toyota) – http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/minisite/newprius/

Category: Best Visual Design/Aesthetic

Prius GOOD Website (Toyota)- http://awesome.good.is/ecosystem/index.html#/get-started

Interactive Advertising – These campaigns illustrate great examples of how to set yourself apart from your competition.

Category: Banner Campaigns

Prius iMedia Banner Campaign (Toyota) – http://www.tmspreview.com/prius/iMedia/banner_campaign/

Category: Best Use of Social Media

Everybody Knows Somebody Who Loves A Honda (Honda) – http://www.rpa.com/hondasocialexperiment/

Category: Branded Content

The Fun Theory (Volkswagen) – http://www.adqualifier.com/webby2010/thefuntheory/index.html

Category: Game or Application

BMW Z4 Augmented Reality (BMW) – http://www.ddawards.com/2010/awards/bmw/
The GTI Project (Volkswagen) – http://awards2.digivault.co.uk/?p=493

Category: Mobile & Experience Marketing

Prius iPhone Times Square Application (Toyota) – http://www.tmspreview.com/media/prius/reuters_video/

Category: Online Campaigns

The Fun Theory (Volkswagen) – http://www.adqualifier.com/webby2010/thefuntheory/index.html

Category: Online Guerilla & Innovation

The Fun Theory (Volkswagen) – http://www.adqualifier.com/webby2010/thefuntheory/index.html

Category: Viral Marketing

The Fun Theory – Piano Stairs (Volkswagen) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

Mobile – These sites excel at the ever-growing Mobile Web experience

Category: Integrated Mobile Experience

REAL NAVIGATION GAME (Honda) – http://interactive-salaryman.com/pieces/realnavigame_e/
Real Racing GTI (Volkswagen) – http://work.akqa.com/entry/webby/1/gti/

Category: Social Networking

NISSAN Ski Challenge PROVE IT (Nissan) – http://demo.bisystem.com/Skichallenge/

As a wise man once said “Imitation is the sincerest of flattery” (Charles Caleb Colton)

Google’s Inclusion of Site Speed in Algorithm Could Be Self Serving

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On Friday, Google made an interesting blog post that stated that Google is now taking into account your website’s speed in its search ranking algorithms.

While, for the moment, only a small number of websites have had their search results affected, it’s hard to believe that this isn’t the beginning of a much larger integration of site speed into Google’s ranking algorithms.

Their justification for this new criteria is that “faster sites create happy users”. They say that people who click on a search result and then have to wait too long for a site to load tend to leave and go to another site. Since Google is all about getting searchers the websites that are relevant, a website that a user leaves prior to it loading is less relevant than a website that a user stays on as Google will interpret this website as being more relevant (ie. the user found what they were looking for).

On the surface, this seems like a plausible reason.

However, I’d like to submit an alternative reason:

Google wants you to think that their search engine is faster than the competitions.

How does this new criteria reinforce this perspective?

We know how important it is to appear on Page One of Google search results. So, let’s say someone searches for something on Google. According to this blog, 90% of search result clicks originate on the first page.

So, if 90% of people click on a result from the first page… and page ranking is affected by site speed, then it would be safe to assume that, as Google increases the value of site speed in page ranking, the faster the site is, the more likely it will be to appear on Page One. (This, of course, is treating all of these site’s SEO efforts equally.)

Now, since faster sites appear on Page One and 90% of users click on Page One links, the lay-user (which is the majority of our customers) will get the impression that Google’s search is faster.

Of course, this isn’t actually true as all Google is doing is directing that 90% to the fastest websites but that doesn’t mean that Google is any faster than any other search engine.

The non-techie isn’t going to analyze this, however, or probably even be aware that this is happening. It will just seem (whether consciously or subconsciously) that Google is faster and that certainly benefits Google.

Digital Dealer Conference . Orlando, FL. April 20-22, 2010

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As I talk to dealers, I am amazed at how little they know about the resources and training opportunities available to them. Today, I just want to talk about one such opportunity.

In 2003, I went to my first Digital Dealer Conference. I can tell you that attending that conference was one of the best things I ever did. Since then, I’ve been to just about every one. This conference is invaluable for dealership personnel and has excellent training opportunities. If you are a General Manager, Sales Manager, e-Commerce Director, or Internet Manager, this conference is a must attend. Not only will you learn cutting edge techniques and best practices from industry leaders but you will have the opportunity to network and learn from your peers.

One area that is sometimes neglected by attendees is the vendor hall. I understand that you get hit up by vendors all day every day. Visiting the vendors (and not just the ones giving stuff away) is valuable in the sense that you know what solutions and technologies exist rather than trying to discover and identify them when the need arises. Be prepared for a problem with a solution. Visit the vendors. Ask them questions. See what they have to offer. You never know when you may need them.

This conference gives you the opportunity to learn practical techniques and things that you can take back to your dealership and immediately implement to sell more cars.

Registration is still open. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity.

(This may sound like a shameless plug but I can promise you that this is
sound advice and was not solicited.)

Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover! (Prejudging Customers)

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“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

If you’re in the car business, you’ve heard this before. Most dealerships will tell their salespeople not to do this but I still see it all of the time. Salespeople are notorious for prejudging a customer when they drive up on the lot whether it’s based on what the customer is driving or how they look.

In my first job at a high-line dealership, I had an experience that ingrained this into my head and I learned never to do this.

At this dealership, we worked on an “up” list. For those not familiar with this, it’s basically a turn-based system for salespeople designed to distribute opportunities equally and avoid the mass of salespeople accosting the customer upon their arrival. This dealership was brand-new and, frankly, we didn’t get a lot of customers at that point. You could easily work all day and get one or no opportunities.

I was “on-deck” (meaning there was one salesperson in front of me) when a customer pulled up. The salesperson took one look at this customer, turned to me and asked me if I wanted to help them (essentially switching positions on the list with me). Given that this might be the only opportunity of the day for me (or for him for that matter), I was certainly willing to assist the customer.

I go out and do all the right stuff, bring the guy in to my desk and we promptly customize a vehicle and place an order for a car for him – at MSRP.

My desk was right near the receptionist. She kept looking over at me the whole time while I was with this customer. After the customer left, she asked me what the guy’s name was. I told her and she proceeded to freak out.

This customer’s name was Kerry King. He’s the guitarist for a little band named Slayer. I was never much into heavy metal but they’re a pretty well-known band. Here’s a picture of him (and this is pretty much how he was dressed when he came in):

The point is that not only did I make a sale, but I made a friend. The guy is nothing like you would “expect” him to be from his appearance. Everything you see is for an image. Hollywood incarnate.

I’m sure that any other sales managers or industry veterans have similar stories and we all share them with our salespeople and/or co-workers. We all like to hear interesting stories and experiences from fellow industry professionals.

Some people just don’t get it though. Whether its seeing that person and immediately thinking “bad credit” or not assisting a customer because they’re cherry-picking, this practice continues to this day.

The sad part is that typically someone has to have an experience similar to this before it really sinks in.

Managers that see this behavior should immediately take action. This behavior not only hurts the salesperson by affecting his wallet but it can also hurt the dealership by upsetting a customer and losing business.

Do not make light of this behavior. It is contagious and will cost you deals.

Can You Sell Ice To An Eskimo?

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“He can sell ice to an Eskimo!”

This saying has been around as long as I can remember. It’s meant to praise and/or to recognize someone’s sales skills.

What are you actually saying though?

On the surface, you are implying that 1) Eskimos don’t need ice and 2) that selling ice to them is difficult.

I challenge both of those premises.

Eskimos don’t live in igloos, first. Yes, there might be a whole lot of ice in Alaska but that doesn’t mean an Eskimo wants to go outside, scoop ice off the ground (or wherever) and throw it in their glass of Coke. It doesn’t mean they want to pack their frozen foods or freezers with it either.

In fact, there’s a whole industry in Alaska that was started when one man decided to .. well.. sell ice to Eskimos. (link)

Eskimos seem to need or, at the very least, want ice and, apparently, it’s not terribly difficult to actually sell it to them.

A different article actually suggests that you should feel bad for selling ice to Eskimos saying:

“The Eskimo clearly doesn’t have a need for ice. He will certainly experience buyer’s remorse when reality sets in. And in addition to losing his future business, you’ll probably annoy the Eskimo.”

The author fails to recognize that, while Eskimos may not need ice, apparently they want it and it’s not wrong to sell someone something they want. (Bottled water anyone?) In fact, I’d be willing to wager that you would encounter less buyer’s remorse when selling someone something that they want versus something that they need.

He then goes on to suggest that you should endeavor to want to sell “life jackets to drowning men”.

“Don’t feel bad; you are not the cause of their situation. You are the solution. They need life jackets. Wouldn’t you agree that the worst life jacket sales person in the country could close this deal? Price will likely not be an issue. And the drowning man will almost certainly feel good about the purchase for years to come…”

In my opinion, that’s not only wrong, it’s exploitation. Yes, there’s a HUGE need on the part of the drowning person but do I want to force him into buying a life jacket just to save his life? This is a purchase that he would NOT feel good about and the fact that price isn’t an issue just supports that. You want to talk about buyer’s remorse and being concerned about annoying someone? Go sell life jackets to drowning men.

We (salespeople) aren’t around to determine whether a consumer wants or needs a product. They’ve already decided that they do.

Our job is to educate and facilitate the transaction, not determine whether the customer wants it. When you go to a store to buy shoes, you ask the clerk if they fit and how they look, not whether you need them. He merely gives you information (ie. they’re good walking shoes, good quality, etc) and, perhaps, his opinion. Then you make the decision and he completes the transaction.

Sales isn’t about making choices for the customer. It’s about being informed, knowledgeable and helpful and then allowing the customer to make their own choice.

A good salesperson isn’t defined by what they sell as much as how they sell it.

The next time you feel the urge to tell someone they can “sell ice to Eskimos”, just remember, it’s not a compliment.

Who Are the Real ‘Suckers’? (Stereotypes and Car Sales)

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I remember my first car sales job. I don’t know what specifically drove me to take that job other than the fact that I was good at sales, needed a job and they hired me. I’m really not a gearhead and I didn’t know much about cars but I figured I’d give it a go. It was a multi-line straight-sell store. I didn’t get any training other than the basic – Say Hi. Land them on a car. Take them for a test drive. Do a four square. – type thing. This “training” still exists within our industry, believe it or not.

One of my first sales managers (and I swear this is true), told me to watch this movie called “Suckers” and that it was a good training video.

Here’s a short clip for those who have not seen it so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about. (Caution: Rated R)


So, now you get the idea. (If you haven’t seen this movie, the story sucks but the cars sales-bits, which account for about 1/2 the movie are hilarious).

There are very few dealerships that have transitioned away from this mentality. The wrappers have changed but the candy bar is still the same. I see sales managers (and salespeople) acting this way all the time. It truly is special when I meet someone who sincerely cares about their customers aside from how much money they will make off of them.

How many times have you offered a customer a screaming deal to move a unit, maybe even at a loss in profit, and they don’t believe you? Why?

Do you treat the person with excellent credit differently than the customer with challenged credit? Why?

This stereotype still exists because this type of behavior does.

I challenge you to truly reflect on your staff and identify the individuals that exhibit these types of behavior. I guarantee you have some. Chances are, you already know who they are. Is this acceptable behavior? If not, will you let it continue?

Before this perception can go away, a true change needs to happen. We can tell customers how great we are and how much we care about them all day long but until all of our processes (and employees) that further this stereotype truly change, the customer perception of us won’t. 

Perception is reality.

Where is Waldo? (Foursquare: Why You Should Pay Attention and 3 Great Tips for Dealers)

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foursquare.

For the foursquare clueless, foursquare is basically a cell phone based application that allows it’s users to “check-in” at places they visit using a GPS-enabled phone. The benefits to the user are that they can see where their friends are, can get “tips” about nearby places that people have left and earn points and cool badges for checking in. A user can even become the “Mayor” by being the person who has “checked-in” the most. It’s a game, but one that is growing in popularity and has some value for dealerships and all businesses.

First, let me explain why this application is something to watch. Then I’ll offer a couple neat ideas and things you can do to DRIVE TRAFFIC  to your dealership in a non-traditional way.

The app is adding 100,000 users per day (or so they claim). While a small percentage of the population use it, if the growth rate continues, eventually, it may be statistically relevant.

Now, Bing is incorporating foursquare user “tips” into Bing Maps. The result looks something like this:

So, even if you think it’s the stupidest thing on earth, there is one area in which you should pay attention to this application: Reputation Management.

I’m sure you would want to know what “reviews” show up when someone does a Google Search or a Yahoo Search, so why wouldn’t you want to know what people are saying about your dealership on foursquare? These “tips” are essentially mini-reviews and the best (or worst) part about these “tips” are that, for the most part, people won’t see the “tips” until they are already at your dealership! If I were a shopper in an auto mall, and a foursquare user, and “checked-in” at a dealership I was about to shop for a car at and saw “tips” that told me not to shop there because they suck and will rip me off, I might heed that advice.

Now for three tips on how you can leverage foursquare to assist you in your marketing.

Tip One: There could be “tips” that say a certain salesperson is GREAT and that you should ask for them (hint to salespeople), there could be reviews from disgruntled customers, and there could also be reviews from happy customers. If you’re ahead of the game, it would be easy to get this campaign started in your favor rather than wait until you have to do damage control.

Tip Two: You can easily incorporate foursquare into your Facebook marketing now with a new app that will allow you to add a tab to your Facebook fan page with YOUR business’s foursquare information.

Why would you want to do that? Well, it’s an easy way to see how many users are coming to your dealership, who the mayor is, and, especially to keep an eye on the “tips” that are being left. It’s also a convenient way to add map information in your Facebook page showing people exactly where your dealership (or business) is. It looks like this:

It seems as if foursquare is digging this app since they’re the ones who told everyone about it (see their status update at the top of the above image). Here’s a link to the app on Facebook. Place Widget

Tip 3: I’ve heard a lot of dealers wonder if foursquare is even worth their time. Well, so far, people have been looking at how a foursquare campaign, using traditional methods, can increase traffic, get me phone calls, etc.

One way is to offer foursquare users who check into your dealership coupons and special offers but what about some creative and “outside-the-box” ways?

One business thought outside the box and had great success. Rather than try and figure out how he can make people want to come into his business to buy things, he catered to their fun for the game. He dissected the available badges and found one that he thought he could leverage to bring in some traffic.

It’s called the “Swarm” badge. A foursquare user earns this badge when they “check-in” at a place where 50 or more users are checked in at the same place and at the same time. He says it took him about a week to coordinate and that foursquare was even on board and helped him. Most of this event coordination was using Twitter. Foursquare even “tweeted” it out for him to their 46,000 followers. There are only 300-400 users in the Milwaukee area but he managed to get 161 people into his restaurant to earn this badge! Are you kidding me? Almost 1/2 the foursquare users in his market showed up for this event! Link to Article

Would you like 160 people at your dealership at the same time? What if there are 3,000 users in your area and 1/2 of them showed up?

Dealerships have events all the time designed to drive traffic to their dealership, why not try a new way?

I bet an enterprising dealer could find some other interesting badges to organize events or functions around.

I also think that an enterprising dealer could contact foursquare and see how they can help.

What about a badge that ONLY PEOPLE WHO BUY A CAR FROM YOU GET? I bet it can be arranged.

While the percentage might be small now, I know I think foursquare is fun and if I had the same deal to buy a car at multiple dealerships but one of them gave me a badge if I bought from them, that would be sweet and a badge not many of my friends had. It just might influence me into buying at your dealership over the other…..

and my friends may just go buy a car at your dealership, also…..

Just to get the badge.

[EDIT: After writing this article, an interesting website was brought to my attention: 4squareoffers.com . I’d certainly want MY dealership listed as having an offer versus not having one at all or having my competitors have one. Just a thought.]

Sticks and Stones Will Break Your Bones… (The Importance of Reputation Management)

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A website was brought to my attention yesterday that screamed to be talked about.

The website is this: www.ackermantoyotasucks.com

A quick glance of the content will tell you how damaging this website is for this dealership. I guarantee that people see it. I guarantee that there have been potential buyers that have seen it.

Here’s why:

This is PAGE ONE of a Google Search resulting from the search terms “Ackerman Toyota”. The first two organic results are the dealership’s website. The third one is.. you guessed it.. our lovely.. uh.. tribute website.

I drilled down a little into the message board thread and read into the
customer’s complaint a little to see if there was any effort on the
dealer’s part to rectify this and/or could the dealer have done
something about it. The dealer always has a choice on how to handle a customer issue
especially on a new car purchase, in my opinion.

The customer’s complaint seems to be that the a window screeches when being rolled down on his newly purchased Scion.

It seems they blame the window tint job that the customer had done on  the vehicle for the issue while the customer claims it had something to do with some stuff they installed prior to delivery.

The message board thread appears to have been contained within a forum
that the dealership was affiliated with in some way and the dealership
did interact, within the message board, with the consumer. They also
seem to have, at one point, called the customer and talked to him. In
the end, they had the message board thread deleted (probably due to
their affiliation with this forum) but not before the customer could
preserve it in all of its glory.

Anyways, I’m not trying to take sides here. I don’t know what happened but I know one thing, a potential customer won’t dissect this situation near as much as I tried to.

All they’ll see is … Ackerman Toyota Sucks, a complaint, and links to other negative reviews on other dealer review sites… including the dealership’s Yahoo business listing and dealerrater.

This customer obviously has a vendetta against this dealer. I’m sure the customer created this website out of anger, frustration and, probably, revenge. It was pretty much created immediately upon the conclusion of
the message board thread.

This website has been around since 2007 and still has the optimization to show on Page One as the third organic result.

In my opinion, typically the truth lies somewhere in between both sides of any story. Even if the customer was completely in the wrong, which I doubt, as a dealer, my interest would lie more in what can I do to get this website removed, than in who was right and who was wrong.

A “screeching” window doesn’t sound like a big deal to me. I’ve sold cars that had this issue. I’ve had customers who’ve had this issue. I cannot think of a single time, on a new car purchase, where the issue wasn’t fixed for the customer if only to preserve our beloved surveys and CSI.

Whether the dealer could use legal methods to remove this website or not, they obviously didn’t (or couldn’t) as this website has existed for more than 3 years. With Toyota’s current campaign of domain “repossession”, you’d think the dealer would be jumping at the opportunity to bring this to the OEM’s attention and let them handle the website’s removal.

I know if I were the dealer, it’d be worth it for me to fix the window issue and make the customer happy in exchange for removing this website.

You might be under the impression that dealer reviews on dealerrater and such (not even including this website tribute) don’t  make much of a difference but I guarantee you that potential customers will believe these reviews more than they’ll believe you.

The customer doesn’t even have to search for reviews of the dealership
to find this.

All they have to do is search and that’s the one thing
that every internet shopper does.

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