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Automotive News Pokes at GM for their Mandates Reputation Management

Jeff Kershner
Posted onJan 23, 2013 at 10:35 PM
Updated onUpdated on Oct 25, 2019 at 7:25 AM

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GM Mandates Reputation Management

Throwing more fuel to the fire – did anyone see the article Automotive News published today?

Automotive News speaks Greg Mays of Greg Mays Chevy in Texas. A few quotes from the article but follow the link below to read more…

Enough mandates, already! – IT micromanaging is unnecessary, costly, Texas GM dealer says

Texas Chevrolet dealer Greg May says he could do without the latest mandate from General Motors to hire a firm to handle his online reputation management.

Like all GM dealerships, Greg May Chevrolet of West, Texas, near Waco, had to select by last week one of three vendors approved by GM.

GM issued the mandate to ensure that all its dealerships solicit customer reviews, post them on the right consumer sites and respond promptly to negative reviews that can hurt both the vehicle brand and the dealership.

Failure to comply puts at risk 20 percent of what GM’s four brands pay quarterly in dealer Standards for Excellence bonuses pegged to vehicle sales, consumer satisfaction and other measures.

“Chevrolet is the only one of my franchises that tells me who I have to do business with,” said May, who also is dealer principal of Honda and Nissan stores in Texas.

Read more the complete article over on Automotive News: http://dlrfr.sh/WnUv9V

This is old news for DealerRefreshers as we’ve been discussing this for several months now. Be sure to speak up over on the forums.

How do you feel about GM mandating Reputation Management services for all their dealers?  

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Jeff Kershner
Founder of DealerRefresh - 20+ Years of dealership Sales, Management, Training, Marketing and Leadership.
J
Just one more thing for the OEMs to get involved with which is so wrong.  If they are doing it right, why would they have to pay someone to help them with it.  I just don't get it.  I hate it when OEMs get involved when they shouldn't be.
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    Nick Sullivan
  • February 6, 2013
I'm one of the internet department managers at my Chevrolet dealership and we already did everything that these reputation managers are offering to do. Most of what they do is automated responses to reviews, updating of social media, and then reporting all of it back to us. Now GM has made us choose between three reputation managers that are suppose to be doing our job. How is it that they're suppose to respond to bad reviews when the have absolutely nothing to do with the dealership's relationship with that customer? I just don't see the benefit in being forced to choose a company that has no relationship with our customer base.  Now with that being said, the dealerships with no internet department or that don't really look over the online reviews of their customers do need something like this to help better how they do business and to grow as a dealership. Customer satisfaction should always be #1 in providing helpful information and dealing with the customers wants and needs.
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