Joe average family is getting ready for a big car trip. To decide where to eat while on the road, the family checks Yelp. To pick a hotel, they search listings on Trip Advisor. And to get their car ready for the journey, they once again go online, this time to seek out the best place for service work. This experience is becoming typical as more people turn to the Internet when choosing a vehicle service provider. Not only are service ratings and reviews here now, their influence is staggering. New, just released DriverSide research reveals staggering information: - Almost nine in ten (89%) car owners would consider using online ratings and reviews when figuring out where to take their car for service. - Additionally, 92% of this group admits that reviews are likely to influence their ultimate decision. Vehicle service department reviews can easily be found on sites like Angie's List, Super Pages, Yelp, Edmunds.com, and a host of others, which are often picked up by Google, Bing, an...

You read the newsletters, go to the conferences and are thoroughly convinced that social media is the answer to slow sales, low grosses and chronic bad breath. You’ve drank the Kool-Aid and have created a Facebook page for your dealership. You’re even cranking out tweets a couple of times a day.  So, just how is that social media strategy working for you? If your answer is anything other than “KICKING BUTT,” then chances are you might need a little social media strategy tune-up. Here are four common areas where dealerships get tripped up in executing their strategy.  1.    Focusing on the Wrong Thing  Let’s set the hype aside for just a minute and think about how people shop for cars today. Know of anyone who says, “I think I’m going to buy a new car. I better go to Facebook and see which dealership has the best deals.” What customers do today is research, which includes doing homework specifically about...

It is said that while the sales department sells a customer the first car, the service department sells them the next two. Unfortunately, the inverse of this is true as well, and the service department can just as easily lose sales. It's not that they do this intentionally; in fact, they have probably maintained the same standards for years - which is exactly the problem.

The market has changed. Consumers have changed with it, yet most dealerships are managing their service customers exactly the way they were ten or more years ago.

Management of those very valuable customers might include sending them a letter or postcard stating, "according to our records, it's time for your next service" or worse, simply putting an oil change reminder on their windshield.

Not exactly the textbook definition of Customer Relationship Management.

Sure, this was fine years ago, but not today. For most of our customers, money is tight and that means those out of warranty will be shopping aroun...