Storytailer

STORYTAILER LLC
CHAPEL HILL

Accountability and Enforcing the Logging of Customers in Your CRM

By

We are an industry inundated with technology. Technology can help dealerships operate more efficiently, extend the life of a customer, interact with new ones and market to previous ones. Just like any technology, however, you must use it for it to do its job. One feature that many dealership managers take for granted is the CRM. In particular, holding salespeople accountable for not only accurately accounting for their customer interactions but also gaining accurate information about them. Some sales desks will even track showroom traffic on a paper desk-log not even checking to see if the salesperson logged the customer in the CRM at all. This practice can harm your dealership operations in more ways than many realize and cost the dealership opportunities and/or sway decisions on marketing with bad data.

Every salesperson will log a customer who they write up. Most of the time for the simple fact that the sales manager can then pull the customer up to save any numbers presented to them. What about that customer that the salesperson greeted on the lot, spoke to for awhile, perhaps even showed a couple cars to but didn’t get anywhere with and the customer left without giving the salesperson any information? Chances are 50/50 that the customer wouldn’t get logged for the simple fact that the salesperson didn’t get any information. Or let’s look at the more positive side, your dealership has a very busy showroom and salespeople are constantly with customers gaining a new one after they have finished with the previous. It’s not uncommon for salespeople to carry a notepad which they use to jot notes or even the back of their own business cards. Because they’re busy, those note and business cards pile up. At the end of the day, perhaps the salesperson goes through and inputs each customer into the CRM. Another possibility is that the salesperson cherry picks the customers that they either want to protect (as many dealers offer 72-hour protection to its salespeople) or those the salesperson feels is worth following up with. Anything less than 100% compliance with entering customers can easily sway decisions ranging from staffing, marketing spends, employee performance and many others.

Dealerships that aren’t logging all of their customers in the CRM end up with an inaccurate view of their entire sales operations. Busy dealerships appear not as busy as they really are and could prevent a dealer from realizing this. In this case, the dealership could be understaffed with customers either waiting a long time for assistance or not getting assisted at all. In busy dealerships, its hard for a sales manager to keep track of everything that is going on while desking deals and juggling all of the tasks that are assigned to them. Salespeople certainly don’t want MORE salespeople as that could bite into their personal incomes. But the bottom line is that if your dealership is understaffed, your customer’s experience at your dealership is probably not great and sales are walking out the door. And the sad part is that you’ll never know it. Why? Because all customers aren’t being logged in the CRM.

Another example of how the failure of logging customers in the CRM can hurt a dealership is through marketing decisions. Most CRMs include a source as one of the pieces of information that salespeople are supposed to collect. “How did you hear about us?” is something that most dealerships ask. But how accurate is that information? If salespeople are entering the typical choices of “walk-in”, “billboard”, “drive-by” or “Auto mall” you’re missing out on valuable information that could be costing you thousands of dollars. Don’t think that’s happening at your dealership? Here’s an easy test. Go into your CRM and add a couple sources for programs that are well known but your dealership does not currently use. Wait out the month and run a source report. Chances are that you’ll find that all of a sudden these non-existent sources are producing sales. If your salespeople are not putting accurate information into the CRM, how do you expect to be able to use that information to allocate your marketing spend? This test will not only show you how bad the problem is but can also identify the biggest offenders.

Just like the old saying, “Garbage in, Garbage out” your CRM is your dealership’s future. It can be the most wonderful tool to help you operate efficiently, follow up relevantly, catch previous customers coming back into the market, ensure an excellent customer experience by visiting prospects and assist you in spending your marketing dollars more effectively. It can’t do that, however, if the information isn’t accurate or non-existent. Make enforcing the logging of customer information a priority in your dealership and you’ll find that all of a sudden the blinds are drawn, the sun comes in and you can clearly see what’s going on.

Originally published Jan 23, 2018 as a guest blog for Nextup.

Digital Dealer 23 Session – Wonderland: An Interactive Exercise in Leadership and Management – A Journey Down the Rabbit Hole

By

This interactive session will open your eyes and give you a fantastic new point of view into what leadership, management & company culture really means. There won’t be a Powerpoint and you probably won’t be sitting down much so come prepared to participate. You WILL go through an emotional roller coaster on this ride but by the end, you will KNOW the impact different leadership and management styles mean and which is right from wrong. Guaranteed. Participate and you will leave learning how to be a better leader through this live, in-person activity. This isn’t for the faint at heart. Be warned. You will be diving down the rabbit hole and only you will know who you will be at the end.

Join me at Digital Dealer 23 in Las Vegas, NV from September 18-20 and participate in a session unlike any ever done before. Learn more here and I look forward to seeing you at my session… if you dare.

A Big Old Can of Nonsense: Who Needs Loyal Customers Anyways?

By

With all of the recent epiphanies that thought leaders in ours and other industries that businesses should be spending time and effort cultivating relationships, spending money and basically treating customers right, I thought it time to re-visit this whole “customer loyalty” phenomenon. Customers don’t really care about car dealers, do they? I mean, dealers are ranked below Congress in surveys about trustworthiness. They don’t like coming to dealerships for ANY reason much less to buy a car. In fact, companies are popping up out of the woodwork with the sole benefit of making it possible for people to buy cars WITHOUT going to dealerships.

We know through many articles and trends that customer loyalty is dead. The Gen Y and Millennial generations could care less who they do business with. Sure, they’ll show up for that $19.95 oil change special but is it because they’re loyal? No! It’s because it’s a deal. And believe me when I say that they will eagerly go to another dealership the next time they need their vehicle serviced that offers a coupon or special when you don’t have one at that time.

People need to buy – and service – cars and regardless of whether you’re a franchised, independent or buy here, pay here lot, dealers are all they have. It’s way too much work for consumers to obtain financing, process paperwork and facilitate a private party sales transaction. In addition, most of these are “as-is” transactions so they’re essentially throwing the dice hoping they aren’t getting a lemon.

As for service, there’s a Jiffy Lube or other independent auto service center promising convenient, fast and friendly oil changes upon demand. Sure, maybe they’re using generic parts that might not fit perfectly but are serviceable. Who cares? They’re cheaper, right? Who needs certified technicians, nice waiting areas or free coffee? They’d rather go buy a $12 Triple, Venti, Half Sweet, Non-Fat, Caramel Macchiato than drink the Keurig produced coffee dealers provide for them.

As a business, dealerships have been wildly successful acquiring new customers for the past decades. It’s easy. Sure, maybe it’s gotten more expensive over the years but what’s $640 per customer when dealers can high gross them on the huge profit margins manufacturers give them to work with.

And rewards? Really? Dealers are seriously expected – yes, expected – to give away free stuff to customers who happen to give them money? Get serious.

The bottom line is that dealers sell and service cars. Dealers have this industry so tightly wrapped up and in control that even Elon Musk with all his money, influence and consumer backing can’t even manage to convince many states to let him sell his cars direct to consumers. The new companies promising excellent customer experiences and complete online transactions account for such a small percentage of sales that they’re inconsequential. Consumers HAVE to buy their cars from a dealership and they certainly have a monopoly on warranty and recall work, too.

So let’s all just calm down and sit back while OEMs take used car inventories online and auction prices skyrocket (goodbye used car grosses), the NHTSA opens up recall work to independents (see you later recall revenue), the CFPB begins to regulate consumer financing (so long F&I reserve), new car front end margins shrink (you didn’t have these anyways) and complete online buying experiences become the preferred car purchasing experience…

Wait a minute. Who needs loyal customers? Dealers do.

Effective Communication: Stop Playing the Telephone Game

By

Bush telephoneMost of us are familiar with the telephone game. For those that haven’t played, the game is very simple. A group of people stands in a line. A simple sentence, starting with the first person, is whispered into the next person’s ear one by one until the message reaches the end of the line. Typically, the sentence that is revealed by the person at the end of the line is significantly different than the one that was started with.

Just as in the game, this phenomenon of simple miscommunication exists in the workplace. Once you realize just how easily spoken communications can be changed inadvertently, the importance of effectively communicating is reinforced. Car dealerships are particularly prone to this given the complexity of many of the activities occurring. If a salesperson misunderstands the sales manager when working a deal with a customer, it can alter the rapport and general experience for that customer significantly. When a service advisor communicates with a customer ineffectively, the same thing can happen.

The obvious solution is accurate and detailed documentation in every customer and internal transaction. That being said, there are simply too many things happening and sound bites of information being exchanged that recording everything would be laborious and inefficient.

The solution lies in ensuring that you have processes and technology in place that record and track everything related to a customer’s transaction with your dealership in the most time-efficient manner possible. In addition, you should take the time to train your staff some basic effective communication skills. Simply understanding these basic concepts will help avoid misunderstandings.

  1. How You Relay Information Matters – People learn and retain information in different ways. Think about when you were in school. Did you retain information better by reading the textbook or listening to the lecture? The same applies in the workplace. Some people retain information better and more accurately when it’s delivered to them in a visual manner while some prefer to have it spoken to them. By learning how each of your co-workers best process information you’ll increase the effectiveness of communications and decrease the likelihood of mistakes and misunderstandings.
  2. The Content Relayed Must Be Tailored for Each Individual – This simply means that everyone must be cognizant of the knowledge level of the person that they are speaking to. A service advisor and technician can have much more complex and technical conversations about what’s going on with a customer’s car than they may be able to with the cashier or receptionist. A finance manager may be able to interact with a sales manager on a higher level than they can with a customer or salesperson. When you are interacting with someone and they will be relaying information to another person, make sure that you are speaking to their level of knowledge so that they understand what you are saying. Most miscommunication occurs simply because the recipient didn’t understand exactly what he or she was told and this can cause a lot of problems that could have been avoided. This is especially true when the information is being relayed to a customer.

By understanding these two fundamental concepts, you’ll be able to increase the effectiveness of communication between all employees and reduce the probability that miscommunications occur. By doing this, you’ll create a powerful environment that will allow you to operate more efficiently which will translate into a more efficient workplace, better customer experiences and increased revenue.

How to Be Sensationally Successful As A Manager

By

Young businessman acting like a super hero and tearing his shirtBuilding employee loyalty is almost as tough as building customer loyalty. If you’re not able to instill loyalty in your employees, how can you expect to be able to in your customers? According to Inc. magazine, in almost every exit interview, one of the top reasons for an employee leaving is a bad manager. HubSpot Founder and CTO, Dharmesh Shah, wrote an excellent article titled “10 Ways To Be Sensationally Successful At Your Job.” In thinking about the tips he gave, it occurred to me that while every one of his tips is fantastic advice, they would only be successful if a manager noticed and reciprocated, when necessary.

The best employee in the world can go unnoticed without attentive managers. This led me to turn those steps on their head and ask if some of these steps to being “sensationally successful” could be turned around and applied to management as way for a manager to be… well… sensationally successful at managing.

  1. Be a Manager who is helpful, not one who tells people what to do – Too often, managers get so caught up in goal-oriented tasks that they fail to really see what’s going on around them. In the performance driven world of car dealerships, top performers are easily identified and rewarded. There are very few directions that a manager could give an employee that couldn’t be phrased as a request for help rather than a directive from the boss. By changing how you give direction, your employees perception of you can change to one in which you are viewed as someone that is there to help them succeed rather than simply someone who tells them what to do. It will also build a relationship with your employee in which they don’t feel afraid to ask for help and, ultimately, that is what you want. By encouraging employees to ask for help when they need it and nurturing the relationship to one of a mentor, you will be more able to manage and train effectively. By being someone that cares about them they, in turn, will care more about you.
  2. Let performance build relationships – In this context, I’m not referring to your top producers but rather to those employees who make an effort to perform and/or increase their performance. Employees who are actively trying to better their performance are invested in your company. That’s the first step for an employee in developing company loyalty.
  3. Watch for those who go the extra mile and reward them – The second step for an employee towards company loyalty is becoming engaged with the success of your business. The best way to identify these employees is through their actions. These are the employees that are going out of their way to assist a customer that is above and beyond. They’re the ones who stay late when you need them to; the ones that come in early or on their day off for an appointment rather than have another salesperson assist a customer that they have built rapport with. Your employees have lives outside your dealerships and when they give up more than the large amounts of time they already invest in your business to personally assist someone, they should be recognized above and beyond normal. If they give above and beyond, you should reciprocate for them and show them your appreciation.
  4. Find the employees who mimic your top performers – These employees are exceptionally important as they are the ones that are actively seeking to improve themselves by identifying your top performers and mimicking them rather than hanging out with your average or sub-par performers. Just as good managers recognize the value in training, your future superstars will develop out of employees who are seeking to better themselves and further their success.
  5. Identify employees who stand out – These employees are the ones that are providing not only exceptional customer experiences but are the ones providing exceptional company culture experiences. They are the ones who are bringing positive energy into work; the ones that their peers like to work with; the ones that you like having around and, most importantly, the ones that your customers like to deal with. Most of the time, these employees will also rank amongst your top performers naturally.
  6. Identify employees who help others – Employees that actively seek to help their peers become better are engaged in your company. They are the ones who want their peers and your dealership to succeed. An engaged employee is actively showing their company loyalty whether they realize it or not. They are invested emotionally. These employees are not only satisfied with their job but are also actively working to make your dealership better both for customer and their co-workers.
  7. Don’t forget why you hired them – At some point in time, employees came into your dealership needing a job. They all possessed qualities that you felt important to be successful and you made a decision to hire them. Always remember what those qualities were and seek to assist them not only in retaining those qualities but also in improving qualities that may need improving.

Employee loyalty is something that must be earned by a company. In this day and age of high turnover, businesses need to recognize that the days of an employee earning the loyalty of a company are no more. As the Internet has opened up the world to employees and job-hunters alike, employment opportunities have expanded from strictly local ones to national and even worldwide possibilities. Great employees are a dime a dozen and by showing that your company is loyal to them you will vastly increase not only employee retention but also create employees that are engaged in your business’s success and are loyal in return.

Your employee’s loyalty is crucial to developing customer loyalty and retention. If your employees don’t like working for you, you’ll be hard pressed to build the excellent customer experience needed today to differentiate yourself from your competition.

Identifying Loyal Employees Can Be Counter-Intuitive

By

Businessmen at loggerheadsA few weeks ago, I presented at Fran Taylor’s “30 Sales a Month” workshop in Philadelphia, PA. The presentation was mainly focused on my retail sales “story”, if you will. Part of what made me successful, however, was that I questioned… well, just about everything. If I saw a better way to do something, I said so. If I disagreed, I spoke up. My sales managers got so fed up with me that, at one point, both the GSM and Sales Manager walked into my GM’s office and announced that they “washed their hands of me”. My GM’s response was that I could report directly to him then. The fact that I had a great leader and mentor that believed in me and was willing to give me leeway was what allowed me to go to the next level in my career.

I remember what he used to tell me every time I came to him with some crazy idea, “I’ll give you all of the rope that you want. You can either hang yourself with it or make a basket to carry all of your money.” I never hung myself. While my presentation was mainly geared towards salespeople, I wanted to leave the dealers and managers present with a takeaway encouraging them to change their perception of employee loyalty. Attendees really liked the message and shared it on social networks with their peers so I thought I’d share the origins of that and explain it for those who couldn’t attend.

Many experts have extolled the fact that the genesis of customer loyalty lies in first ensuring that you have employee loyalty. Your employees are the front-line people that can make or break the best designed and intentioned customer experiences. The porter washing that new car just purchased could send those otherwise happy customers leaving with a slightly less wonderful taste in their mouths. The receptionist who sends a customer off into on hold limbo can send a service customer elsewhere. Don’t think that just because you care that your employees do. I believe most successful businesses, however, intuitively understand this concept. The trick is identifying these employees and sometimes that can be tough.

In a recent article, Hubspot founder Dharmesh Shah listed what he believed to be the 7 qualities of a truly loyal employee. In that article, he illustrates that while it may seem easy to identify loyal employees based on things like how long they’ve worked for you, some of the traits of a loyal employee are the same traits that may actually lead you to firing them. It’s a fact that, in general, there is high employee turnover at dealerships. Some managers are also not the most sympathetic people to work for either. It was easy to see how some of these traits could be easily have their intentions misunderstood.

The first quality he lists is the display of loyalty through integrity. In his opinion, the employee who openly disobeys you to “do the right thing” actually has your long-term best interest at heart. Secondly, they generate discussions. Shah explains that a loyal employee knows what peers understand and assists them in learning how you think by asking the questions others are hesitant to. Third, they praise others. They recognize hard work or a job well done and care enough to verbalize their praise. Fourth, they disagree with you and share their opinions because they want to improve the company and doing so leads to better decision making. Fifth, they support your decisions regardless of whether they disagree. Six, they tell you “what you least want to hear… especially when it’s awkward or even painful to do so.” And last, they leave when it’s time to. That last one would seem to particularly illustrate disloyalty but, according to Shah, when your best employees leave, they help you fill their places while doing so.

His article was very thought-provoking and certainly presented a compelling argument listing qualities that many would deem insubordinate and reversing them into qualities of a loyal employees. At one point in all of our lives, we’ve all had that boss that exhibited the “my way or the highway” method of supervision. They weren’t much fun to work for.  I certainly displayed many of these qualities and, while I may not work for my mentor anymore, when I left, it was simply my time to do so.

In the turnover challenged industry that is automotive retail, managers must pause and take a moment to reflect on these qualities. List first the employees that you would say were your most loyal. Afterwards, reassess everyone using the qualities presented by Mr. Shah then compare the two lists. Are they the same? Chances are that some different names will suddenly appear. Loyal employees are key factors in business success. Identifying and understanding employee loyalty can assist you in not only increasing customer satisfaction – but also in identifying your future leaders.

A Lesson In Leadership from An Unlikely Source

By

Stairs-on-ski-trip“While everyone ran in panic, Roselle remained totally focused on her job.”

Sometimes life gets hectic. We try to focus on and accomplish too many things at the same time. We have deadlines to meet, customers vying for our attention, fires to put out and countless voicemails and e-mails to respond to. In a world where employers consider multi-tasking a desirable trait, we’re taught from a very young age that this is a necessary skill. Sometimes, by focusing on too many things at once, we end up not focusing on anything at all.

A customer’s experience in your dealership is completely dependent on your focus. They can’t multi-task their way to a solution. Only you have that. I realize that on a busy weekend at a dealership there are times when you’re being pulled in multiple directions. To a customer, however, they are the sun that everything revolves around.

“While debris fell around us, and even hit us, Roselle stayed calm.”

The most successful business people know that you must treat each customer as if they are your only one. Customers intuitively know when chaos is present – whether by observation or intuition. No matter how busy you are, by stopping and giving a customer… any customer… your undivided attention, not only will you be more effective in resolving their problem but you will also instill in them a feeling of gratitude and, if you’re lucky, loyalty.

“We were forced to stop often and we took those opportunities to encourage each other with a quiet word, a joke, or a gentle pat on the back.” 

Don’t forget that you have a team. Teamwork is crucial in these moments of chaos. The ultimate goal is to provide a solution that is satisfactory to the customer. Maybe you aren’t the right person to efficiently guide the customer down the path to a resolution. In these times, what typically happens is that you’re forced to get someone else involved. A great team knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Each member knows the best player for every situation and gets them involved immediately.

“…we must choose to trust those leaders who must also work hard to earn our trust through wise and timely decision making.”

As a manager, sometimes you are the one being asked to resolve problems. You are the ones being asked to multi-task. You are the one who is focusing on so many things at once that you lose focus. Your team looks to you to guide them in these moments of chaos. You must be able to focus on the single most important task you have: the customer standing in front of you. If you’re trying to desk and close deals while answering the phone and helping customers, you’ll accomplish a little bit of everything but a lot of nothing. Be a leader who shows customers that they are the most important task at that moment and follow through with that promise. Not only will you end up with a happy customer, you will also become a role model for the future managers on your team.

“Don’t stop until the work is over; sometimes being a hero is just doing your job.”

Be a hero to your customers and your team. That’s what great leaders are. Every one of us has someone in our lives that we consider our mentor in life. Be that mentor to your team and guide them through the chaos by remaining calm despite it. Teach them that the customer in front of you is the only one that matters. Reinforce it by following your own advice. They will notice and they will buy in.

These lessons originated from an unlikely source. Roselle, you see, is a dog. Her owner is blind. He also happened to work in the World Trade Center and was on the 78th floor when planes flew into the building. There were an estimated 17,400 people in the Twin Towers when this horrible event occurred. Not only did Roselle guide her owner down 1,463 flights of stairs to safety but she was also “giving doggie kisses to each and every firefighter who climbed past us up the stairs.”

“While debris fell around us, and even hit us, Roselle stayed calm.” 

In the midst of all of this chaos, Roselle focused on a single task. She led her owner outside and, despite the chaos and falling debris, found the nearest subway station and led her owner underground.

Roselle was honored as the American Hero Dog of the Year. While she isn’t with us anymore physically, her memory and lessons stay with us to this day. Roselle wasn’t just any dog. Roselle was a highly trained guide dog that had a single job to do for a single customer – her owner. Had she not been trained, she couldn’t accomplish this task with the laser focus that she must have had to navigate down one of only three stairwells along with 17,000 other people for 78 floors to achieve her goal.

“Sometimes the way is hard, but if we work together, we will make it down the stairs.”

Never forget.

g-tdy-111003-herodog-11a.grid-6x2

 Roselle

[Credits: The Today Show, Fox News and Wikipedia]

Buying Reviews and Car Dealerships

By

In the last few days, there has been national media coverage of a vendor on Amazon who decided to “stack the deck” and buy reviews. The two articles, one on Gizmodo and one in the New York Times, told the story of a company selling cases for the Kindle Fire on Amazon who included notes in the packages asking for positive reviews from buyers in exchange for a full refund of the purchase price they paid.

Within the automotive industry, there have been (and still are) companies that promise to increase your online reviews and, while they claim the reviews are all genuine, people paying attention can easily dissect the fact that they are not. I wrote an article in June of 2011 that investigated one company, Review Boost, that was suspected of doing just this in which I interviewed the owner.

Most dealers do not participate in or knowingly hire any companies that do this.

One statement in those articles, which was included in the letter to consumers who purchased the Kindle Fire case, caught my attention though.

“We strive to earn 100 percent perfect ‘FIVE-STAR’ scores from you!”

Does this sound familiar?

Most dealerships have a time, usually in their delivery process, in which the customer is “educated” that they will be receiving a survey from the manufacturer and how important it is for the dealership to receive top scores in all areas. Some dealerships even get as detailed as having a copy of the survey with the desired answers highlighted and reviewed with the consumers. I know dealers who ask the customers to fill it out and bring it into  the dealership in exchange for something – a free oil change, t-shirt, etc. Some ask for the survey to be returned blank (which they obviously plan to fill out themselves) and some just ask them to return a completed survey which they can then read and decide for themselves whether to return it or not. I know dealers who will even RDR the car with a different address if there is heat on the deal so that a customer never gets the survey at all.

While this is certainly not identical to the vendor in the articles, in which they offered a refund for the product in exchange for positive reviews, it’s pretty close.

Reviewing a CSI survey with customers when they buy a car is skating a fine-line especially when there’s coaching involved. When you throw in a free oil change or some other incentive, it’s the same thing. Every dealer knows that they aren’t supposed to do this. However, CSI scores can be tied to future incentives from manufacturers so dealers are always under pressure to keep their scores high.

The problem with any of this is that you never get an opportunity to truly improve. You don’t get real feedback on what (or who) is broken in your process. Even though these aren’t “public” reviews and are only viewed by the manufacturer and employees of the dealership, the opportunity for improvement still exists.

You should embrace the opportunity, take your lumps when they come, and do your best to solve the customer’s complaints or criticism with your CSI surveys just as you would with your online public reviews. Even though consumers might not see these when choosing your dealership, making sure that ALL your customers are happy by attempting to solve issues they may have had, whether you received the feedback publicly through an online review or privately through CSI survey feedback, will help you grow as a dealership.

Embrace all reviews, both negative and positive, public or private, and use them as a learning experience and an opportunity to fix broken processes, clean house of cancerous employees, and become a better dealership.

I guarantee that by doing this, you’ll see less negative reviews.

BMW Dealer Customer Service Fail Goes Viral

By

A customer comes into your dealership because the warning lights come on in his Certified Pre-owned BMW after your service department tells him to bring it in immediately. He comes in and your first tier tech tells him the lights only apply to an emissions issue which doesn’t apply in his state, promptly turns the warning lights off and tells the customer he’s “good to go”. The customer leaves and two days later, the steering fails on his car while driving 65-75 mph on the freeway causing him to crash off the side of the road. When he complains to the GM, no apology is given and he’s told to bring the car back in. He expresses concern about his trust in the dealership and says he wants to go to a different one and is told that he can only bring the car there.

He then goes online and starts asking questions in a brand-enthusiast forum. After getting some information and advice from his peers, he meets with the GM at the dealership where, after expressing his concerns about the dealership’s service quality, the GM asks “then you shouldn’t even be in my office wasting my time”. The customer then agrees to let the dealer pick up his car via flatbed to look at it but is denied a loaner car.

Someone at your corporate office sees his online forum posting and has the corporate LAWYER call the customer requesting that he remove his online posting. He refuses and takes the car to an independent mechanic where he is told that the codes indicate issues with “steering and stability control”.

BMW North America gets involved. They ask the customer to bring his car into a different dealer and promise to fly in a team of specialized engineers. They confirm the steering and stability issues, charge him his $50 deductible and only fix two issues that are covered under his CPO warranty. Neither the corporate office or the dealership will explain to him what was wrong or take any responsibility and, when asked why, they say they “don’t appreciate that (he’s) made this a public issue on the forums.”

Yes, this really happened. What a train wreck.

The dealership? BMW of North Scottsdale. (a Penske Automotive dealership)

This story made the website “Jalopnik” yesterday. The article (in which the dealer is not only named but linked to) “Did a Dealer Ignore a Faulty, Dangerous BMW?” has received 27,334 unique visitors and has 209 comments. In one day.

The original forum post has 327 comments on it in less than 30 days and has been viewed by 27,956 unique visitors.

The Jalopnik article is now in the #6 position on Google Page 1 for a search for the store’s name, four spots up from their DealerRater page.

 

bmw

We’ve all experienced irate customers. We all make mistakes. There were so many opportunities for customer service to appear by so many different parties (technician, service manager, general manager, corporate office, manufacturer, the second dealership, and, of course, the corporate lawyer), yet it never did and now the dealer and BMW have a PR nightmare on their hands.

One forum poster actually said this: “Scottsdale BMW got a pretty good rating at dealer rater…shall we change that?”

What would you do if this happened at your dealership? How would you handle this?

Buy Here ‘Cause They Suck

By

Most dealerships and businesses in general know that it’s bad practice to bad-mouth your competition. That being said, I know of and have heard plenty of salespeople and managers using their online reviews to help close a deal by comparing them to their competitors online reviews. This practice is similar if not exactly the same. You are leveraging negative comments about your competitor left by other people (who you are representing as real – we all know fake reviews exist) to your positive reviews (you aren’t really showing people any negative reviews about your dealership, are you?) in an effort to “sell” yourself and your dealership. So, while this isn’t talking bad about your competitor directly, it is indirectly, and what you say can now get you in some deep water.

In a precendent setting ruling, an Alabama car dealership has been awarded $7.5 million dollars due to slanderous comments made during a close to consumers by both the salesperson and sales manager. Apparentley, the dealership’s competitor was owned by an Iranian-born but naturalized U.S. citizen. The sales manager told at least one couple while attempting to close a deal that the competitor was “helping fund insurgents there and is also laundering money for them.” The salesperson was also accused of telling the same couple that the dealer was “funneling money back to his family and other terrorists…” and that he has a “brother over there and what you’re doing is helping kill my brother.” It is also reported that the competitor was frequently referred to as “Taliban Toyota”.

The jury awarded the Alabama dealer  $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages after deliberating for 3 hours.

While this is certainly an extreme example, it bears watching where the “line” is. This had more to do with a leveraging of race, stereotypes and bigotry but there’s no telling what future lawsuits outcomes would be utilizing this ruling as precedent.

I find it astonishing that, it appears, the sales manager, at least, is still employed at the dealership based on the statement that neither of them were available for comment per a “dealership spokesman”.

I think there are now 7.5 million reasons to add prohibiting the “bad-mouthing of your competitor” to your employee handbook. 

Contact Me