DealerRefresh

Obstacles, Observations and Opinions of an Automotive Internet Sales & Marketing Manager

by -

Is Your Service Center Invisible in Google Search?

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 Step-by-Step

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.

Generate More Reviews for Your New Service Center Listing

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.

by -

Training customers to ignore your emails

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 dealer my mind was always focussed on slamming a customer through our process as fast as possible. I was so wrong.

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

by -

“Just OK is not OK”, inspired by the recent AT&T commercials

An “op-ed” piece

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…]

by -

Digital Retailing: Just a New Objection?

A few years ago, tech company managers were sitting around a room, and someone started lamenting about a bad experience they had buying a car… and someone else nodded their head… and by the end of the meeting, they had decided that customers don’t want to buy cars from dealers anymore; customers want to buy cars online.  So — slap a calculator on the website so customers can figure their own payments, and never-mind that the payments are variably “close enough” (accuracy is overrated anyway). Of course… put a credit app online… and customers can already see inventory. PRESTO! Customers can do everything themselves.

And the Digital Retailing industry was born.  And the best thing? DEALERS are going to pay the tab for these customer-facing solutions. One mention by a big company at NADA, and the industry was off to the races…

[Read more…]

by -

The Three Truths About Vehicle Merchandising

Even after years of presenting at different auto conferences and show, I love speaking with dealers and partner clients about the state of the industry and the impact of vehicle merchandising. I learn just as much as I teach.

During a recent presentation, I revealed the three truths that remain constant in the realm of merchandising, while sharing some of the success JD Byrider has by prioritizing and revolutionizing their approach to vehicle merchandising.

Technology is changing

Technology is evolving into a smarter, faster and more convenient resource. Progressive dealerships like JD Byrider are taking advantage of tools that can automate and streamline their merchandising process.

Creating a meaningful connection with car shoppers begins by producing an immersive listing for them to engage with. Techniques like photo backgrounding and 360-degree displays make the vehicle as the focal point of the listing. In fact, 73% of shoppers who browsed or bought/leased thought 360 displays were very important and 80% thought it reflected well on the dealership.

“By integrating with 360 technology, our store operators are able to provide an elevated online experience that will separate them from competitors and enable customers to easily shop our inventory from anywhere on any device,” Marie Lafkiotes, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer of JD Byrider, shared during the presentation. “This is a key component of our digital transformation.”

They also focus on text and their vehicle descriptions. Traditionally they have been a time-consuming part of any merchandising process, but software to automate this detail of a listing is becoming more palatable across the industry. Vehicles with descriptions receive 27% more Vehicle Details Page (VDP) views than those without and are prioritized higher on the Search Results Page (SRP) of listings websites like Autotrader due to relevancy.

Consumer behavior is evolving

Car buyers are changing the way they shop as a direct result of changing technology. Thanks to applications like Uber and Netflix, consumers expect highly personalized experiences that give them exactly what they are looking for with less effort.

Car shoppers continue to spend less time in market, down to 96 days according to the newest Cox Automotive research. They’re shopping in new places, like social media platforms. Successful dealers are seeing tremendous growth in engagement on places like Facebook Marketplace, largely because they are promoting their inventory where shoppers are already spending their time.

Not only that, but shoppers are visiting only one dealership on average. Meaning, if you can provide the content shoppers are seeking and get them to your physical lot, your chances of turning a vehicle increase.

To win, you need to measure

I talk a lot about the importance of proper tracking and measurements to determine success. Track how long it takes to get a vehicle from reconditioning to fully merchandised an online. Can you find ways to reduce this time?

Keep an eye on which images are getting the most views on a listing page and consider focusing on those. If you can’t get a full set of images on a listing right away, try again at a different time in the merchandising process because vehicles with just a single custom photo receive 193% more VDP views than one with a stock image.

Conclusion

Remember, competition is getting fiercer and dealers are getting incrementally better. Adopting simple changes in each of these areas, much like JD Byrider has done, will improve your brand differentiation while supplying the personalized experience shoppers are demanding, setting you up for long-term success.

by -

How to Sell Cars via Facebook – Real Social Selling

How to Sell Cars via Facebook – Real Social Selling

At this very instant, there are vehicle salespeople on Facebook enjoying 25 or more sales a month just by talking about their accomplishments and taking pictures of their lunch. Marketing themselves via Facebook has made a huge difference in their results; and all they’ve had to do is allow a huge intrusion into their lives, give up much of their privacy, and be ready to tell anyone and everyone that they love selling cars.

Welcome to new-school networking.

Social networking, just like old-fashioned networking, can help motivated salespeople deliver stellar results. But, just like old-fashioned networking, this takes work; and you must be proud of what you do and be ready to tell anyone and everyone online that:

  1. I sell cars;
  2. I’m honored to be selling cars; and
  3. I’m your friend in the car business.

When you do this (along with following some basic guidelines that I’ll share throughout this series), you’ll have people showing up at your dealership telling you, “I saw you on Facebook; can you help me buy a car?”

[Read more…]

by -

Stop Trying to Netflix and Chill Your Customers

Maybe I’m not the ideal person to make this analogy. After all, I haven’t been single for almost 20 years. That was before smartphones. Before Google. Before social media. Wifi barely existed. There was no Kindle, we actually read paper books. And Netflix wasn’t even an idea.

Regardless, the phrase “Netflix and chill” has become parlance for a laid-back method of closing the proverbial deal romantically with another. A simple statement uttered to another, letting them know your primary goal, all under the guise of another activity.

Unfortunately, it has become customary to say it at the start of an interaction, rather than toward the end of the evening…

[Read more…]

by -

7 Seismic Shifts Coming to Automotive CRM

We live in a world where new technology swirls around us at a relentless and often dizzying pace, yet as we look closer inside the automotive industry and one particular area – the CRM – the winds are very calm, and the marketplace solutions aren’t keeping pace with innovation outside of the industry. In a nutshell we are operating in an innovation rut for automotive CRM. We believe that we are about to enter a renaissance that will completely reimagine what is possible with an automotive dealership CRM solution, and we have analyzed seven areas to pay especially close attention over the next twelve months.

[Read more…]

by -

RefreshFriday – Sales from Social are a Myth

LIVE Today at 1:00 PM EST

Today (Friday March 29th) marks the last Friday in Women’s History month and we’re closing it down on Social Media.

The stigma that social media doesn’t sell cars is alive and well, but examples that break the stigma are everywhere.

We’re going to explore the history of social for car dealerships, taking advantage of advertising in it, how to engage shoppers, and maybe even some attribution. That’s right, we put social and attribution in the same sentence… and we’re doing it with women. Maybe we’ll toss in some A.I. and Blockchain to raise our trendy corporate consultant viewer count too.

In all seriousness we couldn’t have a women’s month on DealerRefresh without two ladies Jeff and Alex have spent so much time with. Our damn good friends: Christine Plunkett & Erica Sietsma.

Like DealerRefresh on Facebook to watch the show and get notified when we go LIVE.