Obstacles, Observations and Opinions of an Automotive Internet Sales & Marketing Manager
I am trying to find a lead validation service that could integrate with our CRM (Dealersocket).
Something that will let our internet agents know right away if the phone numbers and emails are valid or fake, so they can prioritize the real leads.
So far all I can find are not industry specific and can’t integrate with our CRM (usually work with SalesForce).
Is anyone using this kind of service?
If you are a rep for a company that can provide this, feel free to comment over in the dealer forums…
Whether they’re looking for new shoes or a new SUV, 87% of shoppers begin product searches on digital channels. As this number increases each year, it’s no wonder everyone seems to be forecasting the day when the process for buying a car moves completely online, merging automotive and ecommerce.
While there will likely come a day when it’s the norm to buy a car online, I think we’re missing the point if we think the only thing the auto industry can learn from ecommerce is how to stock the digital lot.
[Read more…]Auto service centers thrive on Google Search, typically ranking for dozens of local search terms like “oil change near me,” “service center open now,” and “best mechanic in Tallahassee.” However, if you only have one listing for both your service center and your showroom you could be missing out on free traffic from Google. Luckily, Google allows one-location businesses like yours to split listings, so you can optimize for these distinct searches.
Read on to discover how to separate Google My Business listings so you can win the local SEO battle for your sales team and your service center.
Updating your Google My Business listing to include your dealership and service center separately is as simple as starting a new Google My Business listing. Just follow these simple steps.
1. Go to Google My Business
Visit the Google My Business homepage. This acts as your main portal to any and all Google My Business resources.
2. Click “Manage now” or “Sign in” for new users
If you already have a Google My Business account, simply login. If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to create one. To do so, click “Sign In.”
Once you have a dealership listing set up, click “Manage now” to start working on your service center listing.
3. Search to see if your service center is already listed separately
Even if you didn’t start the listing, it’s possible that Google already lists your service center on Google My Business. To check, just type the name of your service center into the Google My Business search feature.
4. If your service center is listed, select it
To prevent duplicate listings of your service center, if a listing already exists, your best bet is to claim it. To do so, just follow the prompts. If someone else has already claimed your service center, you can also report a problem or request access.
5. If your service center isn’t listed, click “add your business”
Google My Business will prompt you to enter relevant information. Just follow the prompts to give your service center its own Google My Business listing.
6. Accurately enter your service center information
As you follow Google My Business’s prompts, be careful to enter the correct information for your service center, including accurate hours and location. Accurate information makes your business look more professional and empowers customers.
7. Pay careful attention to phone number
While it is important to provide accurate information throughout your listing, the phone number is particularly important. A phone number for your service center is one of the main factors that establish it as a separate entity from your dealership, so be sure to double-check it.
8. Verify your business
To verify your business, Google will send a postcard to the address you provided. Once you receive the postcard, input the verification code on the card within 30 days to finish setting up the listing for your service center.
In some cases, Google may also allow you to verify by receiving a pin through text or email. This is definitely the quicker option.
9. Add, edit, and update information
Users can edit your information, so it is important to check back often to make sure all the information on your service center is accurate and up to date.
To make your listing even more appealing, add photos and provide new information so that customers can see what your service center is up to.
Once you’ve set up a new listing for your service center, you’ll need to attract some reviews to get the ball rolling. Here are a few easy ways to solicit more reviews.
Ask clients for reviews
Whenever a customer comes in for service, have a friendly employee ask if they’d leave a review on Google. It’s simple, but it can make a huge impact.
Send out review invitations
Podium makes it easy to send out review invitations. Time spent and the clunky submission process are two of the main hindrances that stop your customers from leaving a positive review. Automate and simplify the review process to save time for both your employees and customers.
Make the reviews link easy to find on your website
Sharing the link to your Google My Business listing on your website can provide another option to make it easy for customers to leave reviews.
Include the link in your email signature
Placing a link to your Google My Business listing in your email signature gently reminds customers to leave their review whenever you reply to questions or send out reminders. This gives them yet another opportunity to share their experiences and feedback.
Reply to reviews
Replying to reviews shows customers that you care, which could encourage even more customers to leave reviews. This is especially important for negative reviews, which can often be turned into a positive review with a little attention from your staff.
Maintaining separate Google My Business listings for your dealership and service center can improve your visibility and provide your customers with the accurate, comprehensive information they’re looking for. So what are you waiting for? Split your listing today.
It’s safe to say that no dealership wants to spend money on a digital marketing service without knowing that service is helping them sell more cars, right?
For dealers using digital marketing vendors: How would you describe your account management experiences with your digital marketing vendor? For example, how often do you have meetings with your account rep? Do you walk away from those meetings feeling like you’ve learned something new or understand how your digital marketing is helping your dealer sell more vehicles? What types of metrics are you interested in seeing vs. what you’re being shown?
Vendors: How often do you meet with your dealer clients? What are some of the struggles you face when trying to meet with dealers and how do you overcome them?
Let me know your thoughts! I’d love to hear them!
If you ask your Internet leads for a phone number before answering their question or providing a price, you’re doing it wrong. And how many damn times do you need to be told this 101 crap?
That’s my summation on this article. If your initial email response is to provide a price with other vehicle options you can stop reading now because you’re doing it right.
For the other 99.99999% of dealers hang on my every word.
Read a few of your BDC’s, your Internet manager’s, and your sales agents’ outbound emails. If it doesn’t make you puke then you’re not thinking about things like a consumer. I know, I’ve been guilty of doing that too.
Having been born into a dealership, I couldn’t appreciate the world of a customer until I became one. As a
I am in the market for 2 used cars. My wife has been hunting and I’ve been contacting the dealers with the cars she likes. We are over 30 leads submitted and only 1 dealer has responded answering the comments I left in the lead form.
Questions I am asking:
“What airport should I fly into to pick this car up?”
“Can I see another photo of the rear passenger side seat?”
“Can you cut me a break on this one and stock #XYX234 too?”
Sure, these aren’t your typical “is this your best price” question a lead asks, but they’re answerable questions without having to touch the desk.
Our hunt has taken us all over the country so the issue is nationwide, and not limited to no-name dealers the rest of us don’t know. I can only assume this is happening a lot.
Oh yeah, I have received 5 billion auto responders telling me how great the dealership is and another 2 million emails asking for my phone number. My mental reply to those 2 million phone number asks is “go F— yourself, you’re out.”
If you can’t bother to answer my question via email, I can’t bother to give you hounding privileges to my phone.
My story aside, customers have been trained to make a purchase online. That doesn’t mean they are expecting some digital retailing nonsense. It means they’re accustomed to getting all the purchase-decision-making information online. In the car business that is done through your website and a digital conversation with someone at the store.
When your digital conversation starts with a request to move the conversation to a different medium, the customer didn’t contact you through, you’re telling the customer you are going to push them through your meat grinder process. Put nicer, you are training your customers to not respond to your emails.
If your email response rate is low, it ain’t due to an email deliverability problem at your CRM.
Share your story or comments over in the forums – https://dlrfr.sh/2MNhAXV
One of the (very) few things I learned as a product manager for an Agile software development tech company was how to write “stories.”
Product ideas start in the backlog with a simple story; the “simple” part was what caught my attention (by necessity 
). I enjoyed thinking and starting the conversation along these terms:
“As a……. I want…… so that…..”
My entire background was retail operations and marketing. Since I was fortuitously hired to help construct software to aide retail operations and marketing, it was easy for me to construct these stories.
As a desk manger, I want an accurate calculator, so that I can trust the numbers I present to customers.
As a general manager, I want a suite of solutions that compliment each other, so that I don’t have to pay 6 vendors and their overlapping overhead.
As a salesperson, I want to enter a VIN only once, so that I don’t have to spend half the day typing random digits.
You get the idea, right?
PLEASE, take your turn as a Product Manager in the vast automotive tech space, and describe what you want for Digital Retailing.
WAIT… actually… don’t limit to Digital Retailing, since it’s obvious that there is no consensus on what actually constitutes DR, beyond the BS Buzzword it is….
As a….. I want……. so that……
Have fun, and fill in the blanks!!
Hey everyone,
I am trying to determine how I should be getting paid or what I should be getting paid. I am in the process of completing my E-Marketing and Design degree.The store I am at currently has about 350 new and used.
Currently I handle:
I am making a few dollars over minimum wage. I have no idea if that is decent pay for what I am doing and if there is room for growth with this position.
Any insight is appreciated…
Hi everyone! If it isn’t obvious from my Dealer Refresh title, this is my first post in the forums. I’m thrilled to join you all and be a part of this community!
Now, I wanted to ask this question here because I’d like to get feedback from those of you handling facebook advertising for your dealership. But, anyone is free to chime in. The more the merrier.
That said, what Facebook ad format do YOU see the most success with? Are you using Domain Ads, Multi-Product Ads (Carousel Ads), Offer Ads, Video Ads, Lead Ads, Canvas/Instant Experiences and/or Sponsored Mentions?
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/IiKe/at-and-t-wireless-ok-movers
As the infamous vendor in the automotive space struggling with the balance of bringing bold innovation while also staying relevant for dealerships, this commercial resonated with me (seriously, watch it). Dealerships have good processes in place– you invest in SEM with an agency, you have a working website (most of the time), and you probably do some kind of training for your sales team to keep them up-to-date with the latest strategies on how to sell to women or how to negotiate a pre-owned deal. You probably get some kind of report that tells you how you’re performing– conversions, CPC, website health metrics, and, of course, how many cars you sold from your current vendors. Sometimes even down to the VIN. You get the drill.
But what happens when there’s a new technology — or revolutionary innovation — in the space that may replace something that’s been working for you for years?
[Read more…]I’m having trouble deciphering data, and want opinions.
Our web site traffic ytd for year-over-year numbers for three stores is UP 12%, 19%, and 50% respectively but for each store the total lead submissions are DOWN. In the case of the 19% increase the submission rate is down 31%. This means that the total visits ytd are up nearly 6500 and the form submissions are DOWN by nearly 200. These aren’t small Kia, Mitsubishi or Mini stores, but major Japanese brands at decent-sized locations.
Anyone have any ideas? Could it be some sort of bot is being used to inflate the visit numbers? If so, how could you tell? The traffic is showing as excellent but the total page visits are way down, the time on site is way down, the form submissions are way down, and the numbers just don’t make any sense. The sites have added features compared to last year so time on site should be up, not down, and same with page views. How can you recognize bogus traffic? Is there a way? By the way, it’s matched analytics with the same providers, year-over-year, so it’s good comparative data.
Any help would be appreciated.
