Why you should focus on your CRM to tell your Brand story.

A dealership’s reputation is often determined by the customer’s last experience. If they had a positive experience, they will most likely be willing to share it with others. The same is true if they have a negative experience. Thus, it’s important that dealerships strive to create a positive experience for everyone who interacts with their dealership. Any interaction customers have with your dealership is a reflection on your brand.

Branding is not just a marketing responsibility, but also something that everyone at the dealership needs to be part of. That’s why hiring the right person, training them the right way, and having the right tools available are essential to not only give your customers a great experience, but also to help build your brand and customer loyalty.

One of the most influential tools dealers can use that affect a customer’s experience and branding is your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool.

RELATIONSHIPS

The days are gone when dealers relied on their CRM to simply manage leads and customers. Today, the most progressive and successful dealers are using their CRM to manage the relationship with their customers. They are using their CRM to tell their “brand” by developing and managing long-lasting positive relationships and creating the ideal customer experience, while making customers for life.

This is only accomplished by offering a positive customer experience through marketing, prospecting, the entire sales process, the sales follow up, and service.

DATA VS LEADS

Dealers often neglect their customer database and spend too much time, money and effort into acquiring new leads through advertising and third-party lead providers; leads that often have very little information, and do not even have dealership exclusivity. If dealers focus only on attracting new customers and don’t serve their existing clientele, they run a serious risk of losing the loyal customers they previously worked so hard to acquire. The use of CRM allows a dealer to capture a valuable database of information that it can use to better the way it interacts with its customers, and increase customer retention.

Today, we know more about a customer than ever before. We know every call, email, letter, and text that has been sent. We know where they live, their phone numbers, their email addresses. We know every lead they have submitted, every vehicle they have ever looked at. We also know what vehicles they own or have previously owned. We know their service history and average repair order cost. We know the estimated mileage, trade value, and if the customer is in an equity position.

We have all of this data, but are you using it? Do you have processes in place to know and understand who your customers are? Dealerships need to access this data to cater marketing and follow-up to their customers with relevant and timely messages, through the customers preferred method of communication. Are your marketing efforts aimed at the 2 percent of people who are in the market for a new car or the 98 percent that are not?

CRM AND YOUR BRAND

Customers are loyal to a company or a business because of the quality of their product and/or the excellent customer service they receive. Because dealers do not have exclusivity on the products they sell, customers have many options when it comes to purchasing a new vehicle. With multiple dealerships selling the same cars, the distinguishing characteristic is often how you treat your customers. It’s not so much what you are selling, but how you are selling it. CRM technologies allow dealers to distinguish themselves by the service they provide. Dealers often talk about how they are dedicated to customer service, but applying it is an entirely different matter.

As mentioned before, your brand is determined from the relationship between the dealership and its customers. This evolves from hundreds of small interactions (leads, phone calls, emails, visits, service). These interactions add up to build or destroy the dealership’s brand. Since a majority of these interactions originate in the CRM, it is important that the CRM matches the brand or image you are trying to portray. A positive customer service experience must be applied to every customer touch point.

To your customers, branding is largely about faith; believing in something they can’t see, and trusting you when the dealership says, “We care.” Ultimately, people don’t trust companies, they trust people, making it critical to build this trust. When a salesperson says they are going to call the customer back tomorrow, the CRM needs to prompt the salesperson to call them. If a customer says they don’t want to receive any calls at home, that should be respected. They expect when you email or send in a lead that the dealership will be quick to respond. They trust that when they give you their email address that you are not just going to spam it, but give them something of value.

TODAY’S CUSTOMERS

Today’s customers do not want to be “sold.” Most often, by the time they’ve contacted a dealer, customers have done their due diligence. They just want someone to engage with, to help them, and to celebrate with them when they make their decision. Customers are more likely to do research on the company’s brand, such as looking at online reviews or social media posts regarding past customer experiences. Apart from price, why should customers buy from you? It should be all about the experience. With the use of CRM technologies, dealers can better serve their customers, speed up the sales process, and create a positive experience.

CRM EXAMPLES THAT DRIVE POSITIVE EXPERIENCES

Use CRM Desking multi-payments to present numbers and allow customers to choose their payment versus being pushed into a payment. This speeds up the negotiation process, improves CSI, and helps you hold gross.

When someone comes in looking for a used car you don’t have, instead of letting them leave, search your CRM with your prospect for customers you sold that vehicle to 3-4 years ago. Offer the owner of the possible trade a free car wash or oil change for bringing their car in.

Create customized business campaigns designed to send the right message, to the right person at the right time.

Integrate sales and service by introducing recently sold customers to the service department and to your website to set their first oil change. Then meet them in the service drive when they come in to follow up with the sale and ask for a referral.

Use the CRM’s data-mining tool to find specific customers in an equity position that could qualify for a lower payment by getting them into a new vehicle.

Incorporate a mobile CRM to allow your salespeople to be 24-hour salespeople, where they can enter and follow up with customers wherever they may be.

NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES

We can’t control every interaction, and negative experiences are bound to happen. But you can control how you react to negative experiences. You should make sure you have a way to uncover negative experiences through surveys. If you receive a negative survey you should quickly enroll those customers into a campaign where it notifies those that can correct the problem, and immediately reach out to resolve the customer’s issue. Communication is key to great customer service. Surprisingly, these customers become some of your best customers after you have spent time listening to them and resolving their issues. Learning from your mistakes is also an important aspect of good customer service. Documenting heated issues into the notes in your CRM helps to ensure you don’t make those same mistakes again.

REWARD LOYAL CUSTOMERS

Do you know who your most loyal and long-standing customers are, those who have bought more than four vehicles, or spent over $100,000 at your dealership? Use your CRM to identify and segment these customers so it will notify you when they visit your store. Create a customer appreciation campaign to thank your loyal customers and reward them for their repeat business. Offer sales and service discounts to entice them to continue to do business with you. Offer incentives for their referrals. Invite them to special VIP events, like new model introductions or a customer appreciation party.

Using a CRM will help you stay on top of your customers and ensure you’re being proactive in maintaining positive relationships, not just responding when something goes awry. Your CRM will be taken to the next level when combined with marketing, branding, and customer satisfaction. Dealers will be much more efficient when they use their CRM for more than just a storage bin for contacts. Fully utilizing your CRM to manage the relationship with your customers will help create a better overall experience for your customers, increase your CSI, and ultimately grow your brand.

About Hunter Swift

Hunter Swift is the Director of Sales Development at DealerSocket and has been with the company since 2005. In addition to his current role, he has fulfilled the responsibilities of customer support, consulting, training, and sales. Hunter specializes in helping dealerships improve sales and follow-up processes through the use of CRM technology. He is known for his ability to connect with people and demonstrate his knowledge to help others solve their problems. Hunter honed his dealership skills as a salesperson prior to joining DealerSocket. He has earned a Business Degree from Pepperdine University. Hunter can be reached at hswift@dealersocket.com and on social media at @HunterSwift.

When I sold cars I remember multiple times when the sales manager would tell the salespeople to make their daily follow-up calls and some salespeople would simply respond that they had completed their calls, even when they hadn't.  It became a constant battle.  Apart from not making the calls, these particular salespeople were notorious at finding ways to cut corners and cheat the system.  I know not all salespeople are like the ones I worked with but how do we encourage our salespeople to be accountable for their daily, weekly and monthly activities?

In today’s dealership, 80% of the leads received come through the phone and/or internet.  That means that 80% of your business is dependent on your salesperson’s ability to schedule appointments that drive people into the showroom.  CRM utilization becomes critical when managing these processes that are attached to your leads.

A CRM tool should allow salespeople to achieve new levels of production with unsold AND repeat customers, thereby increasing their personal incomes.  CRM enables salespeople to work more efficiently, be better organized, and better manage time and relationships.  The benefit to the dealership is that managers have access to reports that enables them to monitor all activities and can help coach and motivate each salesperson.

The reason accountability was low at the dealership where I worked was because the managers weren’t doing their job of monitoring what was going on every day at the dealership.  What they thought was being done in the dealership often wasn’t and they had no concrete way to show that it was or was not happening.

In order to help improve accountability I suggest utilizing these reports to track the number of new opportunities that your salespeople are entering into the CRM.  Nothing is worse than seeing someone take multiple ups and not having any of the customers entered into the CRM.  A rule many dealers have is “if it isn’t in the CRM, it didn’t happen”.  If everything is not getting put into your CRM, it throws off your marketing and ROI reports.

The second key metric is phone calls.  It is important that your CRM is integrated with your phone system in order to track outbound phone calls.  Having your salespeople mark all of their calls completed is one thing, but it’s better if there is proof that they actually made the call and how long they were on the call.  Looking at the data that I have compiled, the top salespeople are constantly those who take the time and make the most calls.  If your state allows it, I suggest recording your calls. This is great for managing quality and training. Make sure you are also monitoring inbound calls.  It is easy to think since the customer is calling you that it might not need to be monitored like the outbound calls, but most customers are calling multiple dealerships and this is often the first contact the customer has with your dealership.  If your salespeople don’t handle inbound and outbound calls correctly it will ultimately affect your conversion rate.

E-mail and weblead tracking is also important.  You need to know how many e-mails the salespeople are receiving and sending out, as well as how long it is taking them to respond to their webleads.

Salespeople love people that come in and buy, but what about those that don’t buy or those that they talk to but are hard to get in touch with afterward?  Are they reaching out to them?  Make sure you are looking at reports that reflect this data.

Pipeline Management is a key for success.  When salespeople get busy, the first thing thrown off their plate is prospecting. When sales people stop prospecting, the pipeline eventually runs dry. Make sure when you are tracking calls that you know what types of calls the salespeople are making and that there is always a focus on prospecting.  Salespeople also have a tendency to move people to Lost.  Often, this is a way to get the CRM follow-up to stop or to hide those customers they did badly with.  Do you have a review process in place for a manager to look at each lost deal and try to “save a deal”?

Some CRM tools have a daily activity report or check out report that shows everything the salesperson has done for the day (ups, appointments, calls, talk time, e-mails).  One dealership with which I was working had a problem with accountability, so they instituted a new process: before a salesperson left for the day they would print out a report and give it to their manager to check out.  The report told the manager everything they had done as well as all of their calls (Daily To Dos) that they didn’t complete.  Quickly, managers were able to see what had been done and what had not been done.  Often, the manager would send the salesperson back to make more calls before they left.  Salespeople began to feel ashamed when they handed a manager their sheet that said they didn’t do anything which motivated them to make more calls.  The dealership drastically improved their follow up process and began to see an immediate increase in their sales.

Having a plan and setting goals is also an essential part of improving accountability.  It is crucial for salespeople to establish a set of daily, weekly and monthly benchmarks that help them measure and manage their ultimate goal.  If the goal of each salesperson is to sell X amount of cars, don’t focus on the end goal, but actually the activities that will help them reach that goal. It also helps if the salespeople are included in setting the goals.  If you do this, they should have a personal stake in the outcome.  Without inclusion, salespeople will figure out the best excuses in the world why they can’t achieve.

If you have a salesperson who isn’t taking responsibility then you may need to mentor them individually.  Focus on their behavior and the problems it is causing and not on the person.  They need to be held accountable for their actions which can include low prospecting activity, not meeting sales targets, or low margin sales.

As accountability grows, your salespeople will form a good habit of doing the things they must do on a regular basis and will help them on their way to becoming a top producing salesperson.

Hunter Swift is the Director of Sales Development at DealerSocket and has been with the company since 2005. In addition to his current role he has fulfilled the responsibilities of customer support, consulting, training, and sales. He specializes in helping dealerships improve processes through the use of CRM technology. Prior to DealerSocket he sold cars and is a graduate of Pepperdine University.

Follow him: @HunterSwift

As a vendor, these last couple weeks were pretty busy as we prepared for NADA.  It is amazing how much goes into an event like this in order to be successful.  NADA consists of some very long days and my body is still trying to recover.  The show was very good for us and I imagine it was for others as well.

The first thing that stood out to me; dealers had positive outlooks on the current and future conditions of the auto industry.  Dealers were eagerly looking for new and innovative products to buy.  There are sure a lot of vendors out there now.  Competition is good; it sparks innovation and keeps vendors having to improve in order to keep being competitive.

As dealers shopped different vendors it was interesting for me to hear what the technology, features, and benefits they liked.  But what was more interesting to me this year, was how many dealers seemed very interested in learning more about the companies, the leaders, the culture and its employees.

I heard multiple times dealers say they do business with people who they like.  I heard others say, it was important for them to really know and trust the people they give their money to.  Apart from technology, they also seemed interested in the customer service, the support and the company’s reputation in the industry and what their customers had to say about the company and its employees.

 I feel privileged to work for a company (DealerSocket) that prides itself for being a moral and ethical company.  A company that takes pride in offering services to dealers that they sincerely want to help be successful and works hard to make sure its customers can trust and respect them.  Working with people who have character, are trustworthy, honest, moral and ethical goes a long way and makes working with them a pleasure.  And these types of behaviors do not just come from how they perform when they are working but even when they are not.   This helps customers know that they can rely on us and we will be there for them when there is a need.

I think this can also apply to dealerships.  Apart from the design of the dealership, inventory, advertising and tools they use; customers also ultimately buy from those people who they like.  We need the customers to know they can trust and respect dealerships. This ultimately comes from their interaction with the people that work at your dealership.  Is moral and ethics an important part of your dealership and business model? Is it in-line with your personal morals and ethics?

Hunter

Hunter Swift is the Director of Sales Development at DealerSocket and has been with the company since 2005. In addition to his current role he has fulfilled the responsibilities of customer support, consulting, training, and sales. He specializes in helping dealerships improve processes through the use of CRM technology. Prior to DealerSocket he sold cars and is a graduate of Pepperdine University.

Follow him: @HunterSwift

I was recently reading an article on DrivingSales from Keith Shettery called Traffic Is Everything about the focus and solution for most dealerships in driving more traffic. Although I agree with Keith that driving traffic is important, I think an important part that is missing, is that most dealers look to drive traffic through "online reputation, SEO, PPC, CPM, websites, cable TV, radio, print, direct mail, email", etc and then we hope salespeople will use the CRM or even enter the traffic that comes into the dealership in the CRM.

There always seems to be this focus on leads and traffic that cost dealers money for a lead with little information and not even guarantied exclusivity. At every tradeshow I attend, almost all the speakers talk about driving more traffic. I agree with Keith that "traffic is everything" I wanted to write this article becuase I feel dealers should be focused using their CRM and driving traffic from existing data.

In your CRM you now know more about your customers than any time before or with any lead. We know:

• Every Call, Email, Letter, Text…
• Mailing Address, Phone Numbers, Email.
• Every Lead and Vehicle they have looked at.
• What Vehicle they own, have owned.
• Service History, Average RO.
• Estimated Mileage.
• Trade Value, Equity.
• Previous Deal Structure.
• Communication Preference.
• Bank Programs, Manufacture Incentives.
• plus more.

If you have access to all this data you should be using it to cater marketing and follow-up to that customer to drive traffic. Instead dealers are spending the majority of the effort and money to drive traffic marketing to the 98% that are not in the market versus focusing on the 2% that’s in the market.

Just look at the comparison between a Floor Up, Internet Lead and a Repeat Customer:

• Fresh Up: Closing 10%, Gross: Average, CSI: Average, Ad Spend: 70%
• Internet Lead: Closing 40%, Gross: Low, CSI: High, Ad Spend: 15%
• Repeat Customer: Closing 60%, Gross: High, CSI: High, Ad Spend: 5%

But where do most dealership focus their attention? Driving new traffic.

Most dealers don’t even know how to handle the traffic they do get. If 80% of your leads come from the phone and internet that means 80% of your “Success” is dependent on Appointments. And according to a DealerSocket research study of 346 dealers and 1,956,624 calls only 6% even included an attempt to set an appointment. Talk about missing huge opportunities with new traffic!

It doesn’t get any better on the lot. I attended Keith Shetterly’s session at Automotive Boot Camp this year where he said, “Only 25% to 35% of dealership visits get put into the CRM.” Dealers, Yikes! This means your marketing and analytics data could be off by over 75%!

If you initiate traffic from your CRM your salespeople are more likely to use it. Get your salespeople to think of their CRM as a pump; where the more they work the CRM the more that comes out of it.

Driving traffic is important. You have to look at what you are doing to drive traffic and manage the traffic efficiently. CRM's have an important role in this. I believe it is all about sending the right message, to the right person, at the right time.

Here is a list of marketing campaign ideas that yield high traffic returns:

• A customer life cycle (customer for life)
• Finance termination
• Extended warranty
• We want your trade
• Declined services
• Aftermarket accessories
• Customers in equity
• Bought elsewhere, service introduction
• High customer pay RO to new vehicle
• Future model introduction
• Lead escalation
• Sales notification of a customer in service


and the list goes on…

I would love to talk with any dealer who is looking to successfully drive more traffic to their store through the use of their CRM, regardless of which vendor.

Thanks Keith for sharing and inspiring me to write something.

Hunter

Hunter Swift is the Director of Sales Development at DealerSocket and has been with the company since 2005. In addition to his current role he has fulfilled the responsibilities of customer support, consulting, training, and sales. He specializes in helping dealerships improve processes through the use of CRM technology. Prior to DealerSocket he sold cars and is a graduate of Pepperdine University.

Follow him: @HunterSwift

I was recently talking to a dealer who has been incorporating YouTube videos into his emails and marketing efforts. I noticed an issue and have been unable to come up with a fix or work around and wanted to reach out to the Automotive Industry for help. The issue has to do with YouTube’s Recommended Videos.

Scenario:

Dealer records and publish a video to YouTube… “Why Buy From Us”.

He embeds it into an email to send to his customers.

Customer clicks on Video Thumbnail and watches video.

After the video concludes YouTube populates 16 Videos they recommend (As well as 20 Suggested Videos on side of page).

The issue is the videos it is populating as recomended/suggested are for the dealership’s competitors.

I have searched all through the channel setting and I see no way to turn this off.

If it is your video on your channel it seems like you should be able to control this.

But YouTube is free to use, so I maybe we cant do anything about it.

Really hoping some knows something or could offer some help. Is there any way you can influence what is being shown? 

Thanks.

Hunter Swift is the Director of Sales Development at DealerSocket and has been with the company since 2005. In addition to his current role he has fulfilled the responsibilities of customer support, consulting, training, and sales. He specializes in helping dealerships improve processes through the use of CRM technology. Prior to DealerSocket he sold cars and is a graduate of Pepperdine University.

Follow him: @HunterSwift

Current technology is geared toward mobility, convenience, easy accessibility of information, and staying connected. I can still recall a time when a cell phone was something of luxury; a commodity that only a few select considered a need. Today, according to Erin Touponse, President of the ElmGroup Consulting, “92% of adults in the U.S. own smart phones.” Society has gone mobile! This is something of a phenomenon when you consider how dependent we have become to our mobile devices. If you’ve ever gone a day without your mobile device, then you must know the anxiety that begins to set in from feeling a sense of disconnection from “the world.” Technology has also empowered consumers by allowing them the amenity of information at all times. With such a shift in the buying process, naturally, businesses must adapt to their customer’s buying habits and mimic the way in which a customer prefers to communicate. For these reasons, dealerships cannot help but to implement a mobile CRM tool, that enables them to mobilize their reps, add convenience to the buying process, empower them with product information, and maintain a connection with their customers.

Utilizing a Mobile CRM application is helping dealers capture 39% more fresh ups. It also helps creates a transparent and convenient customer experience. One dealer, after implementing a Mobile CRM app, noted that “customers seem more comfortable giving their information to staff when they are standing in front of them with an iPad or smart phone, rather than the employee needing to run to a computer. This allows the dealership to capture more data, more quickly, which leads to better follow-up by the salespeople.” Putting the customer in a comfortable situation to make a buying decision is fundamental, seeing as how people can research to the point of exhaustion when buying a car. Touponse states that “individuals will spend a total of 19 hours researching a car purchase.” A convenient customer experience should minimize the time it takes to complete a vehicle purchase, something a Mobile CRM app can help achieve by enabling the sales representative to easily log in information on the lot or on a demo. With more data captured, the follow-up process becomes very effective and allows for improvement by measuring sales results from marketing processes.

The Hawthorne Effect which says that “what gets measured gets improved,” rings true in an industry where measuring ROI is a key factor to success and maintaining business doors open. By fully integrating the Mobile app with the core CRM, the CRM tool is able to track inbound and outbound calls, linking customer records to such calls and logging in completed activities. A sales representative can also respond to inbound leads and “stop the clock.” By putting a stop to the “clock” sooner with the Mobile CRM app, the dealership can better qualify for special manufacturer incentives and bonuses, which is based on the response time to a lead. Because the Mobile app enables its users the ability to access key functionalities 24/7, it increases the capacity to measure and improve employee and dealership performance. Such key functionalities like: inventory searchability, VIN barcode scanning, quick sales event creation, the ability to receive and respond to new lead alerts and to-dos, the ability to email or text electronic vehicle brochures, and usability of email templates when responding or sending a new email. Sales reps should be excited at the fact that they can do what they do best; engage with customers on the lot in a more personable fashion and not be bogged down behind the desk.

A Mobile CRM app also assists the needs of managers. With a Mobile app, managers are able to not only manage multiple dealerships with a mobile sales dashboard, but also oversee the activity of the dealership, even to the point of knowing what an individual sales person has pending or up-and-coming on their plate. In so many ways, a Mobile app enables dealerships to track and measure multiple actions that are then reflected back on the actual desktop CRM. With a Mobile app, the power of the desktop CRM is now at the palm of the user’s hand.

A Mobile CRM should also enable its user to communicate with a customer via phone, email, and text without the need of a computer. Text messaging specifically is something that is not too often considered as a means to improve the customer’s buying experience. Having all three modes of communication puts the dealership in a position to give the customer choices to be communicated with in the manner that fits with their lifestyle. It is plain to see, when people have the choice to communicate using their mobile device, that some people prefer texting, some are more email inclined, and others opt for a simple phone call. According to a poll taken by Nielsen in 2012 to 2013, 94.4% of smartphone users send text messages on their devices, while 87% of US smartphone owners regularly send and receive texts on their devices. The same poll noted that US women text on their mobile phones 14% more than men. With such staggering statistics on texting, it behooves a dealership to leverage this technology on their Mobile CRM app for their sales and service departments.

Staying with the times and adapting to the communicative trends of consumers is key to, what Ron Willingham, author of “Integrity Selling For The 21^st Century,” says is “selling the way people want to buy.” A mobile application that gives dealerships the edge in enabling fluid communication, sales, and marketing processes, is the turnkey solution that differentiates “old school” from “new school.” With a reliable Mobile CRM app dealerships can expect to have mobility, convenience, easy accessibility of information, and stay connected with their customers to be a part of their social network.

Do you have a reliable Mobile app that ingrates with your CRM?

Is it downloadable now on iTunes and Android?

What success stories have you experienced with Mobile CRM?

Hunter Swift is the Manager of Market Development at DealerSocket and has been with the company since 2005. In addition to his current role he has fulfilled the responsibilities of customer support, consulting, training, and sales. He specializes in helping dealerships improve processes through the use of CRM technology. Prior to DealerSocket he sold cars and is a graduate of Pepperdine University.

Follow him: @HunterSwift

There has been much talk recently about “Big Data” which, to me, only emphasizes the importance of "Clean" Data. According to Kurt Bollacker, “Data that is loved tends to survive.” Having clean data is necessary for you to extract revenue from your most precious resource: your customer and prospect database. Clean data increases opportunities, saves money, and helps you maintain a positive reputation with satisfied customers. Luckily, there are tools available to dealers that can help keep data clean and updated with the NCOA, CASS, DNC, Phone/Email Validation and Phone/Email Append.

Increased Opportunities Come When:

The mailer you recently sent doesn’t go to the customer’s old address, as your customer recently moved to a new address. Your mailer arrived at the proper address because your data has been updated with the National Change of Address (NCOA).

Your mailer for the huge tent sale this weekend is received prior to the event, not after, because your data has gone through the CASS Standardization process with the USPS.

Your BDC or Salesperson can set that appointment instead of throwing away the lead due to lack of phone numbers.  Ensure you have appended cell numbers and landlines that are incorrect or missing in your database.

You are able to append/add email addresses to customer records, helping your next email marketing campaign be successful. 


Money Is Saved When:

You recently sent a mailer; a few weeks later, you don’t have a huge pile of returned mail sitting on your desk because your data was scrubbed against the NCOA.

Your BDC or Call Center is not wasting time calling bad numbers because your database has had the phone numbers validated.

You can now send an email to your customer/prospect instead of a letter due to the appended email addresses you now have because of email appends.

Your Reputation is Maintained When:

Your mailers are making it directly to their intended recipient, rather than being forwarded from their previous address, or thrown away by the new homeowner at the old address.

Your Sales or BDC Team is not calling on customers and prospects that are on the “Do Not Call List.”

Invalid email addresses are eliminated, effectively reducing the number of “hard bounces” on transmission. 

The email validation process helps protect the broadcasting IP from domain-level filtration and IP “blacklisting.”

If hundreds of thousands, even millions, are spent annually to market to prospects and get them in your database, shouldn’t a fraction of that money be budgeted to show your data the love?

Hunter Swift is the Manager of Market Development at DealerSocket and has been with the company since 2005. In addition to his current role he has fulfilled the responsibilities of customer support, consulting, training, and sales. He specializes in helping dealerships improve processes through the use of CRM technology. Prior to DealerSocket he sold cars and is a graduate of Pepperdine University.

Follow him: @HunterSwift

Having a “good” online reputation can send many new customers your way. However, a negative online reputation can cost a business in lost revenue. We are asking our customers to rate us, and Yelp is one of the biggest online reviews sites. But some businesses aren’t happy with how Yelp is handling their reviews.

Yelp has an automated filter/algorithm that suppresses reviews they deem ‘suspicious.’  It’s doesn’t always seem either consistent or fair, but that’s the way it is.

A friend of mine recently posted this on facebook of her husband's medical practice.:

"Yelp cannot be trusted - they are extorting small businesses!! Because my husband will not pay Yelp's advertising fees, they have blocked all 17 of his five star reviews, and only posted his 4 negative ones, 3 of which are posted by patients who are not in his patient records (fake patients). Yelp has been informed that these patients are not in my husband's records, and will not remove them."

Yelp says it filters reviews from lesser known reviewers until there is "trust" established, so reviews do NOT show up and are not counted in the tally. They also filter reviews from new members who have a slew of 5-star or 1-star reviews. So much for only review those businesses you really like or only review businesses when they have wronged you. 

Although it stated on the Yelp FAQ "The sort algorithm does not take into account whether the business is an advertiser or not." and "Businesses cannot pay for favorable treatment." Some have been told "You'll get bad reviews unless you purchase advertising with us". 

One Business Owner stated "Yelp algorithm filters out good reviews from businesses that are not willing to spend $500/month advertising on Yelp."  

Another business stated,  "I've had my business listed for well over a year, and have enjoyed only five star reviews. Two weeks ago I was solicited by Yelp to purchase advertising. I declined... Another five star review came in this week, but this one got filtered."

Apparently Yelp was just hit with a class action lawsuit for its data mining algorithm. So it will be interesting to see what the future holds. 

While I am not completely convinced that Yelp is extorting money from businesses, I am 100% convinced that their review filter algorithm needs alot of work.

As dealers have you notice your reviews being filtered? Have you been told that if you advertise there was any benefit to your reviews?

What are your thoughts?

Hunter Swift 

Follow him: @HunterSwift

I was recently talking to a dealer about how to handle his "No longer owned" vehicles in his CRM. I was surprised to learn that his CRM didn't have this feature. In my opinion, having a CRM with the ability to automatically Inactivate Vehicles, is one of those features that is a must have.

DealerSocket has 4 ways we recognize a vehicle as “No longer owned” (inactivated) on individual customer records.

1.       Vehicle Trade In - Customer Trades in their car that they originally purchased from the same dealership.

Ex. Bob buys a 2003 GMC Yukon from ABC dealership, 5 years later… I decide to trade that same vehicle to ABC dealership and buy another car.  The DMS sends DealerSocket this information as part of the Sold Transaction and we recognize that the Trade In was a car Bob previously purchased and we “Inactivate it” as a vehicle that is no longer owned on that customer record.

2.       Closed RO - A Service Customer closes a repair order on a vehicle that another customer originally purchased from the dealership.

Ex. Bob buys a 2003 GMC Yukon from ABC dealership, 5 years later… Bob sells the vehicle privately to John.  John decides to service that vehicle at ABC dealership.  DealerSocket recognizes that a different customer now owns that vehicle and “Inactivates” that vehicle on Bob’s customer record.

3.       Email Marketing - A customer receives an Email from the dealership and clicks on a link telling the dealer they no longer own the car referenced in the email.

Ex. A dealer might decide to enable a campaign targeting customers that purchased 3 years ago, offering to purchase their vehicles.  When customers click on the link stating they no longer own their vehicle, DealerSocket knows to no longer market to customers based on that Year, Make, and Model that was inactivated.  All ongoing service reminders, recall notices, and tailored messages based on that vehicle will be stopped.

4.       Service Scheduler - Service Appointment Scheduling Process

Ex. A customer decides to either book an appointment through the mobile garage, website, or over the phone.  As part of that process, the customer can easily tell the dealer through that process that they no longer own certain vehicles.

The true value of a CRM is its ability to send TARGETED RELEVANT messages to customers/prospects. 

The result of doing CRM right through automatically inactivating vehicles:

1.       Improves Campaign ROI by helping dealers spend less on collateral

2.       Opt outs are decreased due to more relevant targeted messages being sent

3.       Customer CSI goes up because customers aren’t annoyed

4.       Database management is improved by having ongoing updates to vehicle ownership on customers

Hunter Swift is the Manager of Market Development at DealerSocket and has been with the company since 2005. In addition to his current role he has fulfilled the responsibilities of customer support, consulting, training, and sales. He specializes in helping dealerships improve processes through the use of CRM technology. Prior to DealerSocket he sold cars and is a graduate of Pepperdine University.

Follow him: @HunterSwift