Bio:

Paul Ryan brings over 25 years of experience in sales, sales management, marketing, and client services. He joined DMEautomotive in February of 2008, as a Regional Territory Manager. With proven success as an inside sales representative selling the FullCircle Solutions’ Bullseye program, he was recognized frequently as Sales Person of the Month and received the highest honor of Sales Person of the Year for 2008. In August of 2009, Paul managed, “Direct-To-Dealer” – Mail Division, responsible for overseeing the sales for the “Direct-To-Dealer” Mail Division. Currently he is traveling in the Midwest as Field Account Manager. Paul graduated with a B.B.A, in Business Administration from Iowa State University in 1982.

Understanding that managing your dealership's reputation is tougher than ever in today's technology-driven society, DMEautomotive has addressed this very issue in the "Online Reputation Management for the Automotive Industry" white paper.  

The intent of this white paper is to help your dealership realize that the daunting task of protecting your reputation online can be done by keeping your ear to the ground (or in this case the computer monitor) with online reputation management strategies.

To obtain a copy of the white paper, please download at DMEautomotive.

As pointed out by JD Power and Associates, the automotive industry is continually challenged by fewer new cars sales and decreased service traffic.  In understanding the impact these two situations have on the bottom dollar, car dealerships are forced to evaluate all processes related to sales and service retention.

Sales and service retention programs are critical to keeping your dealership top of mind with customers by delivering personalized, relevant and timely messages dependent on their position in the customer lifecycle.  However, let’s face it, your dealership can send direct mail piece after direct mail piece, email after email, and place newspaper ad after newspaper ad…but if your dealership fails in one critical area, no marketing effort will help.  What is that one critical area your dealership must not fail at?

Customer Service.

In our recent blog, How To Improve Dealership Retention? Try Service, we mentioned the role of customer service in retention efforts. The truth is that providing exemplary customer service is not an easy task for a car dealership (frankly, it’s difficult for a lot of companies in every conceivable industry). Between the heavy pressures to increase revenue by selling cars and upselling service clients, the art of taking care of the customer can be overlooked.  Based on the exemplary customer standards established by such companies as Nordstrom and Ritz Carlton, the purpose of this blog is to point out specific things your dealership can do to improve customer service.

Isn’t it interesting how two of the most renowned companies for customer service aren’t associated with low prices?  You see, price doesn’t always sell…even in the automotive industry.  According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study,^SM “more than half of new-vehicle buyers indicate that dealer treatment was a major reason to purchase their new car or light truck from a specific dealer,” while “only 38% of buyers cite vehicle price, or the “deal,” as the reason for selecting their dealer.”

Here are a few ways for your dealership to improve customer service, which will, in turn, improve sales and service retention:

1. Make Customer Service Part of Who You Are. The culture of your dealership is incredibly evident in your customer service.  Dealership staff will treat customers and prospects as their managers treat them.  Therefore, make sure that “top down” message is clear and that your dealership’s core values of respect and courtesy are evident.  Inspire by example!

“If we are not customer driven, nor will our cars be.” Henry Ford

2. Hire and Retain GOOD Employees. Expanding on the first point, pay special attention to hiring and retaining quality people.  When interviewing potential employees, ask them how they handled a particularly difficult situation with a customer in the past.  Look at how they interact with you during the interview process…do they make eye contact with you?  Smile?  Say Thanks?  These seemingly trivial acts are anything but that.  They are clear indications of how the person would interact with customers.

3. Pay Attention to Customer Interaction. When a customer enters your dealership or calls you on the phone, are you looking at them simply as a transaction or do you approach your interactions with them as a relationship?  When your mother walks into your house or calls you on the phone, do you ignore her? (Please tell me you don’t…if so we have a lot of work to do!) Back to the customers. Do you promptly acknowledge their presence on the showroom floor and attempt to help them, even if you’re busy working with another customer?  Do you answer the phone in a timely manner?  Nothing irritates a customer more than having a call go unanswered or having to sit on hold for minutes on end.  Think of the opportunity you may be missing when the customer hangs up in frustration.  Many dealerships employ a virtual BDC to handle inbound calls, whether it is to answer all incoming calls or just backstop call handling.

4. Empower Your Employees & Be Prepared to Say Sorry. Listen, it’s a fact of life that you won’t be able to please everyone that enters your dealerships.  However, when a complaint is issued, outline how they should be handled and give your employees the power to fix things.  If you don’t trust your employees to make the situation right or appease the customer, you shouldn’t have hired them.  In order to facilitate restitution processes, clarify what’s available to make the customer happy and communicate this to your employees. Can they give free oil changes?  Free car rentals? Other value-added services?

Customers have a number of choices when it comes to buying a new car or having their car serviced.  Having said that, fair prices and phenomenal customer service are critical to customer retention, turning your one-time buyer into a lifetime customer.

Are there specific things your dealership has done to improve customer service at your dealership?

~ Missy Jensen, Social Media Manager at DMEautomotive

Bio:
Missy designs, deploys and maintains the social media initiatives for DMEautomotive in an effort to increase brand awareness, distribute company and industry news, provide updates on products and services and promote consumer engagement. Missy enjoys the process of learning; researching and watching projects come to fruition!

Prior to her transformation into a web specialist and work with DMEautomotive, she has 10 years of experience in the marketing and communications industry. Missy served as the Director, Handicapping & Communications for a regional golf association and helped successfully launch and maintain a cutting edge technology-based ticket resale program on behalf of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Missy attended St. Lawrence University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Psychology. She also holds a Master’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH. She can be reached at missy.jensen@dmeautomotive.com and check her out on LinkedIn.

According to a recent cell phone study by Pew Internet, “85% of Americans ages 18 and older own a cell phone, making it by far the most popular device among adults” and a great opportunity for car dealerships to utilize for automotive mobile marketing purposes.  Not too surprisingly, the study also found that a great deal of time spent on a mobile phone has nothing to do with talking!  A large majority of people use their mobile phones to text, as well as visit social networks, surf the Internet and take/share photos.  This type of behavior qualifies for a great opportunity to engage your target market in automotive sms marketing services for your dealership.

Since it is clearly evident that Americans have rapidly embraced mobile phones – and their various functionalities – dealerships should consider how to utilize mobile technology to improve automotive mobile marketing efforts.  Here are a few recommended automotive text messaging solutions your dealership should strongly consider implementing:

1.  Automotive Text Messaging Solutions:  By nature, text messaging is meant to be short (160 characters) and to the point.  It is well suited for sending relevant, timely and brief messages that are speaking directly to a customer’s need and/or interest.  Of course, like other modes of communication, unwanted, irrelevant and unnecessary text messages will damage your relationship with customers.  Therefore, some good ways to use text messaging in your automotive mobile marketing efforts – without becoming an annoyance – is to send texts related to:

• Service: service reminders, appointment reminders, missed appointment notifications, additional service recommendations, arrival of a special parts order, and thank you.
• Sales: notification of approaching lease termination, birthday, anniversary, and thank you.

It’s a good idea to get started with text messaging as a form of communication for your dealership because your current young target audience members are texting fanatics. Young adults (ages 18-24) exchange on average 1,630 messages monthly, according to Nielsen.  Note: You definitely want to get your customers to opt-in to receive text messages.  This can be done at the dealership or by implementing an opt-in submission form on your website.  Either way, your dealership must gain consent before sending texts to customers and have an opt-out option available should they no longer wish to receive texts from your dealership.

2. QR Codes: If you don’t know what QR codes are, they are the 2-dimensional barcodes that store information that can be read by a mobile phone or device.  You’ve likely seen everywhere lately: magazine advertisements, promotional pieces and emails, for example.  They are easily scannable barcodes that, when you point your smartphone camera at them, they provide a message, open a website or produce other branded content.  The use of QR Codes is a step toward fully taking advantage of mobile marketing for the automotive industry.

While many OEMs are implementing QR codes in their automotive mobile marketing efforts, car dealerships at the local level can also use them to engage customers in various ways.  One way is to interact with those who peruse their lots during off hours.  A QR code for each used vehicle can be created through a free QR-generator site (such as Kaywa), printed (whether on paper or in sticker form) and posted on the vehicle.  When customers scan the code, they are brought to a page on your dealership’s website regarding that specific vehicle to obtain any additional information and even specials on pricing/financing. QR codes can also be included in your print advertising, whether it be your newspaper ads or direct mail pieces…again, leading traffic to your website.  Lastly, your dealership can place a QR code on service department receipts to lead customers to an online customer service survey.

Though QR codes are fairly new, they are definitely growing in popularity and serve as a great tool to bridge the real and digital world.

3.  Automotive Mobile Apps – Smart phone applications are all the rage.  How many times have you heard “There’s an app for that!”?  Well, even car dealerships are intrigued by the possibility of developing a customized app.

AutoNation has developed a customized app that allows you to explore their new and used car inventory from the comfort of your Smart Phone.  Additionally, it allows you to estimate the Kelley Blue Book value of your current car.

Similar to QR codes above, Mobile Apps allow your dealership to maintain an additional touch point with your customers, providing critical information about vehicles and your dealership (such as directions and contact information) in a very user friendly way. If your current website isn’t mobile optimized, then a mobile app is the best way to share your critical web content to people surfing on a smartphone.

We’ve listed a few ways above for dealerships to include mobile as part of their overall automotive mobile marketing efforts.  Has your dealership implemented any mobile efforts?  What has your experience been thus far?

~ Missy Jensen, Social Media Manager at DMEautomotive

Bio:
Missy designs, deploys and maintains the social media initiatives for DMEautomotive in an effort to increase brand awareness, distribute company and industry news, provide updates on products and services and promote consumer engagement. Missy enjoys the process of learning; researching and watching projects come to fruition!

Prior to her transformation into a web specialist and work with DMEautomotive, she has 10 years of experience in the marketing and communications industry. Missy served as the Director, Handicapping & Communications for a regional golf association and helped successfully launch and maintain a cutting edge technology-based ticket resale program on behalf of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Missy attended St. Lawrence University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Psychology. She also holds a Master’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH. She can be reached at missy.jensen@dmeautomotive.com and check her out on LinkedIn.

After reading a recent Facebook post by Hubspot “that Tuesdays at 11am is one of the worst possible times to send your email campaigns,” I started to take notice of how I reacted to emails as they entered my inbox.  You see, like you, I’m not only a marketer, but I’m also a consumer.  My various email inboxes are also inundated with communications from retail stores to technology and social media related newsletters to automotive industry publications.   The marketer inside me wants to answer the question: Does when (specifically day of the week and time) I get an email really effect if I open it or not?

Questions and discussions regarding email deliverability are not new…rather, they have been around since the beginning of commercial email.  I get asked the question, “What is the best time to send an email?” on a frequent basis.  I answer with the truth:  There is no concrete, definite or undisputed answer.  It’s not the most popular answer but if there were an optimal time, every marketer in town would send email at the same time…and what would that get them?  Nothing but a lot of competition for the readers’ attention!

Maybe it’s not which day of the week or what hour in the day that the email is sent that improves an open rate! I’d make a strong argument that the successes of your dealerships’ email marketing efforts are strongly dependent upon the dynamic between your recipients and your message within a respective timeframe.

As an automotive marketing professional, it’s critical you put yourself in your customers’ shoes.  You must think about what your customers need (or want) from your dealership before you go hitting the “send” button.  If you are sending out an email about this upcoming weekend’s new car sales event, do you think your customers are more likely to think about what they are going to do this upcoming weekend on Monday morning or Thursday afternoon?   Similarly, if a customer recently purchased a vehicle, would they be interested in your latest sales spectacular and financing deals?  Ask yourself, is your dealership just blasting out emails that may or may not be relevant to the recipient?

Ah, relevancy…that’s the key to a good email.  A highly targeted email filled with valuable content sent to people who have subscribed to your email list will get read (and responded to) no matter what day or time it’s sent.  That’s the answer to my question above:  it does not matter when an email comes across my inbox.  What does matter is that it pertains to my life, my current needs (and frankly sometimes wants) and it inspires me to act now, because if I don’t, I’ll miss out on a great opportunity.

So, how can your dealership ensure relevancy in its email campaigns?  Knowing how difficult and time consuming it can be, many dealerships have taken to employing a direct marketing company to handle email marketing.  A good automotive marketing company: (1) looks at consumers’ behaviors and motivations when developing its products and communication pieces, (2) utilizes clean and accurate data that is segmented to improve relevancy and (3) helps the dealership examine past campaigns to determine what has worked best to refine email campaigns over time.

If you’re sending emails on behalf of your dealership, whether independent of a marketing company or to supplement their efforts, here are a few tips to remember:

1.  Always use the most recent email database from your DMS.  In other words, don’t send to an old list.

2.  Use a consistent look and feel through all messages.  This way your readers will know/recognize who you are.

3.  Don’t send one gigantic picture.  Do you have a dozen used cars to unload off the truck?  Don’t advertise all of them in one embedded image that is emailed to your database.  If you do, it will look like generic spam and it may never even make it to the inbox.  (By the way, if you’re one of the lucky ones that get through to the inbox, you’ll probably find yourself in the deleted folder before you know it.)

4. Don’t wait till the last minute to send out an email.  If you’re going to do email marketing, take the time to think about your customers, what they may want to receive something from you and when it may be most applicable to them.

Though Hubspot may have found that Tuesday mornings aren’t the ideal time to send emails and those sent on the weekend have higher click-through-rates, your dealership should spend a considerable amount of time ensuring that the message is relevant so when it does come across the recipient’s inbox, they are likely interested in seeing what you have to say.

~ Missy Jensen, Social Media Manager at DMEautomotive

Bio:
Missy designs, deploys and maintains the social media initiatives for DMEautomotive in an effort to increase brand awareness, distribute company and industry news, provide updates on products and services and promote consumer engagement. Missy enjoys the process of learning; researching and watching projects come to fruition!

Prior to her transformation into a web specialist and work with DMEautomotive, she has 10 years of experience in the marketing and communications industry. Missy served as the Director, Handicapping & Communications for a regional golf association and helped successfully launch and maintain a cutting edge technology-based ticket resale program on behalf of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Missy attended St. Lawrence University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Psychology. She also holds a Master’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH. She can be reached at missy.jensen@dmeautomotive.com and check her out on LinkedIn.

Relevancy.  All of us in the automotive industry have heard about the importance of relevancy in our direct marketing efforts, almost to the point of ad nauseam, right? (Admittedly, I’m guilty as charged.) However, this past weekend during “the biggest show on earth” we were all reminded that relevancy is equally important in the traditional marketing world…specifically the commercial.

Sure, most of us were easily entertained by the sentimental score of Star Wars and the cute pint-sized Darth Vader who tried endlessly to use the Force around his house, finally experiencing success when he starts his family’s VW Passat engine.  Others found themselves chuckling at a pug unmercifully taunted by a man holding a bag of Doritos or the dog sitter who has the dogs serve beer at the house party.  But there was one particular commercial that generated a lot of Super Bowl talk, both during the game and on Monday morning.

"Imported from Detroit” by Chrysler was, according to Brand Bowl, the commercial that generated the most buzz this year, even though it didn’t score as high as many of the other ads in the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter.  So, why did Chrysler, with the help of Eminem, garnish such attention?  Relevancy!

Playing upon key words that resonated with the audience, such as “to hell and back,” “hard work,” “conviction,” and “our story,” as well as graphic images that depict a city beaten down by the collapse of the auto industry, Chrysler’s message really hit home with many who have witnessed the trials and tribulations experienced by Americans as of late.  Unlike the other commercials that focused on lighthearted humor, Chrysler was one of inspiration and resiliency in the face of hardship.  Again, a message that many Americans could identify with…one they found particularly relevant in their lives.

The effect of Chrysler’s poignant ad on sales is still to be determined.  However there are signs of “life” for the auto giant, as “Chrysler 200” – the car highlighted in the commercial – was the most searched term on Google the Monday after.  Additionally, Kelley Blue Book reported that of the automakers that advertised during the Super Bowl, web traffic increased the most (213% to be precise) for the Chrysler brand on kbb.com.   They also reported a 1013 % increase in traffic for the Chrysler 200.  So perhaps Chrysler and Eminem’s reminder that the Motor City – and its people - are capable of producing luxury vehicles will ring true in such a way that it will pay off in the form of increased sales for the automaker.

Relevancy.  It’s a difficult thing to accomplish in commercials…especially during the “Big Game” when most people are expecting a good laugh and entertainment.  It’s hard to identify with a man who’s blocked in by a bunch of chimps or the house sitter who brings your grandfather back from the dead.  No…It’s not every day that together, a struggling car marker and a talented artist, attempt to reposition themselves for a come back…a message that resonates deep with the American people. 

~ Missy Jensen, Social Media Manager at DMEautomotive 

Bio: Missy designs, deploys and maintains the social media initiatives for DMEautomotive in an effort to increase brand awareness, distribute company and industry news, provide updates on products and services and promote consumer engagement. Missy enjoys the process of learning; researching and watching projects come to fruition!

Prior to her transformation into a web specialist and work with DMEautomotive, she has 10 years of experience in the marketing and communications industry. Missy served as the Director, Handicapping & Communications for a regional golf association and helped successfully launch and maintain a cutting edge technology-based ticket resale program on behalf of the St. Louis Cardinals. Missy attended St. Lawrence University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Psychology. She also holds a Master’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH.

She can be reached at missy.jensen@dmeautomotive.com and check her out on LinkedIn.

Customer retention is critical to an automotive brand’s success.  This is particularly evident during a climate of prolonged economic recovery, in which each new-vehicle sale or automotive service is vital to a dealership’s bottom line.

A 2010 J.D. Power and Associates survey, conducted to measure repeat vehicle purchases within a brand, found that customer retention had remained stable from 2009.  In 2010, 16 of the 34 ranked brands improved their customer retention rates from the year prior.  Of the remaining brands surveyed, customer retention either dropped or held steady over the same period.

So how can your dealership retain your customers?  Service.

After the purchase of a new vehicle at the dealership the responsibility for continued interaction with that customer falls on the service department.  Their ability to continue engaging a customer in service—and whether or not these same customers will purchase from your dealership again—will serve as a vital cog in customer retention efforts.

Here’s a few items to keep in mind:

State of Affairs. In order to properly implement a plan for customer retention, the sales and customer service departments need to take stock of what they’re currently achieving and what they’re offering.  By simply meeting with your customer service manager or asking your customers for feedback, your customer retention plan can gain traction for success.

Take Control of Offerings. After the sale, it is naturally assumed you’re meeting your customer’s expectations.  With that in mind, you can determine the strengths of your retention efforts and any additional opportunities that exist—and pursue them.  By utilizing multi-channel marketing (direct mail, email, voice broadcast, etc.) and real-time reporting that speaks to the full customer lifecycle, you can spur improvements to your retention campaigns.  In addition to a lifecycle centered marketing program, you should implement relevant seasonal initiatives .  Not only can you spur the customer to act upon an offer, you have a “set it and forget it”-type plan that’s virtually effortless to manage.

The Service Sells Itself. It’s almost certain that when a customer receives poor customer service or repair work in an automotive service department, they’re not going to return.   By the same token, those who receive exceptional service and repair work are more than likely to return.  Simply put, service after the sale is often the leading influencer on customers and whether or not they’ll continue to be a continued consumer.

Can your automotive dealership stand to improve on their customer retention efforts? If so, what areas need improvement?

~ Missy Jensen, Social Media Manager at DMEautomotive

Bio:
Missy designs, deploys and maintains the social media initiatives for DMEautomotive in an effort to increase brand awareness, distribute company and industry news, provide updates on products and services and promote consumer engagement. Missy enjoys the process of learning; researching and watching projects come to fruition!

Prior to her transformation into a web specialist and work with DMEautomotive, she has 10 years of experience in the marketing and communications industry. Missy served as the Director, Handicapping & Communications for a regional golf association and helped successfully launch and maintain a cutting edge technology-based ticket resale program on behalf of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Missy attended St. Lawrence University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Psychology. She also holds a Master’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH. She can be reached at missy.jensen@dmeautomotive.com and check her out on LinkedIn.

f it’s not the most visited area in an automotive dealership, it’s arguably one with the most captive audiences.

No, it’s not the sales floor; it’s your automotive service area.

Whether it’s waiting for a vehicle to get prepped for delivery or waiting for it to get serviced, the automotive service area—more specifically the lounge—is home to the section of your dealership that has few distractions for customers, i.e. an audience that has little to do but wait.

What can your dealership offer as a distraction to not only entertain them while they wait, but also become an opportunity for creating a positive experience on your dealership?

• Pass the Time. Time is always an issue at the dealership’s service department.  Let’s face it, no one really enjoys sitting around a cold, uninviting waiting area.  When sitting around waiting for something—anything—to happen, your customers want something to do while they wait.  Why not offer your customers access to computer workstations equipped with free Internet access and/or outfitted with games or movies?  Not only can you help them pass the time, you can also make their experience pleasurable and positive, connotations that may not always be applied to an automotive service department experience.

• Service is Job 1. It goes without saying that your customer service experiences should heavily skew towards the “kill them with kindness” approach. However, the little things can go a long way to improving an experience.  Offering such free items like premium coffee, cold beverages, snacks and frequent updates on their vehicle’s progress give your customers the feeling that they’re special and unique.  Besides, you never know who is watching – it could mean a great review at an online site like DealerRater.com that boosts your dealership’s online reputation.

• Sales! Sales! Sales! Unfortunately, not all visits to the automotive service area are filled with great news – the customer’s vehicle may require significant and unexpected (and sometimes very costly) repairs or recommended services.  Or perhaps the customer is tired of putting money into their older vehicle.  In either scenario, the door is wide open for a sales opportunity.  Simply installing something like an interactive kiosk or small LCD screen by that premium coffee maker that displays some of the latest and greatest vehicles in your dealership line may be a catalyst for a new vehicle purchase.  Another option is to offer a Vehicle Buy Back program to entice the in-equity customers who have a particular vehicle your dealership is interested in purchasing from them.  Via a kiosk or board, you should display the individual’s name, a call to action (i.e., “Mrs. Wilson, we want your 2004 Ford Explorer.”) and address the customer when they enter the service area.  This process will facilitate additional sales for your dealership.

• Expand Your Reach! When a customer is sitting in your service area waiting room, there is no better time to capture their email address and engage them in your social media efforts.  As mentioned above, your dealership could set up a kiosk that allows Internet access.  However, in order to access the Internet, the individual must input their email address.  This process is quite common in hotels and coffee shops around the country.  In addition to Internet access, you could offer exclusive discounts to all customers who “like” your dealership on Facebook.  If you choose to implement this, you could use your service waiting area to promote your Facebook page by hanging posters, placing postcards at checkout and enabling your kiosk to display a Facebook screensaver.

In leveraging your automotive service area, you’re giving yourself a prime opportunity to create a positive experience for your customer, enhance communications with them and in the long run, create future sales opportunity as well.

~ Missy Jensen, Social Media Manager at DMEautomotive

Bio:
Missy designs, deploys and maintains the social media initiatives for DMEautomotive in an effort to increase brand awareness, distribute company and industry news, provide updates on products and services and promote consumer engagement. Missy enjoys the process of learning; researching and watching projects come to fruition!

Prior to her transformation into a web specialist and work with DMEautomotive, she has 10 years of experience in the marketing and communications industry. Missy served as the Director, Handicapping & Communications for a regional golf association and helped successfully launch and maintain a cutting edge technology-based ticket resale program on behalf of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Missy attended St. Lawrence University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Psychology. She also holds a Master’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH. She can be reached at missy.jensen@dmeautomotive.com and check her out on LinkedIn.

“Welcome to the dealership! How may we help you today?”

You may not think it, but a simple greeting when you first walk into a dealership can lay the groundwork for keeping a customer for life.   In today’s competitive environment, the lengths a car dealership goes with their customer service can help determine how they can keep their customers.

What can an automotive dealership do to establish a long-lasting relationship with their customers?  Here are a few simple reminders to help nurture customer loyalty.

Promises are more than just words. When trying to close a sale, making promises comes with the territory.  Sometimes these can go beyond the basics of quality automotive service and fuel price guarantees.  Keeping core promises simple and developing them as time goes on helps establish long-term customer loyalty.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This scenario may seem rather basic: a customer comes into your dealership, test-drives a vehicle and after mulling the numbers, they decide to purchase it.  As a rule of thumb, whether it’s after a vehicle test-drive or post dealer delivery, a salesperson should take the time to write a handwritten note of “thanks” and send them out promptly.   This simple consideration provides a personal touch and shows the customer you’re more than a number.

Be accessible. Whenever an issue crops up—a dead battery, a blown tire or even an engine service issue—being available and willing to help customers is key.  Providing service to your customers at their convenience rather than your own shows customer loyalty.  Why? You’re available to them when they need you.

Dissatisfied customers require attention, too. Let’s face it: customers aren’t happy all the time.  Whether it’s a complaint on your dealership’s Facebook page or a complaint via phone regarding service they received, a dissatisfied customer complaint requires a swift response.  Handling the issue by going the extra mile can help service the relationship for both parties – the customer’s issue is handled to their satisfaction and the car dealership can help foster a lucrative relationship. In the best case scenario, they may take notice of your extra effort, and become an advocate rather than an enemy.

“Thank you for stopping in…we look forward to seeing you soon!”

~ Missy Jensen, Social Media Manager at DMEautomotive

Bio:
Missy designs, deploys and maintains the social media initiatives for DMEautomotive in an effort to increase brand awareness, distribute company and industry news, provide updates on products and services and promote consumer engagement. Missy enjoys the process of learning; researching and watching projects come to fruition!

Prior to her transformation into a web specialist and work with DMEautomotive, she has 10 years of experience in the marketing and communications industry. Missy served as the Director, Handicapping & Communications for a regional golf association and helped successfully launch and maintain a cutting edge technology-based ticket resale program on behalf of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Missy attended St. Lawrence University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Psychology. She also holds a Master’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH. She can be reached at missy.jensen@dmeautomotive.com and check her out on LinkedIn.

In the highly competitive environment of automotive marketing, online search results for your car dealership can potentially make or break you.—The quality of the links, however, versus the quantity of the links is what will have a true impact on prospects making a purchase decision. 

With that in mind, the following points can help give you a good start in putting together a search engine optimization (SEO) plan that can yield positive results and improved page rankings for your dealership.

Map that site. In the web design process, mapping out a site for navigation is crucial.  It is that step that helps enable search engines to find your dealership’s pages.  The site map also serves a mental roadmap for online users.  Having a clear, concise map of your website serves as an important starting point in SEO planning.

Properly labeled, sized images. If you’re in the business of selling vehicles, it’s a given that you’re putting pictures of your vehicles online for viewing.  Finding bold, clean images is important in selling.  For SEO and web purposes, however, the images should also be properly labeled and sized.  By using a keyword-rich alt tag, search engines get a sense of what an image is about.  The labels will help a dealer’s SEO results; the size of the images will aid in website load times and user experience.

Optimize it. This is perhaps the nuts and bolts of SEO for automotive dealerships: the optimization of your content.  Website content should consist of relevant key words and phrases that web users utilize when searching for a vehicle.   Using a tool like Google Analytics can help fill your content with relevant search terms that improve your SEO and page rankings, putting your dealership in the driver’s seat.

Keep it up to code. Cascading style sheets—or CSS—sets the stage for improving the SEO friendliness of your dealership’s website design.  Utilizing CSS reduces the amount of unnecessary code on the backend of your web pages, improving load times and navigation for users.  It also aids search engines as it allows for its search mechanisms to scan your content at an improved pace.

SEO planning is an important tool for improving your dealership’s website traffic.  These four important points will certainly help in enhancing your dealership’s web presence and help establish it as a place to visit and buy a new or pre-owned vehicle.

~ Missy Jensen, Social Media Manager at DMEautomotive

Bio:
Missy designs, deploys and maintains the social media initiatives for DMEautomotive in an effort to increase brand awareness, distribute company and industry news, provide updates on products and services and promote consumer engagement. Missy enjoys the process of learning; researching and watching projects come to fruition!

Prior to her transformation into a web specialist and work with DMEautomotive, she has 10 years of experience in the marketing and communications industry. Missy served as the Director, Handicapping & Communications for a regional golf association and helped successfully launch and maintain a cutting edge technology-based ticket resale program on behalf of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Missy attended St. Lawrence University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Psychology. She also holds a Master’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH. She can be reached at missy.jensen@dmeautomotive.com and check her out on LinkedIn.