MyDealer Blog

Pre-launch ‘Beta’ Dealer Sings Praises About ISR App by MyDealerReport

mydealer — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:00:44 +0000

We live in a world where customer satisfaction is everything.

During the recession of 2009, Car Dealers realized first-hand how quickly things can change. The smarter Dealers today realize that we are not out of the woods yet. Shoppers have more tool and information than ever before from online resources. They can compare price, dealer ratings, availability, secure financing and much more, all from the comfort of their home.

The internet can drive or destroy your sales. More so, your “online reputation” can drive or destroy your sales. Sadly most Dealers won’t do enough to protect their online brand until it’s too late.

Being proactive is the answer. Finding out that there is a problem before the customer is able to trash you online is the solution. Having a manager speak to every customer may help, or may not. Some customers feel intimidated or reluctant to be honest will managers, especially if they are the ones they have an issue with. Furthermore, a customer still may trash you online. Frankly even if they love the service this info never makes its way to the web. Positive comments online are vital to off-setting bad
reviews.

Only one company can deliver the right solution. A few months ago I was introduced to Mydealerreport.com. Not only are they a leader in online Dealer reviews, they offer the most cutting edge technology. More specifically, in-store mobile reviews.

Using a QR code, smart phone or tablet, my customers’ rate the quality of service they receive in-store in real time. If there is an issue I am alerted so I can take immediate action while the customer is still in my showroom. If the review is excellent then no action is needed and the happy review is posted to the web for all to see. It’s quick, it’s easy and my customers understand that we are committed to making them happy.

Chris Justice

Chris is the General Sales Manager of Classic Suzuki of Birmingham. With over 19 years’ experience in the Automobile business he now leads the number one Suzuki Dealership in the Southeast. You can find out more about him at youtube.com/kingofcredit and follow him at justchris101.com

Could QR Codes be the New Comment Card?

mydealer — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:39:21 +0000

We discovered a great article about QR Codes replacing traditional comment cards and we have provided a link at the bottom of this post. QR Codes are now becoming a great tool for what the retail industry is calling ’At the Point of Experience’ feedback. Using a comment card or telling customers to go to a website are less productive than using mobile technology. Retailers are seeking ways to engage with their customers at the point of experience through the use of mobile technology, in order to receive instant feedback.

Most auto customers are asked to provided feedback after they leave the dealership. However there is a flaw with this method. Once the customer leaves your dealership, you no longer control the environment. If they had a problem or issue with your dealership, you are now toast, because they have told the world about their problem (Yelp, Google etc.). But if you capture instant feedback at the point of experience, you can instantly solve the problem. Therefore, preventing their desire to destroy your reputation.

And this leads us to our self promoting statement below:

* If you are dealer and want to participate in the pre-launching of our ISR ‘In Store Review’ Mobile Web App contact us at info@mydealerreport.com

As promised here is a link to the above mentioned article for you to read http://hospitalitytechnology.edgl.com/columns/Could-QR-Codes-be-the-New-Comment-Card-77336

3rd Party Reputation Management Vendors Can Hurt Dealers’ Rep

mydealer — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:55:46 +0000

We reccently caught an article on FoxNews.com about the harsh reality of depending solely on a 3rd party vendor to manage your online reputation. It is a must read therefore we are providing a link for you: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/20/google-cide-online-reputation-managers-can-wipe-from-web/ .

Remember we offer free monitoring tools: alerts and reporting for car dealerships, just send us an email to set it up: info@mydealerreport.com

ISR ‘In-Store Review Mobile Web App’ Beta Going Great

mydealer — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:52:11 +0000

We have been beta testing our new ISR ‘In-Store Review Mobile Web App’ with hand selected dealerships for the past week. The feedback has be great thus far. As with any beta testing you learn things you can do better. Our first concern was the acceptance of our app by customers. The second concern was ease of usage. Well I am proud to say we have passed the first two concerns within the first week. However, we have been taking a lot of notes on the proper way to implement the use of this new technology within the dealership sales and service process. Our beta testing dealers have also raised a few concerns:

1. Customer email data collection. (We don’t sell your customers’ email information)

2. Best scanning apps for QR codes. (We use ScanLife and Recommend it)

3. Non scanning capable customers. (Use a tablet or manually enter the associated url link)

4. What about customer who prefer to review us at home. (You can still use the associated url link in an email)

Check back for more updates on our progress with beta testing our ISR Mobile Web App. Our launch date will be coming soon so lookout for an announcement.

Our New Developments Embrace Mobile Change

mydealer — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:45:13 +0000

Hello folks we have been a little silent over the past year in regards to promoting our site. Well the silence has now been broken with our soon to be released social and mobile products for dealership ratings and reviews.

We have been watching the space over the past year while still collecting thousands of reviews from consumers. Now we believe the time has come to help dealers and consumers alike to engage with each other through the use of the mobile technology. Like many of our counterparts we found ourselves stuck in the Web2.0 era with an outdated process. It might take us some time to shred the old technology for the new technology, but we are start off with a bang.

We will be releasing a process for dealerships to collect in-store reviews from their customers. The auto industry has advanced beyond the traditional website onto mobile technology. And MyDealerReport plans on helping dealers to capitalize on this technology. So tune in and watch the show.

One Site Dominance Doesn’t Trump the Internet

mydealer — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:21:06 +0000

MyDealerReport, Yelp, Insiderpages, JudysBook, CarDealerCheck, Dealerrater, Edmunds, Google Places, Yahoo Local, CitySearch and etc, all control your online dealer reputation. The question most dealers have been asking themselves is “Which one of these sites are the most important?”. Well the answer is all of them are equally important, now that Google Places has started to aggregate reviews from across the Internet. Also each of these sites draw their own audience which makes it even more crucial to manage them all.

Having a relationship with 1 or 2 of these sites only makes you favorable to a small population on the Internet. So what, you have good ratings on MyDealerReport or Dealerrater, what happens when users slam you on Yelp or Insiderpages? Here at MyDealerReport.com we had to be honest with ourselves. Are we being truthful with our dealer partners if we tell them that building up 40 – 300 ratings on our site will manage their reputation? No! In fact we are now telling our dealer partners that they need to be concern equally with all online review sites. Believe me this was a hard pill for us to swallow, because we would like to think of ourselves as the only review site that matters.

If a dealership is 1 review site heavy when collecting reviews they will be betting that user (consumers) will not post reviews anywhere else on the Internet and these odds are worst than Roulette. Look at the Google Places screen shot below (Click to Enlarge):

Click to enlarge

If there is a review posted on any of the above sites mentioned, it will be displayed on Google Places. Having 1 site domination will not remove the other sites from the equation. Unfortunately, no one review site can now claim to be the only show in town. And unfortunately for dealers they have to manage their reputation across all of these sites. It is nice to have a great looking Facebook page and a twitter account, but it doesn’t erase your bad reviews or guarantee positive ones either.

The great thing is most of these sites allow you to communicate and respond to user reviews for FREE. Sites like MyDealerReport.com, Yelp, Insiderpages, CitySearch, Yahoo Local, Googel Place and CarDealerCheck. So don’t let any of us fool you in to thinking that our one site is bigger than the Internet.

Yeah we can brag how we dominate on Google Places by showing you the following screen shot (Click to Enlarge):

Click to Enlarge

However, we would be snowing you by saying this is how all of the Google Places will appear if you use MyDealerReport.com. Therefore, don’t be fooled by screen shots, be smart and cover your *** before you get shoot.

Sometimes We Need Laughter

mydealer — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 22:26:58 +0000

Here is a really funny video:

The Word “Free” Hurts!

mydealer — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:18:37 +0000

Our site offers car dealers a free choice in managing their dealer rating account. However, everyone is not pleased with our opinion that this type of service should be free. Read the passionate and aggressive response we received because we support a free only model:

(Originally post on AutomotiveDigitialMarketing.com)

Comment by Brian Pasch 1 hour ago

@John
I love your passion and it is refreshing to see how much you want MyDealerReport.com to be successful. What I have learned from breaking into the business years ago is that building your business by putting down your competitors is shaky ground and diminishing to your product.

When you use the word Rip-Off it gets people upset especially when they are using those fees to travel to dealers and coach them how to create a positive process for collecting and marketing reviews. Since I have seen the evolution of the review market, let me add some clarity here:

1. You avoid calling out any company but let’s assume that the biggest player in the paid review space is DealerRater.com.

2. In the beginning, Chip utilized SEO to have DealerRater.com’s website appear on Page One for the dealers name. This was brilliant and it introduced consumers that they could have voice online.

3. In the beginning, some people used the same words that you used in your post, “extortion“, but in all honesty this was not much different than a consumer posting a negative blog post on any website. The beauty was that Chip was an early SEO Jedi and made sure that the review was seen. No one seems to want to give Chip credit that he was able to get his project national visibility. Also keep in mind that DealerRater.com was one of the first companies to have their reviews rolled up in Google Maps which also lends authority to the website.

4. It wasn’t until the business model matured that the DealerRater.com Certified Dealer model came out and I thought that was brilliant as well. It gave dealers an option to resolve matters, for a fee, but also gave them the tools and training to implement positive review management processes. Dealers on their own are notoriously lazy about getting reviews online. DR really was the pioneer in forcing dealers to wake up to the power of the consumer online. The review business has costs and it was reasonable to turn this website into a full service business.

5. Today, DealerRater.com is providing a valuable service to dealers who use DealerRater.com tools and those that choose NOT to pay, don’t have the opportunity to leverage these managed services. The dealers that leverage DR’s training have seen amazing benefits that exceed the fees they pay.

6. Keep in mind that your service is free but in no way are you able to guarantee that the content dealers post on your site will always be there. At anytime in the future you can decide to stop donating your time on this site or turn the site into a cash cow by advertising ads. As soon as increased advertising goes up on the site to fund its support we have another problem. Why would a dealer send their customers to a site that has ads that may distract them for another purpose? (Think Edmunds.com Reviews)

7. If you think DealerRater is the devil, then you can say the same for Google. Anyone can run an Adwords campaign that diverts leads from a car dealer’s website. The ad can run RIGHT OVER TOP of the dealer’s organic listing and Google will not stop them. Unless the dealer PAYS Google to run their own campaign, the dealer is screwed. Google’s defense is just don’t use our search engine. In the same sense, Chip built this model and the awareness in the industry on his own dime and then turned it into a respectable business that offers dealers services, training and support. The fee is ridiculously inexpensive for the visibility of his site.

That said, I like free review sites as well and I am very fond of the PrestoReviews model that actually builds custom review sites that help increase POD Score and also give dealers stream-able content for their blogs, websites, etc. PrestoReviews is like TK Carsites Power of 5 for reviews.

I also like the fact that MyDealerReport is being rolled up into Google Maps and that’s great for dealers as well. So if reviews are important, dealers can go with established leaders and also utilize your free service. To encourage dealers to leave DealerRater.com is a bold move when your website is still in virtual “diapers”

The one wildcard to keep in mind that IF Google decides to stop rolling up 3rd party vendors reviews on Google Maps, and only show those that are directly posted to Maps, you might be in a pickle.

DealerRater.com who has the best SEO model and the longest aging in the index would continue to dominate organic search. I perform hundreds of searches a month on Dealer Name’s and DealerRater has significant visibility today on Page One over MyDealerReport. My estimate is that if ANY review site shows on Page One for a dealer’s name, DealerRater will be their 900% more than your site today.

As PrestoReviews rolls out more localized review websites that have URL’s that include the car dealers name, they would have more traffic based on the fact that a car dealers name is the #1 organic search phrase that consumers use to get to a dealer’s website.

In conclusion, to imply to dealers that they don’t need to use a paid review management provider is just ill-advised and self serving. I see the value in DealerRater.com and their $200 a month fee. I love the SEO power of locally optimized review sites from PrestoReviews. Dealers need more website assets to protect their brand.

An finally, since MyDealerReport is a well design site that is being rolled up into Google Maps, dealers should get their profile updated and get some reviews on their as well.

It’s all about balance. Dropping a bag of shit on others competitors when your project is in its infancy is small thinking. Your project deserves better marketing.

Paying For Dealer Ratings Is A RIP-OFF!

mydealer — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:02:59 +0000

Let me get straight to the point and list the ways paying for dealer ratings is a rip-off:

1. Feeding the Beast: why would you pay a site to collect ratings on your dealership, shouldn’t they be paying you for the content?

2. Committing Suicide: why would you send your customers to a site that forces you to pay them? The more you send your customers to these sites the more of your content the site owns. And they charge you to manage your content, lol.

3. Fools Gold: you are building traffic and credibility for sites that force you to pay to play. Giving them your customers builds their traffic and then they use the stats to entice you. Who is fooling who?

4. Domestic Abuse: if you don’t pay to play with these sites, they punish you. This is called old fashion Extortion and/or a shake down. They use your competition against you (FEAR).

Okay what is the solution? You know I have a solution. And the solution is FREE! To manage your dealer rating account should be Free. The same above can be said for a free system, except there is no payment involved. Feed the free Beast, create free Gold, save your Life and stop Abuse. When you invest into a Free system their is no threat of not paying to play. When you do a deal with the DEVIL you never win, you just get burned.

www.MyDealerReport.com - your Free alternative….

MyDealerReport.com’s Manifesto

mydealer — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:55:43 +0000

"Who is coming with me?"

Why do we matter? And why should you even care? And what difference do we make? Here is our manifesto…

1. Purpose: To enhance and create an ecosystem for auto consumers and dealers to interact. This system is built around online dealer reputation, therefore building trust among shoppers.

2. Quality: Access to our site is totally FREE for both the consumer and dealer. The word “FREE” doesn’t mean cheap. We are still providing the greatest quality content, features and customer service. The intelligence we deliver to dealers to better manage their online reputation is unmatched.

3. Dealer Partnership: We do not have Dealer Clients, we have Dealer Partners. Our site is based on the concept of FREE, therefore we are removing the term “Client” from our vocabulary. Dealers who chose to partner with MyDealerReport.com are investing their most valuable asset, themselves. Dealer inclusion is not based on monetary compensation to MyDealerReport.com, rather exercising their right to be included.

4. Industry Partnership: We will reach out to any auto industry contacts which have a vested interest in the successful outcome of a dealer’s future.

5. Ultimate Result: Increase adaption and traction, therefore accelerating the control and management of online dealer reputation. When dealers feed into this ecosystem they are investing in the growth of the system which includes any participant free of charge. Each rating collected and/or resolved increases the overall industry’s reputation liquidity.

6. Challenge: Drink the “Cool Aid”. Feed into the ecosystem. Get involved. Fill out your profiles, utilize the free tools and features. Send your customers to MyDealerReport.com to build up your ratings. Invest your resources into a FREE system, not a paid system.

Now the question is “Who is coming with us?”.