Heal Thyself Automotive Vendors!

As I have been working hard on the final conclusions for the 2009 ASMA Study, I took some time to read what other have said about the the 34 website providers that I am reviewing.

What I found was disappointing from an Automotive IRM perspective.

Automotive industry professionals have been quick to claim the benefits of posting positive customer reviews online. Articles are flourishing on how important an effective Internet Reputation Management (IRM) program can be to sales.

However, when you look at DrivingSales.com Vendor Reviews, one of the few places that post automotive industry vendor reviews, the numbers are telling.

The shoemaker's kids have holes in their shoes!  Let's see why.

Automotive Website Vendor Reviews

Dealer.com has 14,000 dealers using their software and has the most customer reviews and the best scores in this category but a measly 44 dealers posted their comments.  That's less than 1%. (36 Positive / 8 Negative)

BZ/ADP have over 2,000 dealers using their platforms and only 15 review, less than 1%. (5 positive / 10 negative)

Dealerskins - 11 Reviews (5 positive/ 6 negative)

Reynolds & Reynolds - 9 Reviews (5 positive / 4  negative)

eBizAutos has zero reviews.

You get the idea.  DrivingSales.com and DealerRefresh.com are two places where dealer website platforms and vendors can be reviewed.  On both websites, the representation is the same, very few customers have posted positive reviews.

eBizAutos also has no reviews on DealerRefresh.com nor any I could find doing and Internet search.

As DrivingSales.com grows, I believe it will become to premier place for automotive vendors to be evaluated and scored by the automotive community.

If IRM is good for car dealers, then IRM is good for car dealer vendors and suppliers.