Ron

Here are some interesting things I read around the blogosphere today… A frusterated USPS worker: We are not a hand holding service or even a true customer service department. We will document your service complaint, we will tell you…

And adding text to the bottom of a page…isn’t that sort of black hatish? Just asking. What I have done in the past was separating the flash content into a XML file so at least the content had a fighting chance to get indexed…(that is if a client wanted flash..)

These automotive web design providers need to embrace web standards..plain and simple. Semantic markup and separating content from style and behavior is the way of the future. And they are not telling us this (us meaning car dealerships) They know that dealer principles want things flying around the screen…so that is what they sell them. And that is poor…poor customer service in my book.

Whoops…..there I go again!!!

As you know, there is a “work around” where they can add text into the bottom of the flash pages. In these early days of SEO*, this solution works fairly well. BUT… when your competitors wake up and hire SEO specialty firms (like mine), your provider will need a full blown makeover to keep your site in the front pages (sniff… sniff… I smell more fees coming).

If you and your mngt. team ever want to become visible in search engines, rest assured that you’re not limited to working with your current web site provider only. Shop around, there are hybrid solutions that can “surround” your main site and point all traffic back to the home site.

G’Luck!
Joe
*Search Engine Optimization

Our website provider (I SO want to publish the name…but wont…its a big one too) never takes care of issues in a timely manner. I usually have to call numerous times and speak to a few different people to get something done. Very frustrating. I have been a web designer / developer for 10+ years prior to becoming an ISM…and I can tell you they flat out lie to us..even their sales reps. (case in point….100% flash driven sites are NOT what customers want…and no…search engines have not truly found a way to index 100% flash sites…grrrrrrrrrrrr) Problem is..they talked upper management into signing ridiculous contracts..so we’re stuck with them…even though we haven’t sold one vehicle to any of the “leads” we get from our site (only 5 leads last month!!!)

Our CRM isn’t much better. Buggy….goes down at least once a week..usually during the busy hours. CS there is horrible…calls get transferred from one department to the next…calls don’t get returned… problems take FOREVER to be fixed. And the same thing…their sales dept talked upper management to sign a multiple year contract.

I hate to think it’s the industry as a whole. But I’m leaning that way. Can you tell im frustrated today??

–>> “I found this company by reviewing one of the best sites on the net (Hummmmmm?) but maybe he paid more for the site/service than I did.” < <--

Email me who you are referring to.

-->> “But enough about them and their VM box only service.” <<–
I hope this is not who I think it is!!

Let me know please.

Our dealership just signed on with a local company here in IL and its been nothing but a joke. I found this company by reviewing one of the best sites on the net (Hummmmmm?) but maybe he paid more for the site/service than I did. I wont give out my site or give out the outstanding site that drove me to this company. But its been nothing but a bunch of lies and patches. They could have told me the truth and I would have managed with it to get what I want. Its a huge let down. I am thankful they have no contracts. But enough about them and their VM box only service.

The industry as a whole is a mess. I come for a very process driven industry and actually did CS for 8 years. Had I preformed like the vendors I use today, I would have been fired. Or my boss for that matter. I have to admit that the size of the company does not matter in this industry. I figured that the larger companies would have had better service, but that has not held true. I can understand the smaller companies trying to make it big, but these larger companies with deeper pockets need to get it together. Come on. The automotive industry is quickly getting with it and IMs are becoming smarter and expecting more. We deserve it and we PAY for it.

Thats just my two cents. Thanks Jeff and the dealerrefresh community for letting me get this off my chest. I cant go to management and say these vendors are a real pain because I’m the one that stuck my neck out to get them in the door. I could lose my job as sad as that is.