When is the last time you searched for your dealership in a search engine? If you cannot remember. Perhaps it is time to take a minute and search for your dealership. Making sure that the information that comes up is correct. Such as, but not limited too, phone numbers, dealer hours, contact information, and photos!

Here Are Some of the Top Things to Review When Managing Your Online Presence Starting With Vendor Accountability: 

Vendor Accountability

It is sure easy to point the blame at an outside vendor - for those with marketing companies - however, at the end of the day it is the dealer's responsibility to ensure that the information they have provided is correct. Wherein, if you give the marketing vendor the wrong contact information they can only go off of what you have given them.

To make sure they have the correct information, it is best practice to double check the information before providing it to them. Where you take an extra minute to make a phone call verifying the number. One of the best ways to handle this is to have one main point of contact that handles all correspondence with the vendor. Otherwise, when too many people are in contact - aka too many hands in the cookie jar - then it can lead to miscommunications.

Business Pages

While the dealer website may be updated with the correct information - it does not matter unless the business page, too, is corrected. As the customer - before clicking through to the site - will see the search results.

That said, it is best to review the hours, phone number, and information. Where in many cases there is not a distinct difference in the sales/service hours. Making it confusing for the customer as they are not sure as to when service or sales close. Where if they were to think - based on the hours - that service is open until 8 PM. To come in and find out that it is not open. That they closed at then, it most likely will not go to well.

Phone Numbers | Contact Information

Routing the phone call correctly is a crucial component in ensuring that the customer has the best experience. However, this can go south if the customer were to call the number (that is within the search results), to only get transferred to the wrong department. To then call back in and get hung-up on when the call was transferred. All of which takes away from the customer's experience. However, if the appropriate phone number were listed, then the call would have been routed correctly.

Bottom Line: there is always the saying “will this sell me more cars? If not, I am not interested,” which does have a direct correlation to making sure that the dealer information is correct. Despite it often being overlooked. That said, for those who have regular staff meetings. Take an extra minute to make sure that all information is correct. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by having the BDC - for those who have one - keep their eyes peeled on the website as they are viewing it every day. Allowing you to update/fix issues. All of which will offer the customer a better experience.

When is the last time you checked your hours? Do You Have a Single Point of Contact for Outside Vendors?