Download your copy of  Social Media Best Practices for Automotive Dealers here.

Adam Boalt / Founder of GOSO  (and a current advertiser here on DealerRefresh) just published an ebook full of best practices for car dealers using or looking to get into social media.

This e-book, Social Media Best Practices for Automotive Dealers, is for the automotive dealer starting out with social media — an entry-level overview if you will. While social media requires a solid amount of effort, time and interest, this short read will equip you with the knowledge you will need to enter the digital social age that is upon our society. In this book, you will learn how to get started, best practices and tips and tricks.

Social Media Benefits and the specifics reviewed in this ebook:

Why specifically should you consider social media? Here are some of the benefits to be gained
by engaging these services:

• Build visibility & authority. Social media allows you to attract and maintain an audience of people who want to interact with you.
• Grow your traffic. Once you have an audience you can drive people to your website.
• Connect with key influencers. In social media the gatekeepers are removed so you can gain direct access to key people.
• Attract prospects. By increasing your visibility and making yourself useful, you can attract prospects and leads.
• Provide customer service. Help solve customer’s problems before they start to complain and cause negative word of mouth.
• Encourage links. Boost your search results by gaining more links to your content.
• Reputation management. Improve your reputation management by creating more results in the search engines and social sites for your brand.
• Create positive brand associations. Boost your brand by helping people see you as a positive member of your community and industry, by creating more trust, and improving your reputation for customer service.
• News & gossip. Get the inside scoop on what is happening.
• Loyalty. Hold the attention and maintain your visibility to customers, contacts and prospects.

Download your copy of  Social Media Best Practices for Automotive Dealers here.

Lately I’ve become very frustrated with dealer’s Internet departments.  It’s not because the people who staff these departments aren’t with it or on their game, quite the contrary.  These people tend to be some of the most progressive, smartest individuals in the dealership.  I think that many of them are the general managers of the future.  What I hate is the department, not the people.  The Internet department implies that every other department of the dealership isn’t the Internet, what a joke.

Specifically, the used car department is most certainly the Internet department.  Too often, used car managers and GM’s don’t take responsibility for the quality of their Internet merchandising because it is the “job of the Internet department”.  This is a serious error.  I’m sorry, but if your name is attached to the used car department’s performance, the quality of your virtual display is your responsibility.  If I hear one more excuse from the used car department that it’s not their fault, I’m going to go postal.

With so many customers using the Internet as a starting point to shop for a vehicle, we need to get better with the quality our responses. I see some of the worst templates you can imagine on a daily basis. Some dealers bombard their customers with e-mail after e-mail. Why not send one e-mail that’s going to do the job and do it right the first time? Quality over quantity is what it’s all about.

I am going to show you how to deliver a powerful first response that will be unlike any other you’ve seen from a dealership. What I am about to show you will take a little practice and effort, but will certainly deliver a more powerful message to your customers.

Let’s go ahead and take a look at a template I’ve written below. Please make sure you activate the link within the template: “VIP video for Jerry Thibeau.” Imagine it was your name in the e-mail; you’d probably click on it. The first thing you’ll notice is that I have loaded this e-mail with key words and phrases that are going to speak the customer’s language. They’ve been placed in red bold so that you can easily spot them.

Jerry,

On behalf of ABC Motors, I would like to thank you for you inquiry on the Chevy Malibu. Not only will your shopping experience be a pleasurable one, but we’ll also provide you with outstanding service after the sale.

In order to save you as much money as possible, I do have a few questions that I would like to ask you:

1. Do you currently own a GM product? Extra incentives may apply if you do.
2. Will you be looking to get top dollar for your trade?
3. Are there any accessories you would like to add to your new Chevy Malibu?

While e-mails are an easy way to communicate, I’ve always found that they lack that personal experience our customers expect when purchasing an automobile. With that said, I’ve made a personal video just for you: VIP Video for Jerry Thibeau

I look forward to speaking with you shortly, what would be the best number for me to reach you?

(Salespersons sig file)

Notice we’re trying to engage the customer in conversation. We will also encourage you to address any questions asked by the customer. This template is one that we would send to an Internet lead with no phone number. If they had a phone number we would suggest picking up the phone and calling your customer; now they become a phone-up. If I couldn’t reach them on the phone, I would simply change the bottom line to read: “I tried calling you at the number you provided, but was unable to reach you. What would be the best number for me to reach you?”

Let’s talk about the VIP video, you’re probably wondering how we made that video and how long did it take to make? Well it was simple and quick. It took about 5 minutes of pre production setup and then a couple of minutes to shoot. I use a product called Jing to create the video and then store it on a site called screencast.com. The best part, it’s all free!

I’ve gone ahead and made a tutorial video on how to create on of these VIP videos for your customers.

How you recruit and hire your dealership Sales, Internet and BDC professionals, sets the performance “tone” for your entire dealership. A few months ago I wrote “Change Please – Who We Hire and How We Hire“. In that article I introduced to you the concept of an effective Employee Life Cycle System (ELCS) – something very few dealers have in place to consistently refer to when recruiting, hiring and managing their employees. An ELCS is a systematic objective process that once implemented will help you to:

1. Attract better qualified job applicants
2. Decrease your recruiting time
3. Conduct more effective interviews
4. Effectively motivate, develop and manage your dealer employees (in less than 2 hours per year per employee!)
5. Decrease the cost of your recruiting
6. Decrease your turnover and the high costs associated with it…….

My four part series will provide you a comprehensive Employee Life Cycle System you can implement in your store immediately. In this first article I will address Recruiting – how to attract qualified sales and customer service professionals to YOUR jobs!

Lets get started!

Recruiting for your Dealership

Consistently recruiting top talent does not depend solely on luck. It takes planning. To “plan” a more effective recruiting campaign there are four key areas that need to be followed to dramatically improve your likelihood of attracting a higher caliber job applicant. These areas are:

Why does buying a vehicle have to be such a disappointment? My last two car shopping experiences have been less than pleasurable.

Three years ago my Acura TL was coming off lease and it was time to start shopping for a new car. Since my previous two vehicles had been Acura’s, I was ready for something different. My experience with Acura had always been top notch, so I guess you could say I was spoiled.

I had the itch for a convertible and decided one Saturday morning to stop by a Ford dealership. I told the salesman who greeted me that I was interested in checking out a GT convertible. He proceeded to walk me outside where he pointed out several on the lot. I informed him I would like to drive one to get a feel for the car and see if it was something I really wanted. We went back inside and he ventured off to the sales tower. When he came back he informed me that they did not have any to drive since the three they had were sold. I told him it didn’t have to be a convertible; a hard top would at least let me get a feel for the car. Back to the sales tower he went, when he returned I was informed the GT’s were sold out as well. I told him, “thanks anyways” and left. Needless to say, I was not happy about that experience.