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The Challenge of Split Personalities in Consumers

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For those unfamiliar with the story of Sybil Dorsett, she was a woman with dissociative identity disorder who had as many as 16 different personalities which would dominate and reveal themselves at different times. Made famous first by the non-fiction book, Sybil, then the 1976 movie starring Sally Field, Sybil was one of the most famously documented cases of this disorder ever documented. While victims of this disorder typically don’t have this extreme of a case, there is one group of people who have made a parallel leap into what is very similar: just about everyone on the (digital) planet.

Sybil, the person, had personalities including the following: herself, a young French girl, two personalities named Peggy Lou (one assertive and enthusiastic while the other was fearful and angry), a thoughtful homebody, an emotional writer and painter, a talented musician, a male personality which was a builder and carpenter, another male personality that was a handyman, a personality interested in politics, one that was listless, one that was an actual baby, one that was critical of Sybil (the original personality), one that was afraid but determined to achieve fulfillment, one that was vivacious and liked to laugh and, finally, one that was a perpetual teenager.

How does the story of Sybil relate to “everyone on the (digital) planet?” An excellent article on YourStory.com shares a few examples which I’ve expanded on.

While technology has quickly evolved which allows marketers to collect data in which a consumer’s journey towards any purchase can be tracked to include key influencing factors like marketing messages, websites, emails, banner ads and offline messages, today’s consumers have so many platforms, channels and devices in which to make that journey. The Sybil analogy comes into play because every consumer has a preference on which activities they perform not only on which devices but on which platforms.

For example, Melissa might choose a desktop to shop for cars rather than a mobile device. She may use Facebook for personal interactions and business or entertainment recommendations while using Twitter for political commentary or activity-based messages and she may prefer to do those on a mobile device. Compound these with the fact that Melissa may not be doing some of these activities for herself but on behalf of another and you have a bunch of different digital personalities (footprints) happening. The problem is that there is no context.

What if Melissa is helping her brother identify good cars for him, but really only uses her desktop to check e-mails and write about the country music bands and festivals she likes attending? Perhaps all of the dancing tweets, retweets and information sharing are actually because her daughter is a dance aficionado? If she’s talking about a movie her husband enjoyed on Facebook, what digital indicator is she leaving?

There exists a lot of data in the universe that marketers can tap to deliver more personalized, relevant and actionable messages which, in the best result, produce more sales. But consumers are no longer that transparent. Delivering an ad to Melissa on her desktop computer about a car while she is trying to blog about Garth Brooks is probably a waste of money – especially considering she was never interested in buying a car but only gathering information for her brother. In the same way, delivering ads on Twitter to Melissa about movies or on Facebook about dancing may be.

Even though the data says they are relevant, they may not be because the data cannot tell you context or intent nor identify preferences on platform usage.

The data is out there and the touchpoints can tell you the journey that was taken to a sale or conversion. What it cannot necessarily tell you (unless you dig deep – and are a data scientist) are both what the motivations behind those activities were, whether they were of self-interest or not and whether there are more effective platforms on which to deliver your message than others.

Marketing is only going to get more complicated and it’s no longer a matter of whether the data exists (there is a ton), but also having the knowledge to know which data is relevant, which platform its relevant on, how to best deliver that message in a personalized way, get a conversion and, ultimately, a sale.

Data is no longer about simply having it but rather about trying to decipher which personality a given individual is demonstrating at any given time.

The Dislike Button: Facebook Is About To Open Pandora’s Box

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According to Business Insider, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that Facebook is working on – finally – implementing a feature users have been clamoring for for years – the “dislike” button. In the interview, Zuckerberg explained that “what [people] really want is the ability to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment” and that the addition of the dislike button was to allow users “an option to express feelings other than ‘liking.’”

While his sentiment – and goals – are good, I believe that Facebook is about to open a big giant can of whoop-ass. This action could easily become the equivalent of opening Pandora’s box – or Face-mageddon.

Let me explain.

I get it. Someone posts about a death in the family, an illness, an injury or just a bad life experience. We’ve all seen those and hesitate to interact using the “like” button ‘cause who wants to “like” someone’s tragedy? Facebook’s thought-process probably followed the lines of “if we give users a way to interact with those types of posts in a way that shows empathy (as Zuckerberg said) then.. well.. people will interact with more posts… which gives us more data. Don’t think for a moment that every article you share, post you like, comment you make or status you interact with in ANY WAY isn’t translated into Facebook’s mysterious algorithm that determines what is shown to you in your news feeds. In addition, I’m fairly certain it is also integrated into your Facebook user profile data… permanently.

Here are a few scenarios in which a dislike button is bad:

Right now, Facebook can only tell what type of content you interact with. It doesn’t know your personal feelings about that content unless you comment in a positive or negative way. There is already software designed to automatically identify positive vs negative sentiment. With the introduction of a “dislike” button, Facebook will now be able to better understand how you FELT about the content, not just the fact that you interacted with it.

Why is this important?

Let’s look at things that people post on Facebook… sports, religion, politics, guns… all things that could be very polarizing or controversial topics. We’ve all seen posts turn into bitter arguments. Heck, one of the most popular memes has got to be this one:

 

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We love us some drama. Don’t deny it. How many reality shows exist again? Facebook is like one huge reality show except the actors are actually people you know.

Back to that list. Let’s go with the easy one first… sports. Are you a fan of (insert team name here)? If not, every time your friends post something positive about that team, you may feel inclined to hit that “dislike” button. Not only will this probably annoy your friends (especially if the “dislikes” outweigh the “likes”) but now Facebook knows that you more than likely do not like (inserted team). How will your friends know that you disliked their post? Well, you can already view the people that “like” your posts so I would guess it’s safe to assume that you’ll also be able to view the people that “dislike” it as well.

You see where I’m going? Religion. Politics. Gun Control. Gay Marriage. Kim Davis. Abortion. Hunting. Confederate Flags. Prayer in schools. Civil rights. Whomever’s Lives Matter (this week), Legalized drugs, Immigration Policies… this list could continue but I think you get my point.

Not only does a “dislike” button offer the option of inserting a passive-aggressive “vote”, if you will, on the subject matter rather than chiming in but it can also provide valuable data about YOU to Facebook. Instead of being forced to actually GIVE your opinion on a controversial topic, now you’ll simply be able to click a button and subtly share that opinion. I can’t wait to see friend’s calling other friends out in comments such as “Hey [friend], why’d you dislike this? You suck!” etc.

What about (God forbid!) someone “dislikes” something your BUSINESS (i.e. Facebook page) posts?

It’s really a pretty genius move on Facebook’s part. Its users have been asking for this forever… so now they’re giving it you them… and they can collect more data, keep you on Facebook longer and provide you with more content you like. Once it figures out you don’t like [insert team name, political figure, movement, etc here], it simply won’t show you that content any longer. Facebook will become a happy place full of Skittles, unicorns, puppies and motivational quotes… unless, that is, you don’t like Skittles, unicorns, puppies and motivational quotes. You know all of those “I’m going to flood Facebook with cartoon pictures to drown out all of the negativity” posts? Well, now you won’t have to anymore ‘cause Facebook will be your personal screener. Sort of like that poor guy who gets to taste all of the king’s food before the king eats it to check to see if it’s poisoned.

Perhaps advertisers will soon be able to start targeting “People who don’t like Donald Trump” or “People against gay marriage.” Even scarier is how ELSE could Facebook monetize this data. Can you imagine a world in which employers, insurance companies, government agencies, etc. could access this information? I can. And no, I’m not a paranoid conspiracy theorist. What I am, however, is a realist. Facebook is a public company that needs to find ways to monetize itself. It does that mainly through Facebook ads at the moment. That being said, we all know that data is money… and we certainly give it data. Lots of it.

Now they’ll be able to combine CONTEXT with ACTIONS and that’s a slippery slope into creating a more perfect data profile of a user which, of course, allows them to, at the very least, open up new ways for advertisers to better target their audiences. You better believe that Facebook will – and already is – keeping track of everything you do on it’s site. I’m sure that buried someplace in some Terms of Service document, by using Facebook, you’ve given them ownership of the data they collect about you. Now they’ll just get better insight (cough.. data) into your thoughts and beliefs as well.

Like one friend of mine said when I posted the article this blog refers to in the beginning, “ Oh, it’s about to get fun again.”

Yes, it is.

Forget SEO, Naked Women Will Increase VDP Views

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In the middle of July, a small dealer in Oregon started to get a lot of attention. I’m fairly certain their website visitors spiked and at least one VDP started to get massive traffic. You see, somehow a 2001 Mercedes-Benz got transformed into a picture of a naked woman. Yes, you heard that right. Word started spreading amongst the automotive circles on social media AND, more importantly, to the public through a very popular automotive blog, Jalopnik. We (being my friends in the automotive community) found it quite amusing. The author of Jalopnik reports that he called the dealership and the faux pas was blamed on… wait for it… a computer virus. This “naked woman” VDP was appearing all across the Internet – the dealer’s website, Cars.com, and Auto.com being amongst them. I bet that dealer got more phone calls, leads and VDP views on this 2001 Mercedes than any vehicle it has ever had in its history.

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The problem didn’t stay there, however. Once I verified this on their website and Cars.com, I started researching to see exactly how widespread this was. That vehicle (and picture) was everywhere. Not only that but once I SAW the picture, I couldn’t UNSEE it. Yes, the remarketing magic kicked in. All of a sudden, I had a naked woman stalking me on the Internet.

 

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Anyone who knows the path of data distribution in the car industry knows that this didn’t originate with Cars.com. If you don’t know, this is basically the flow:

Dealer/3rd Party Photo Service -> Data Distribution Company -> 3rd Party websites

Having worked at HomeNet for a while, I got fairly familiar with this process. Some dealers would argue that “data distribution company” should be replaced with “website provider” but, for the most part, website providers don’t actually do the data distribution. In most cases, they subcontract out the service to companies like HomeNet. As a dealer, you may or may not be aware of this as your website provider may include data distribution in their service. I cannot count the times that I called dealers whose data feed we already had to try and sell them services and they had no clue that we (HomeNet) were distributing their data already.

How could something like this happen? Well, there are several possibilities so let’s get started.

  1. Computer virus/Hacked – I don’t buy this one. This would have to be a pretty intricate virus with the ability to identify a picture of a naked woman, log into the dealer’s account with their data company, choose a vehicle and upload the picture into the system. When I looked at their website, it was only this single VDP that had the explicit picture. If it were a computer virus, chances are more than likely that it would have replaced EVERY picture for all of the vehicles. Not just one. Viruses are malicious. They want to do damage. The same rationale goes for a hacker. Replacing one picture isn’t going to make some guy so happy he spits out his Twinkie while Mountain Dew flies out of his nose. (I know, total stereotype. It was simply an effort to be amusing.)
  2. Dealer Accident – This is certainly a possibility. In the past, dealers have been notoriously vocal about how difficult and time-consuming it was to take and upload pictures. This motivated the industry into creating software that made it easier. It’s possible that whomever was in charge of uploading pictures at the dealership happened to have this naked girl on their desktop or in the folder with the vehicle pictures and it accidentally got uploaded. Knowing the mechanics of retrieving pictures from a camera, then manually selecting the pictures that go each which vehicle while uploading them makes this scenario also unlikely. There was only a single picture for this vehicle so you can’t say that it was mixed in with 30+ other pictures of the same vehicle.
  3. Third Party Photo Service – This, again, is pretty unlikely. Photo services depend on their clients for revenue. For the most part, they also use technology that makes taking pictures and attributing them to vehicles pretty efficient. Scan a Vin. Take a bunch of pictures. Repeat. Upload. It’s pretty automatic. Seeing as this explicit photo wasn’t a picture of a picture, the likelihood that it was already on the camera is slim-to-none. The exception here would be smaller photo services that don’t use this sort of technology. In those cases, you would refer back to possibility #2 above.
  4. Cars.com – Forget about it. Do you really think Cars.com has the time to upload photos for dealers? They simply take a feed that originated as a combination of a DMS vehicle record and corresponding pictures and a listing is created automatically. Obviously there isn’t a censor watching on their end. They probably don’t feel the need for one. It’s certainly not scalable for them to view the millions of inventory pictures they get daily from dealers across the country.
  5. On Purpose – This is the most likely scenario. Someone was either disgruntled or wanted a little laugh. Based on the results of widespread distribution though, this had to happen at or before the data distribution link in the chain of events for it to get disseminated as much as it was. Unless the dealer used a small photo service that they just cancelled, the likelihood that it was a vendor is small. People have to pay the rent, you know. The simplest solution is that someone at the dealership, that had the log-in to upload a picture, is the culprit. As they say, the simplest answer is usually the correct one. Maybe they were upset. Maybe it was a prank. We’ll probably never know.

Dealers are way too lax with their vital services and log-ins. Most CRMs have unique log-ins as they need to track activity and tie it to specific employees. The same is true with MOST log-ins to a DMS. Exceptions exist, however. There are many instances of shared or single passwords being used by dealers to access services. How about social media accounts? Imagine that showing up on your Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, etc. A lot worse can happen to a dealer than the scenario in this article.

Vendors aren’t immune to this either. Read the comments on that Jalopnik article. Cars.com got some unwanted publicity as well. Consumers don’t know the mechanics involved. They simply blamed Cars.com and had a good laugh. That picture/VDP was on their (and other) websites for HOURS. I reached out to them via Twitter. While they wouldn’t get specific with me (although I’m sure they know exactly where they got the feed from) they did deny responsibility tweeting that the image “originated from a 3rd party site.”

 

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The point of this article isn’t to cast blame. I’m certainly not Sherlock Holmes. I’m simply using common sense. As dealers, your website and VDPs are your virtual dealership. Unless you would place a naked girl in the middle of your lot to bring in traffic, you probably don’t want this happening to you. (Although it would probably work better than a giant inflatable gorilla or wavy tube guy. Just saying.) You should treat all of your services as if you were in the military. Log-ins and passwords (especially administrator-level ones) should be shared on a “need to know” basis. In every possible case, there should be levels of access for individual users. This way, you can control who can access what, what they can do once there, and, if something goes wrong, hold someone accountable.

Dealers also need to know, and control, exactly where their inventory is going. Most dealers get sold on the fact that there inventory will be on a gazillion websites and their eyes light up like a child seeing his or her presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Dealers should know not only whom THEY are sending their inventory to but also to whom THOSE people may be sending it to as well.

While this was an amusing venture that didn’t last a terribly long time, it’s a perfect example of Murphy’s Law – “If anything can go wrong, it will.”

Data security is something that’s becoming more prominent in the eyes of consumers. If someone can upload a naked picture of a woman and get that on hundreds of websites in a minute, imagine what someone who REALLY wants to get revenge or create havoc can do with your DMS database, social media accounts, CRM, customer information (including socials, DOBs, etc)…and guess who would be responsible…

You.

 

Stat of the Week and In The News Compilation – December 2012

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In the News – December 1, 2012 – [LINK]

Facebook Tests An In-Store Gateway To Internet Access

In a win-win for Facebook and businesses, Facebook has begun testing a “social wi-fi” service according to this article on CNET. With Facebook supplying the router, and the business supplying the internet, it would work similar to the processes set-up in hotels in that, when a customer first connects to the wi-fi network, they would be redirected to that businesses Facebook page where they would be prompted to “Like” the businesses’ page in order to access the internet. The upside for a business is that it could increase page “Likes” and engagement through the ability to offer Facebook deals to those customers as they log-in. The benefit for Facebook is all about data. Every time a consumer completes the log-in, they are providing Facebook with valuable data which would then assist them in improving Facebook ad performance and targeting. For those consumers who do not have Facebook accounts and/or do not wish to use them to log-in, there will be an option for the consumer to log-in via a password supplied by the business. In our opinion, however, most people will trade the convenience of logging in via Facebook, and the benefit of free internet access, for a simple “Like” as people are being more and more conditioned to trade personal information in exchange for something free. The perfect place to implement this idea would be the service waiting area where a businesses’ wi-fi is most commonly used and available. As this is in the testing phase, it remains to be seen whether it will come to reality for the masses BUT, it would be interesting to see whether, if Facebook abandons this idea, a business could set this up themselves.

In the News – December 7, 2012 – [LINK]

Major Brands Love Content Marketing

Forbes published an article illustrating how 5 major brands have confirmed through practical application and use that content marketing is driving traffic and creating successful branding and engaging both current and potential customers. In their examples, they share how Virgin Mobile created an online newsroom that has grown to over 1 million unique views per month. The Head of Brand Marketing says that the online content “deepen(s) engagement” with their consumers. Marriott also created an online content site with “rich content for engaging guests…(which has seen) record traffic and exponential growth in engagement”, according to the VP of Global Marketing. In just weeks after launch of the, in this case, video content on YouTube, their channel has grown from “tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands views..with more than half staying to learn about the brand”. Some of the tips for content creation included in the article share how online content should “focus on existing customers as well as prospects” and that content marketing is not only a “great tool to create brand affinity but can also be powerful in building a new audience of potential customers.”

 

Facebook Promoted Posts

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Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm—the formula used to determine the order content appears in a given newsfeed based on which content is deemed most relevant to that user—may make the Facebook experience more seamless for casual browsers, but it’s a challenge for businesses that harness the social media platform as part of a marketing strategy. After all, thanks to Edgerank, each post on Facebook only makes it onto the newsfeed of about 12-17% of its fans. The fans that do see it are more likely to be those that have already chosen to visit your page, or that regularly interact with your posts. Edgerank’s feedback-loop effect makes it harder than ever to reach and engage consumers that don’t self-select your business’s content.

To counter those daunting odds, Facebook recently introduced a new service allowing business pages with greater than 400 “likes” to pay a fee to promote individual posts. This new feature allows a page owner to select a single post, which could be a status update, photo, video, question, or offer, and pay a premium to increase the reach for that post beyond the circle of fans that are already engaged with your content. Not only that, but promoted posts are supposedly more likely to be seen in the newsfeeds of friends of fans, too.

Promoted posts have a one-time, pre-set budget that remains in place for the life of the post. While setting up a promoted post, you will be asked to choose a budget from a suite of options that includes the post’s estimated reach at each payment level. The promotion can be suspended or stopped at any time regardless of whether your maximum budget has been used. Promoted posts do have some targeting capabilities, including geographical location and language, but these can only be applied to posts that are less than three days old.

Sounds Great—but Do They Work?

I set out to test the promoted posts feature on my blog’s fan page (which has 613 fans) to see how it performed versus a normal, “organic” post. I’d recently created a page on my blog that consists of a dedicated list of available educational events and conferences for automotive dealers. I shared this blog page via a status update on May 23rd, prior to the launch of Promoted Posts. The post performed as expected, reaching roughly 13% of my page’s fans with a marginal viral reach (a measure of how many impressions came from non-fans who encountered the post because a fan of the page shared or interacted with the post).

Keep in mind that my Facebook page isn’t particularly active, nor do I put too much effort into engaging my fans, which limits the reach of posts. I mainly use the page to post blog articles, so I don’t expect high engagement, but these statistics are in line with the average reach reported by others.

On June 2, I decided to test out the new Promoted Posts feature. Upon creating the new post, the only option presented to me was to pay $5 to reach an estimated 300 people.
The post I promoted was essentially the same as the previous one – a status update which included an external link to the same page on my blog. I did no other social media promotion at all for this post and let it run for the full three days.

Here were the results:

As you can see, the post exceeded the estimated paid reach (with 324 rather than 300 paid impressions), and it also reached 1200% more non-fans (13 vs. 164) via viral sharing, substantially increasing exposure to my fans’ social networks. Organic displays also increased by almost double (70 vs. 132). The promoted post didn’t increase engagement but, the post itself wasn’t really designed to encourage engagement. I also didn’t see a noticeable difference in traffic to the external page on my blog, with the average number of daily visitors to that specific page remaining roughly the same.

Two interesting side notes: First, Facebook defines paid results as “the number of people who saw your page post in an Ad or Sponsored Story.” But when signing up for the service, Facebook never mentioned that my promoted post could potentially be displayed via an Ad (on the right of the newsfeed) versus as a Sponsored Story (within the newsfeed itself). In my estimation, Ads constitute weaker exposure than Sponsored Stories, but I have to assume that at least some of the paid exposure for my promoted post came via Ads.

Second, as mentioned previously, I was initially only given the option to reach 300 people for $5. However, when I looked into promoting another post following my initial trial, I was given a second option to reach 700 people for $10, as well. This tells me that Facebook underestimated the results they could deliver.

Are Promoted Posts for You?

As in any form of advertisement, you must have clearly defined goals before spending any money. Here are some questions you should ask yourself before making a decision one way or another regarding promoted posts.

1. How large is your page’s fan base? Keep in mind that the larger your fan base, the more potential reach each promoted post will have, which will result in a higher upfront cost.

2. Are these actual customers, or are they a random assortment of individuals who were collected in an effort to grow the number of fans at all costs? I consider fans to be relevant if they are potential or existing customers who could realistically do business with you—whether that’s via sales, service, or parts—and whose social networks will, in all likelihood, include more relevant people. In the case of dealerships, for example, it does you no good to increase exposure to people outside your PMA, vendors, or anyone else who doesn’t have the ability to spend money with you. Note, however, that the geo-targeting option does allow you to more efficiently reach relevant fans.

3. What is your goal for promoting a particular post? Is it to increase engagement? Increase exposure for an offer or event? Share important information with your fans? Lead people to an external website or conversion page?

In my opinion, promoting a post just for the sake of promoting it is ill-advised. If you have clear goals in mind, you should be able to accurately track whether your money was spent wisely. Did you actually increase engagement, and was that engagement by new people rather than those who already regularly engage with you? Did more people take advantage of your offer? Did you receive more traffic (via Facebook) to the external link you included in your post?

If you’ve built your fan page organically via your website, in-store signage, or via inclusion in other marketing channels, I could see a promoted post helping to jumpstart your page by potentially increasing your fans via increased exposure to THEIR networks. Keep in mind that the majority of the people you will be reaching already like your page so, in my opinion, the greatest potential of Facebook Promoted Posts is in its ability to extend your exposure beyond your fans and into their social networks.

That being said, a well-thought-out promoted post with clearly defined goals has the potential to increase reach and revenues—all at a relatively low cost.

[Article originally published in the June 2012 issue of the 3 Birds Marketing e-newsletter]

Why locking your DMS is not practical

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There is a lot of discussion surrounding TrueCar and how dealers should not use their services and why they are bad for our industry and dealers in specific. I wrote a blog recently titled “In Defense of TrueCar” that many interpreted as my support for their services.

In reality, the main point of my blog post was that everyone is pointing fingers at TrueCar right now saying how evil they are and how they are using a dealer’s data against them, however, nobody is mentioning the fact that, at some point in time, through some avenue, a dealer allowed their customer and financial data to be extracted and used. Dealers need to accept responsibility for this data being available in the first place. No matter how indirect that permission for data use was gained, ultimately, you allowed it.

My opinion of TrueCar is that they are a marketing and lead source for your inventory. I personally liked the pay-per-sale leads vs. the pay-per-lead pricing model. I don’t blame TrueCar for using your data to drive leads to you. There are many companies that use your data, crawl your website or obtain your financial and customer data and use or resell that data and then use it for their own monetary gain. They spend tons of money on SEO to drive consumers to their website where they convert the lead and resell it to you. There was a conversation about this for awhile too. The fact remains is that they spend the money to do it, are better at it than you and dedicate resources to accomplish this. Even OEMs do this and sell the leads to their dealers. If you want to dedicate the budget, time and resources to do this, you can do it also but don’t blame them for doing something you ultimately both aren’t going to and don’t want to do.

One of the suggestions that has been made is to lock everyone out of your DMS. This is really not a practical option. Many website companies do not have the ability to extract inventory data from your DMS so, ultimately, they outsource the data polling to another company whether you know it or not. In most cases, it’s transparent. There were many times when I was with HomeNet Automotive that a dealer had no idea that we were already polling their DMS on behalf of some vendor or another that they were using. In fact, most vendors do not have the ability to directly poll your DMS so unless you use no 3rd party vendors whatsoever, you really can’t lock your DMS. This includes desking software, pricing software, inventory management, etc.

If you lock everyone out of your DMS, you will have no inventory marketing whatsoever, and that includes having your inventory on your website.

Am I saying you shouldn’t be aware of who is getting your data? Not at all. You should know who is getting it, what they’re getting, and, most importantly, what your agreement with them allows them to do with your data.

It is your responsibility to protect your data through aggressive policing and review of your vendor partner contracts. You need your DMS polled to market your inventory and market to your customers (if you use any service to do this), get deals financed, and have any sort of integration with other software you use and your DMS.

When Reynolds and Reynolds took steps to police and protect dealer DMS data, dealers complained that they should have full control over their data and who gets it. Even in the cases of Reynolds implementing stricter and more difficult ways for a non-Reynolds Certified company to poll the DMS, dealers would allow third parties to create and install workarounds to this or they would manually create and upload the reports to their vendors. Now dealers are complaining that the data is being misused and/or used against them. You can’t have it both ways.

Accept responsibility and choose who gets your data, what they get, and what they are allowed to do with it.

Stop pointing fingers at TrueCar.

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