Automotive Dealers checking their Facebook pages today may have noticed that Facebook has launched timeline for brand pages. Dealers have until March 30th to update their format to fit into the timeline layout.   Coinciding with this update, there are a few features that will no longer be available. Landing tabs have been very popular, and used to introduce by dealers to promote their brand, as well as used for giveaways and like-gating. Now the extra tabs that you have added to your Facebook page are not available, but dealers can display their custom apps next to their profile pictures.   The new timeline format for brand pages offers dealers a great opportunity to showcase the history of their brand. However, dealers no longer have the option to set up welcome pages or free offer pages, so all of the visitors to your page will land on your wall. Another new important aspect of the new Pages is the new admin panel. The panel will appear at the top of any Pages...

Excellent customer service makes the purchase process so much more enjoyable, doesn’t it?  Even to the extent that I can spend $250 on dinner for my wife and I and walk out feeling like I got a good deal. We had dinner at the Capital Grille in Lombard, IL last night, and this morning, besides thinking how much I enjoyed the dinner last night I also thought, “Capital Grille really gets what this reputation thing is all about”. Now we have been to Capital Grille before, and we know they have great food and service, but I hadn’t really thought about how the service experience and their reputation is integrated so well into their business, and that auto dealerships could steal some of these ideas. Let’s start with our waiter, TJ Bozek.  Either TJ really loves what he does or he is an academy award-winning actor.  The smile never left his face the entire evening.  When they mistakenly brought out the wrong two sides to us we let him kn...

There has been a lot of discussion lately with Automotive Dealers about building fans in Social Media.  We have long taken the stance that it is the quality of fans that is critical for success, not the quantity.  The top priority for an auto dealer should be to build their number of in-market fans and followers.  Not only do in-market fans have the potential to become a customer, but their social network is going to be concentrated around where they live.  So if they live in your market, so do the majority of their friends.  This means there is a far greater chance your content will be relevant to their audience, and so they will be more likely to share or re-tweet your content.  Since your fans’ friends tend to be in your market, their friends (friends of friends of fans) will also tend to be within your market, again, meaning a better opportunity for sharing relevant content. This is where the viral effect of social media really comes into play....

The single best way to get more reviews on your business boils down to one word: Ask. We have found that asking customers to review your business is the most cost effective means of building your portfolio with online reviews. The cost involved to implement this is simply training your employees. Every sales or service person, or any employee that might ever engage with a customer, needs to be trained to ask the customer at the end of the transaction to provide a review of your business. The statement is as simple as: “We are always trying to improve our service, so please, let us know how we did by providing a review on_________.com”. Avoid leaving it up to chance when it comes to your customers making reviews about your dealership. Make it as easy as possible for them by telling them exactly where to go to place the review.Suggested sites include: DealerRater.com, Yelp.com,Yahoo, Google, YellowPages.com, Edmunds.com or CarDealerReviews.org.We recommend changing the site...

Excellence in customer service is a goal all businesses should strive to achieve. There are many advantages to a business when they reach the point where great service becomes an everyday offering. The strongest benefits being customer loyalty, repeat purchases and the resulting word of mouth advertising. However, even with strict standards and detailed service programs in place, bad reviews can happen. As much as we would like to be perfect,we can’t be 100% of the time. Employees occasionally have bad days, and sometimes personal issues can interfere with work. Sometimes it is the customer. A customer may have unreasonable expectations or may just be having a bad day themselves; where no matter what you do they will most likely walk away unhappy. On the employee side, there are steps you can take to minimize slips in service quality. A good training program is key. Employees need to understand the importance of good service. This is especially true in this age of social medi...