I Felt like posting this. I know we ISM’s get these emails requests all the time. I usually laugh at them and move on if I can’t get the customer on the phone (in this case).

Now and then I "might" take a stab at them but it’s rare. Keep in mind I’m not a high volume dealer, I’m located in a smaller town right out side of several big dog dealers. This is a HOT just released vehicle AND this customer is not in my market.

How do you guys handle these requests? And be real!!

Original Lead (using John Doe rather the customers actual name)

PROSPECT INFORMATION
First Name: John
Last Name: Doe
Email: johndoe@yahoo.com
Day Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
VEHICLE WANTED INFORMATION
Year: 2008
Make: Mercedes-Benz
Model: C350 Sport Sedan
CUSTOMER COMMENT INFORMATION

Comments: I am Interested in C-350:2008 Model. These are my specification. M.S.R.P.* $37,275 Exterior Color (Metallic paint is optional, resulting in an additional price of $710) Obsidian Black Metallic $710 Interior Color Black Leather1 $1,550 Wood Trims Black Birdseye Maple $0 Options Tele Aid Security and Communications System $650 Packages Multimedia Package $2,950 Gas Guzzler Tax $0 Total $43,135 Please provide me with your best price quote. No Language Preference selected. Address provided is invalid.

Their response to my auto-response

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the prompt response. I am interested in buying the new 2008 C350 with the specification that I have requested. I am waiting for the best price quote that you can offer. Please feel free to contact me at this account, or my cell.

Thank you

My response

John Doe,

I have to ask, how much of a discount are you looking for? These are are flying off the shelves and most people are not even asking for a discount.

-Jeff

Their response

Jeff

Thank you for replying back. Just do the best you can. While I requested quote from the website, I also sent it 3 other dealers. I’m waiting for their quotes. You can exclude the security aid that I had added.

John Doe

Mine

Dear John Doe,

No thanks. I have no need to get into a bidding war with other dealers. I’m sure you understand.

Good luck with your purchase. I know you will love the new C-Class.

-Jeff

I guess the consumer feels as if they are going to get their best deal this way. Who knows, they might. I’m sure one of those dealers will whore out a car that we should be allowed to make some money on (at least for 3-4 months).

How do you guys handle these requests? Be real!!

Car dealers are usually a year or two behind the internet trends. Some companies are taking advantage of that fact.

Doing search engine optimization for auto dealers is difficult, as the market is extremely competitive. Selling search engine optimization to car dealers makes doing the SEO seem like childsplay.

Since the beginning of the world wide web, the automotive industry, car dealers in particular, have been a year or two behind the trends. Whether it is their reluctance to let go of the “glory days” in the 80′s and early 90′s or simply a lack of time to devote to understanding the technology, car dealers seem to be the last to know when it comes to the internet.

This creates problems for those selling SEO services. There are so many companies out there who are selling services that are not adequate to use against the highly-competitive world of automotive marketing. Here are some “smoke and mirrors” tactics that are currently being used to get dealers to sign on the dotted line for “snake-oil SEO”:

Myth #1: Thousand of Indexed Pages are Necessary

It has become a catch-phrase for website providers who create separate pages for each individual car.

The Pitch: “Search engines read web pages like we read books. They give more weight to websites with thousands of pages than they give to websites with dozens of pages.”

The Truth: In many industries, having thousands of pages available for “long tail searches” (covered later) for individual items is a good thing. People look for “round blue widgets in ireland” and having a page for that is good. People do not search for individual cars, which leads to the next myth…

Myth #2: People search for individual cars or by VIN

The Pitch: “Pick a car from one of our dealers. If you type in the VIN (vehicle identification number) you will see a ton of listings to the website. Competitors don’t list their vehicles like this.”

The Truth: In the automotive industry, people wanting a new or used car will search for “minneapolis toyota” or “used cars oklahoma city”. They do not search for “used toyota camry in minneapolis”. According to Overture, here are the searches from January:

“used toyota camry minneapolis” – 28
“toyota minneapolis” – 32,430

Real humans search for dealers. They do not search for individual cars. They do not search by VIN. They do not search by model year unless they are looking for reviews. The search for dealers when they are ready to buy a car.

Myth #3: SEM Certification Means Better SEO

When I first heard of this, I was appalled. Some providers use their Google Certified Reseller and their Yahoo! Ambassador badges as indications of their search engine optimization prowess. This couldn’t be seen as anything other than a lie.

These certifications are nice, as they mean that someone at the company took the time to learn what Google and Yahoo! wanted to teach about their Pay-Per-Click, sponsored results programs. They have no SEO benefits. There was a company that promoted their “inside track” to search engine optimization using these badges in a press release.

Yahoo! certification costs $50. Google requires a certain spend on Adwords. They both have eBooks and tests that are required. They have NOTHING to do with search engine optimization for natural listings. Sadly, most dealers do not research what the programs are really about.

Myth #4: Flash Websites cannot be optimized

The Pitch: “Our templates are completely HTML. They don’t look as good, but the search engines prefer no flash.”

The Truth: There are ways to allow the search engines to read flash. Even more importantly, most automotive websites that are built with flash technology are built with enough HTML content to give the search engines all that they need.

* * *

There are so many more tactics used on car dealers, but this is a good start. In today’s ultra-competitive automotive marketplace, it is so important for dealers to look at examples and to check more websites than the few that the SEO companies provide.

A company with 5,000 websites is bound to have a few that were optimized. It’s in checking some of the other 4,995 that car dealers can keep from falling for the smoke and mirrors.

Guest Posting by J.D. Rucker
J.D. is an automotive search engine optimization specialist
Original Post on PromotionWorld

Why is it so hard to come by good customer service in the automotive vendor industry?

Let’s start of with what I consider to be good customer service from a vendor in the B2B sector of the automotive dealer industry.

1. Don’t over promise and under deliver.
   I find this to be a huge problem in this industry. From dealer website providers to CRM/ILM companies, they all say “YES, we can do that”, only to find out when you have the system installed and running, nothing works the way they promised. Once they have your money and a signed contract you just a number.
2. Answer your phone.
   There’s nothing more irritating then having a quick question or a minor issue for tech support and having to wait on hold forever. Then after waiting forever, you receive a voicemail that tells you to leave a message and your contact information and someone from support will contact you back. Then you never hear back from them.
3. Have skilled tech support highly trained and familiar with your product.
   I get so sick and tired of dealing with tech support representatives that know nothing about their own product. It’s even worse when I know more then they do. Don’t get me wrong, some issues are deep rooted and I would never expect a level 1 tech support to fix a major issue but if you have to get with a manager for every little issue and to ask simple questions then this representative needs to go back into training before answering the phone as a tech support representative.
4. Call me BACK!!
   If I call in an issue and you can’t fix it right away, provide me with a ticket number and CALL ME BACK when you have it fixed. Matter of fact, call me back even if you don’t have it fixed and keep me in the loop with the progress.
5. Check in and see how I’m coming along and what kind of progress I’m making.
   Here is where just about every vendor I have ever dealt with over the last 8 years in this business FAILS. I can’t recall ever having a vendor call me at least once a month to review performance, issues, or just talk about the product and how I’m getting along with it.
6. Be open!
   Especially if you’re a CRM or Desking software vendor, why would you not have tech support open on Saturdays? It’s the busiest day of the week usually and when an issue occurs, it’s imperative to have it corrected right away.

This has to be the only industry that allows below average customer support to exist. I don’t get it really, why do dealer continue to sign these long term contracts for sub par products and poor customer service? If a dealer would show the same lack of support to their customers that most vendors do to the dealer, we would sell a lot less cars.

Those are my 6 steps for better customer service. If you have others and would like to share, please do so (lets keep this posting clear of vendors and allow only dealers to comment. Thanks!).

• GenY says no to text message advertisements – A recent poll conducted my Maritz Research revealed that almost two out of three GenX respondents (65%) said they were “unlikely to or would definitely not subscribe” to offers solicited via cell phone text messaging.

• Lillie Guyer over at WardsAuto.com wrote and article “Calling All Customers” while giving DealerRefresh a nice little plug. Thanks Lillie!!

• Another interesting article “How to Sell Cars to YouTube Generation” on Wardsauto.com though not too detailed but touches on the subject we have been dicussing here “Do videos really help sell cars?“

The dealer was going to shut down their autotrader and cars.com accounts.

The best part of running DealerRefresh is that I hear from and get to met so many interesting people. From newbie ISM’s to veterans getting back into the business and taking over a dealers Internet Department. Sometimes keeping up with all the emails is like a part-time job!

Last week I received an email from Paul Rushing. He has returned to the car business after a 9 year absence and was given to the opportunity to take over an internet marketing for a Chrysler Dodge and Hyundai dealer.

He had a question for DealerRefresh readers..

“Paul Rushing here in Brunswick, GA.  I have returned to the car business after a nine year absence.  I was given to the opportunity to take over the internet marketing for this store.

The dealer was going to shut down their autotrader and cars.com accounts and rely on the poorly designed Reynolds sites. The dealer was very negative about internet marketing and had a manager that was sharing a dual responsibility of internet marketing and as the Hyundai manager.

I took over the role of ISM and receive all leads from our sites and AT and Cars.com as well as the number on the sites are forwarded to my cell. I am paid as a salesperson.

I am an experienced online marketer selling affiliate products and generating leads for merchants. Applying those skill sets to marketing cars online is not an issue.  However generating support for new ideas is. The dealer principal is a die hard old used car guy. The answer I receive from his maximize what you have then we can open up further negotiations.

We have the minimal AT package however the most leads are generated from them. My suggestion is to kill cars.com and use that money to enhance our AT package. Is this advisable?