Review Site Archives - DealerRefresh

January 15 by Sean Peoples -

5 Principles to Rock your Online Reputation and Win more Customers

Not long ago I was on the phone with Sean Peoples, VP of Sales for CarGurus. I’ve known Sean for some time now and there’s never a dull moment during our conversations. We got on the topic of online reviews and he was sharing with me some interesting data around customer reviews on CarGurus.com. I asked him to share this data in a post here for our readers. I hope we hear more from Sean in the near future. He’s a smart dude! -Jeff

Who cares what people are saying about you online?

By now, you know the answer: everyone that is shopping for a car on your lot. For dealerships, online reviews offer an opportunity to establish credibility and trust among prospective customers – or they can quickly destroy both when things go wrong.

Our experience with user reviews and online community runs deep (notably, our founder and CEO was the co-founder of travel review site, TripAdvisor). More than 7 million unique monthly visitors research and shop for cars on CarGurus, and we invite each shopper that contacts a dealership through our site to submit a review of his or her experience. More than 250 of these shoppers take the time to do so daily.

Recently we spent some time analyzing 100K of our most recent dealership reviews, and I wanted to share some insights from this study that I believe will be useful to your dealership.

The biggest takeaway from our dealership review research is that the majority of dealerships are nailing it when it comes to customer satisfaction are… [Read more…]

A.I. ain't A.I. in automotive. It is B.S.
If I get another newsletter about how some company is using A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) to solve a problem for a car dealer I'll.... continue to hit the spam button. But I think this image sums up what it really is: View attachment 4177 Mystery solved! And you didn't even... A.I. ain't A.I. in automotive. It […]
Blackhat CarGurus SEO Tactics PPT that Cars.com produced
Blackhat CarGurus SEO Tactics PPT that Cars.com produced https://www.docdroid.net/aQ0Vbn0/blackhat-cg-seo-tactics.pdf
Dealer Policy
Hey Guys, Its been a while since I've posted but I wanted to see if anyone is currently using DealerPolicy in their stores? Apparently its suppose to save customers money on their insurance policy. Looking to get some pros and cons from whoever is using it. And if you are seeing success, how... Dealer Policy
CarGurus - significant drop in traffic?
Had a visit with CarFax and they shared this graphic below, which indicates that recent changes to the Google algorithm has created a huge drop in traffic with CarGurus (competitor A) down to the level of AutoTrader and Cars.com. Source is SEMrush. Not sure how accurate this is - curious as to... CarGurus - significant […]
If You Dropped AutoTrader - Where would you put the Money
Our team has done some deep CRM diving on AutoTrader and lead sources lately. The conclusion is we're canceling AutoTrader, which seems to be a growing trend among most dealers I speak with. In Q3 and Q4, plus Q1 of this year, we have sold a staggering............... 4 vehicles off... If You Dropped AutoTrader - […]
Do you Waze?
Dealer Authority is working on a new solution package that will include Waze advertising, and we wanted to pose a question to the dealer audience: how much do you know about Waze (other than it can get you out of a traffic jam and let you know where the speed traps are)? A DA client... […]
Tesla Reality Check?
So it appears that the government may look to cut off Elon's subsidy cash flow, this will test the business model. http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/13/i...g-taxpayer-dollars-on-elon-musk-and-cronyism/

Jeff Kershner
I’m the founder of DealerRefresh. I got my start in the dealer business when I was 18. From there I've worked throughout several departments within fixed to variable ops. Whether it’s managing the desk, perfecting sales process or studying online marketing and media trends, I absolutely love this business and the challenges it brings. On top of keeping up with DealerRefresh, I consult with dealerships and key industry businesses. My passion has been and continues to be helping dealers leverage new media to sell and improve customer service.
Alex Snyder
2019 marks Alex's 30th year in the car business. In that time he has had a front-row seat for the rise of the Internet and has been working to bring the online and offline dealership experience closer. Whether you knew him from his life at Checkered Flag or his years with Dealer.com/DealerTrack/Cox Alex has remained an opinionated DealerRefresh contributor who enjoys nothing more than to poke at the unsaid truths in our industry. He also helped found FRIKINtech.