As a part of your toolbox for improving the customer experience and reputation building, reviews are an inexpensive method of ROI. Here are 7 tips to build a review platform that invites women to buy and service their car at your store:

Car dealer reviews are standard today, and more people use them to determine what businesses they will visit first. Women rely on them the most, to the tune of 50% more than men.(1) Dealerships utilize reviews that appeal to these decision-makers to create an advantage over their competition to showcase their business as a trusted destination.

1. Encourage customers, especially women, to provide honest feedback on their experience. Let them know you want the truth — that you use it to elevate your customer experience and culture. Nationally, 6 out of 10 women who don’t buy at your store when they visit never return(2) making it imperative to understand why.

2. When reviews help make changes to your business culture, publicize it. Let your web site and advertisements show that you are paying attention and that customers have power to make changes.

3. Be honest in your approach. If you receive reviews that point out an issue, respond to them and demonstrate that you recognized the problem and are fixing it. When customers publicly see that a business is willing to adapt, they themselves are more flexible and forgiving when a situation arises.

4. Curate reviews that tell a good story. For instance, “The buying experience was thoroughly enjoyable. I was greeted, but not in a pushy way. Michael listened to my wish list and found a way to make the numbers work. He was a good listener and found solutions — we worked together to find what I wanted for a price I wanted to pay.” Reviews like this tick all the boxes for women — a trusted resource who listened and found a good solution.

5. Establish a process to ensure your reviews show up on a cross-section of platforms, like Google, Cars.com, Dealer Rater, Women-Drivers, etc. Let women know that their responses are invaluable.

6. Consider having a special section for these customers where they can read reviews by other women. Women are partial to reviews from their peers.

7. Train consultants on how to ask for reviews and CSI. This includes refraining entirely from “Be sure to give me all 5s. If you aren’t going to give me a 5, call me first so we can discuss that line item, as its really important to me that I get the highest scores.” This sounds heavy-handed and confusing, and there is nothing empowering about this when hearing it as a buyer or when getting your car back in the service lane. It makes the review all about YOU. Full stop.

Being transparent and offering reviews about your dealership delivers several advantages. Customer loyalty and brand awareness are benefits that make your customers happy and drives money to your bottom line.

1. Ipsos Sociologue Poll, 2-14

2. 2019 Women’s Car Dealer Report at Top 7 US Auto Brands