Dallas, TX –May 21, 2012 – RedBumper, (http://redbumper.com/), a new breed automotive inventory management company, today announced the release of an entire suite of Service Drive and Sales Equity tools for its dealers, SmartDrive. SmartDrive very efficiently allows a dealer to identify in real-time customers coming through their service drive that are in a positive equity position.  By mining the data from the dealership's sales history, SmartDrive determines the approximate payoff for any service customer’s auto loan and compares this payoff amount to local auction prices. Customers with positive equity are identified and the sales managers are alerted, creating the ultimate process for capitalizing on service drive opportunities. 

"SmartDrive goes way beyond just identifying vehicles in the dealer's service drive with positive equity, said Bruce Thompson CEO and founder of RedBumper.   “While there are a few companies out there in the market that do this today, the real key is to understand and develop a process that allows the dealer to capitalize on the opportunities.  SmartDrive integrates these vehicles directly into a manager's appraisal cue each day.  With a simple click, the manager gets every detail needed to evaluate the value of the vehicle, including information on the original salesperson.  Once a value is determined, the manager simply clicks and the system will find every new and used vehicle in their current inventory that they can sell to the customer today, for the exact same payment or less.”

RedBumper’s calculations use the customer's existing equity as a down payment and the manager selects the optimal replacement units to present based on profitability.  The salesperson meets the customer in the service drive when he comes to pick up his vehicle.  The message is very simple;  “We need your car and you can be driving a brand new one today, with no money down and the same payment you have today."

According to industry statistics, it's estimated that 20-25% of service drive customers have positive equity in their vehicles; for every 100 customers, the dealer has 20-25 opportunities to turn service into sales.  RedBumper allows both service writers and salespeople to download its apps for free.   Based on credentials, users view only the information management wants them to see. However, by leveraging Smartphone technology, instant alerts can notify all parties that the service customer has either dropped off his vehicle, or arrived to pick it up. Through seamless integration, the information instantly flows into the used car manager's appraisal workflow each day, creating the ultimate process for capitalizing on service drive opportunities.   

RedBumper also harvests leads from historical sales.  Using algorithms similar to those used in the service drive, it determines which vehicles are in positive equity position today.  These are fresh new leads that can be worked every day.  These units are automatically sent to the manager's appraisal cue each day as well as emailed to him each morning.  

“Now dealers can dramatically increase sales by simply using their own historical data in the right way,” said Thompson.  “One North Carolina dealer sold 23 units out of his service drive alone last month, and he's just getting started!  The real beauty is not only can dealers sell new vehicles, but also acquire great pre-owned inventory in a tight market.  The dealer knows all the service history of these pre-owned vehicles so he knows what he's getting when he buys or trades for the vehicle.  The reason customers go to a competitor is because the dealer hasn't been on his game.  Done properly, with the right tools, the dealer's own customer base should be replacing vehicles every 3-4 years. Add that to new sales and you can understand why each and every new customer is so valuable.  It's like compound interest."

SmartDrive is automatically integrated into RedBumper's base product, or it can be purchased stand alone at a substantial discount to current tools on the market.

About RedBumper:

For more information about RedBumper call: 1-888-339-1116, or visit, www.RedBumper.com

Leading automotive website and marketing provider adds industry veteran to executive team

DealerFire, a custom automotive website design and digital marketing company located in Oshkosh, WI is proud to announce an addition to their executive team.  Leif Richards will assume the role of Vice President of Web Services, a well deserved promotion.  

Kicking off his automotive career with DealerFire at its inception, Richards and DealerFire shared milestones as the company successfully expanded.  Richards uncovered a passion through the years and has since been able to touch every corner of the automotive industry with his work at DealerFire.

 “For the past 7 years Leif has lived DealerFire 24/7 with the passion, commitment and 360 degree vision deserving of an executive role.  I’m so pleased today to make this announcement official,” said owner and founder Eric Hoopman.

As the company grew, Richards not only worked in each department, he structured them, from accounting to his current role as Director of Support.  Richards will apply that experience, as well as the processes and client care he implemented as he moves into his new role.

"First class customer service is the bedrock that DealerFire was built on, and I am excited to bring my unique perspective to this position.  There is no substitute for treating people the right way and this philosophy will be evident throughout our web services divisions," said Leif Richards.

As Vice President of Web Services, Richards will facilitate and further supervise a seamless DealerFire experience for their clients.

“Leif has a lot of raving fans around DealerFire and the industry as a whole.  He’s got a world class personality and a deep care for our customers, partners, employees and their success.  He will make a great addition to the DealerFire Executive Team,” said Hoopman.

Richards familiarity with the company's internal elements, DealerFire team, and automotive industry combined with his pay it forward approach to business spoke volumes to the Executive Team.

"We have the responsibility to ensure that our clients receive a consistently superior experience from the first design call to the last support request, and at every point in between.  When you combine this approach with our award winning digital product line, it is easy to see why we hold an edge on our competition," said Richards.

To learn more about DealerFire's award winning custom automotive websites, digital marketing and Leif Richards, please visit www.dealerfire.com

Digital Air Strike Releases First Automotive Study to Include Both Consumer and Dealership Activity on Social Media and Review Sites

Study shows 69% of car buyers use social media in their dealership selection process yet many dealerships are not effectively engaging with social media-savvy consumers

Sunnyvale, CA (May 16, 2012) – Digital Air Strike™, the nation’s leading full-service automotive social media and online reputation management company, today announced the publication of the industry’s first 2012 Automotive Dealership Social Media and Online Reputation Study. Findings demonstrate that automotive dealerships need to increase engagement with car shoppers on social networks and review sites during the car buying process, as the study shows the importance placed on these networks by consumers.

The study, completed in April 2012, is the first automotive-specific study to analyze both the use of social media and review sites by car buyers during the dealership selection process while concurrently auditing how car dealerships engage with consumers on these sites. The study measured usage trends on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ while identifying the top four dealership review sites, based on consumer use and traffic.  

The consumer study surveyed 275 car buyers who purchased a vehicle in the last six months. It was found that the majority of car buyers utilize social media sites during the car purchase process. The study revealed that the top four review sites used to determine dealership selection, as ranked by consumers in the study, were Edmunds (22%), Cars.com (20%), and Yelp and Google Reviews (both at 19%). Highlights include:

• 69% of consumers said social media sites helped their vehicle purchase decision
• 68% of car shoppers said that dealership reviews impacted which dealership they visited when shopping for a vehicle
• 50% of consumers said that reading reviews affirmed their original choice of dealership, and 18% of consumers said they either selected a dealership based on the reviews they read or changed their choice of dealership after reading reviews on multiple dealerships

The dealership audit included 600 automotive retailers, including all major brands, from across the United States. The study compared engagement levels from 300 dealerships that managed their social media marketing “in-house” and 300 dealerships that used a social media vendor to manage their social media sites and online reputation. 

Findings from the study include that the majority of dealers that try to manage social media activities in-house are not effectively leveraging social media as a communications channel. In fact, 90% of the auto dealerships that manage social media marketing in-house did not respond to negative online reviews and 95% did not respond to positive reviews, despite the growing importance placed on reviews by consumers during their dealership selection process. Highlights include:

• 79% of dealers that used a social media partner had a Google+ page, yet only 2% of dealers that managed their social media in-house had a Google+ presence.
• Only 27% of dealers managing social media in-house utilized “crowd sourcing” techniques as compared to 87% of dealers that worked with a social media partner.
• Dealers using social media partners had more than double the number of followers on the top two social media sites:
  • Dealers managing Facebook in-house averaged 350 “likers” as compared to 770 “likers” for dealers that worked with a social media partner
  • Dealers managing Twitter in-house averaged 121 “followers” as compared to 214 “followers” for dealers that worked with a social media partner

“This ground-breaking study highlights the importance of social networks and review sites in the car buying process,” said Alexi Venneri, co-founder, CMO and COO-Social Media of Digital Air Strike.  “Dealers who work with a social media partner can gain a significant advantage from increases in  consumer engagement and related website traffic.”

A webinar detailing full study results and research methodology complete with best practice examples and ROI tips will be broadcast on May 22, 2012. To sign up for the webinar visit: www.digitalairstrike.com/getsocialnow.

About Digital Air Strike

Digital Air Strike provides the industry’s most complete automotive social media and digital marketing solution. The company developed a turnkey program that includes fully managing social media sites, online reputation and digital lead responses for dealerships nationwide. The company offers multiple tiers of service ranging from targeted social media and review site management to comprehensive multi-vehicle quoting with behavioral targeting capabilities. Digital Air Strike’s expertise spans all manufacturer brands and has a proven track record of helping automotive dealers, dealership groups and manufacturers engage with more consumers while delivering increased website traffic.  Additional information is available at www.DigitalAirStrike.com  and  www.facebook.com/digitalairstrike.

Media Contact: 

Charlie Vogelheim   I  cvogelheim@digitalairstrike.com  I   949.929.0716

Houston, Texas, May 14, 2012 -- CAR-Research XRM, a single-source CRM solution uniquely branded as; “XRM, Exceeding CRM”, today announced the addition of a new “Prospecting the Household” feature to its CRM that helps auto dealers unearth a potential goldmine of prospective vehicle buyers and capture more sales through their CRM.

The new “Prospecting the Household” scripts, built right into the CRM, are designed to farm the database for Repeats, Referrals (family members/co-workers), Service Customers, as well as Orphans Owners, to find the 2% of customers that are in the market to buy a new or used vehicle this month. The scripts prompt the sales person to “prospect the household” with a word track that walks the salesperson through a professional, courteous conversation. The feature guides the salesperson to make an introduction as the point of contact at the dealership, find out if the customer still owns the vehicle they purchased and if they are in the market for a new one.  

The salesperson is also prompted to gather information about the household such as: the number of drivers in the family, number of vehicles in the family, drivers’ names, if any are currently in the market for a vehicle, the type of vehicle they drive, monthly payment amount and estimated pay off. Using CAR-Research’s “Prospecting the Household” tool, salespeople can create a customer out of that prospect and schedule follow-up if the customer is soon to be in the market. This process has proven highly effective in identifying potential buyers.

“Dealers talk about wishing that they had a Business Development Center, and what they don’t realize is that they have one right on the showroom floor.   The average salesperson, according to NADA stats, only works 1 hour and 45 minutes of productive activity in a 9.5 hour day.  Imagine if you could get 20 salespeople to work 5 productive hours per day.  You would get 100 hours per day of business development activities out of your sales team,” said Patrick Kelly, CAR-Research XRM President and COO.

 “The problem is if you tell them to go to work, they don’t know what to do. If you tell them what to do, they don’t know what to say. So, you’ve got to have a CRM tool that tells them what to do, and a CRM tool that tells them what to say.  Our new “Prospecting the Household” feature is helping to uncover a huge amount of very high quality leads and sales for our auto dealer customers that at were right in their data base all along. And let’s not forget that

 be-backs, repeats and referrals close on average at 60%, versus 10% for fresh showroom ups and Internet Leads.”

CAR-Research XRM has developed a proven singular solution that helps an auto dealership run more effectively and proficiently. It is a web-based, comprehensive CRM solution that helps increase revenue from sales and service, improve customer satisfaction index (CSI) and service satisfaction index (SSI), and boost the dealership’s gross profit. A dealership can consolidate all its departments into a manageable solution that delivers value through proven processes at every stage of the customer life cycle.

The XRM platform offers over 50 CRM and Marketing Applications, including Internet Lead Mgr, Showroom Control, Desking with DMS push, Websites, Call Center, Integrated Telephony, Mobile XRM, Inventory Control Manager, Service Drive Control Manager©, and Social CRM. The XRM integration model allows dealers to eliminate redundant vendors and save money on their customer relationship efforts by bundling custom solutions for their store.

About CAR-Research XRM:

CAR-Research XRM provides auto dealerships with a comprehensive single-source CRM solution and has been helping dealerships grow their business and increase profits since 1994. Its founders worked in the retail automotive industry for years before forming CAR-Research XRM.

Using this experience and industry knowledge, the company built its dealership solution one piece at a time, resulting in the industry’s most advanced single-source dealer solution, one that exceeds traditional CRM's. For more information visit www.CAR-Research.com or call 800-376-5918

Cars.com, the premier online resource for buying and selling new and used vehicles, announced today that it has introduced BaseDrive™, an evolution of its online advertising package helping franchise dealers better promote their brand, reputation and new-car inventory on Cars.com.  The introduction coincides with the first wave of planned site enhancements designed to better align the new-car shopping experience on Cars.com with the needs of today’s consumers. 

“New-car sales are back, and more shoppers than ever are taking to the internet to make the best choices, not only about what car to buy, but where to buy it,” said Mitch Golub, president, Cars.com.  “BaseDrive introduces new-car features to our online advertising package that help franchise dealers promote the value of their dealership, not just their inventory, and it’s all designed to drive more new-car business with Cars.com’s audience of in-market car shoppers.” 

BaseDrive enhances franchise dealers’ existing online advertising package with increased brand exposure, automated merchandising features and comprehensive reporting specifically customized for a dealer’s new-car sales process.  Ad packages for franchise dealers in most markets have been automatically upgraded to BaseDrive.

Optimized Brand Exposure

“Dealers work hard to provide a great experience to their customers and differentiate themselves in their markets,” said David Gilmartin, director, New-Car Strategy.  “BaseDrive brings all that hard work to life on Cars.com by integrating a dealership’s story and reputation throughout a consumer’s new-car search process.”

On the new Dealer Profile Page, dealers showcase their unique value through a personalized narrative, a promotional tagline, dealership photos and videos, multiple contact options, sales and service hours and prominently featured Dealer Reviews. 

Shoppers can also group search results by dealer and sort by Dealer Reviews, making it easier to assess vehicle availability at the dealership level and helping them make a more confident and informed decision about where to buy.  These pages now feature more dealer-level information, such as Dealer Review ratings and a promotional tagline, better showcasing a dealership’s brand. 

Optimized New-Car Merchandising

Cars.com will now automatically include one color-matched stock photo on search result and vehicle details pages of every new-car listing when dealer-supplied photos are unavailable, offering a better consumer experience in addition to providing an automated, impactful vehicle merchandising solution for the dealer. 

“When it comes to inventory merchandising, our research has shown that photos are one of the top items shoppers want to see, yet it can be time-consuming for dealers to take photos of every new vehicle on their lot,” said Gilmartin.  “BaseDrive makes including photos a turnkey part of the merchandising process.”

Optimized Way of Gauging Exposure and Engagement

“We’ve seen dynamic changes in the way consumers shop for new vehicles online, and one of our top priorities in launching BaseDrive is to give dealers better insight into that activity than ever before,” said Gilmartin.  “BaseDrive Market Intelligence Reports convey how a dealership’s performance with new-car shoppers stacks up against that of its competitors, as well as key market trends and predictive data that help dealers make better decisions for their business.”

BaseDrive’s Market Intelligence Reports track a dealer’s share of total consumer exposure and engagement in their market, showing how often shoppers see information about their dealership, as well as the level of consumer interaction they capture on Cars.com in relation to the rest of their market.  The reports also show how the dealership’s inventory turn rate on Cars.com stacks up against its competitors, helping them gauge the pace of their sales compared to the market average. 

Finally, Cars.com has partnered with Dataium, the largest aggregator of internet automotive shopping activity, to provide key new-car market trends in the BaseDrive Market Intelligence Report, including predicted consumer demand and trend forecasts for selected makes and models, all provided at the national and regional levels.  The first report, based on data collected in May, will be available in June.

More information about BaseDrive’s new features, including an introductory video, can be found at dealers.cars.com/kickit.

Recently our industry was rocked by a vendor update that just about shut down the inventory update process for dealers, 3^rd party inventory sites, and website providers a like.  If we’re being honest, some of us are still reeling from the effects.

I’ve worked on the digital side of the automotive industry for five years and in that time things have not always gone as planned.  It happens and sometimes no amount of preparation can anticipate the end result. The game changer when things go wrong is how you handle that imperfect scenario.  Having a crisis management plan in place can be the difference between strengthening a client relationship and killing it.

Take a second and imagine the worst-case scenario for your business.  If this happened tomorrow are you prepared for it? If your answer is no then its time to build a game plan. 

If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few pointers for a successful crisis management plan:

-Keep your staff INFORMED of all updates.

WHY? Broadcasting a consistent message keeps confusion at a minimum.

-Set a TIMELINE for notifying your customers and stick to it.

WHY? If customers know to expect an update every hour, it will keep your lines of communication clear.

-ANSWER the phone every time it rings.

WHY? It shows you care, you’re aware, and you’re working on a solution.

-LISTEN to customer concerns.

WHY? Because it reaffirms that you value their business.

-Be HONEST.

WHY? Transparency is the best policy and it’s easier to keep track of the truth.

It might all seem like common sense, but having a handle on those few points above can make a world of difference when it comes to managing an imperfect situation, whether its on the dealership level or as a vendor. If you ever need them and you’re prepared, your customers will thank you.

Write your post hereLAS VEGAS, NV – May 7, 2012 -- MPi (www.mpiworldclass.com), a leading provider of revenue and retention solutions for automotive dealership service departments, today announced that Infiniti of South Atlanta has increased its service department  average gross profit by approximately 10-15%, since implementing EDGE WorldClass™, a proven solution that powers automotive dealerships with the knowledge to increase their parts and labor gross profits by creating a well organized, practiced and consistent vehicle inspection program.

“Since inception we have seen consistent improvement in our service sales, respective gross profit and CSI.  One of the best results is retaining client’s service business long term and return service visits on declined service,” stated John Abate, Infiniti of South Atlanta President/Owner.  “The program identifies client’s immediate needs, near future needs, in addition to no parts and service needs. The key to our success has been the near future needs that encourage the client to return in 30-60 days to have work completed.  This is a very important process for us as our clientele demographic is one that doesn’t have excess disposable income. The bottom line is our average gross profit is up approximately 10% to 15% and is still growing.”

Infiniti of South Atlanta is the smallest dealership of 5 in Atlanta, and being the most Southern, is also challenged by less population.

According to Service and Parts Director David Lass, EDGE WorldClass has helped the dealership be more competitive.  “Our dollars per RO and hours per hour have grown considerably and we feel we have made a huge advance.  When we started the EDGE program in September 2011 our hours per RO were 1.56 and we averaged $263 dollars per RO. Then, in October, our first full month on the program, we jumped to 1.9 hours and $316 dollars per RO.  Now, we are maintaining an average of 2.1 hours per RO and $324 dollars per RO.”

Before installing MPi the dealership used a carbon two part handwritten inspection that was attached to the RO and handed to the customer when they left. Some were more legible than others and it was not unusual for there to be an oil smear on the sheet. They were also not very self explanatory.  With EDGE WorldClass™, the customer is presented with a highly professional full color Know Your Vehicle Report that stimulates return visits.

“MPi’s Know Your Vehicle Report enables us to better explain service needs to our customers. A high percentage of recommendations have pictures and explanations as to why the parts are needed so the customer can read and better interpret what they may need now, and will need in the future.  They can prioritize work need today and 3-6 months from now. Approximately 12% of our customers return within 30 days of the original inspection to have work completed, which is a good source of additional profit for us,” Lass explained.

EDGE WorldClass™, also enables the dealership to better track results and note any deficiencies so that they can be quickly remedied, “Not only can we track our success but also the areas that need improvement. You can’t coach what you can’t monitor.  If we have deficiencies with a tech or a service consultant, such as difficulty with upsells or multi point inspections, we are able coach in those categories as we can clearly see what level they are at compared to others,” said Lass. The training is also second to none. Most vendors make the sale, install, shake your hand and you never see them again. MPi is the only company I have ever worked with that continues to call on us to make sure we are getting the most out of the system,” said Lass.

# ## # # #

About MPi:

For more information visit: http://www.MPiWorldClass.com

Write your post hereHouston, Texas, May 7, 2012 -- Many auto dealers grossly underuse their CRM and in some cases have no idea of its full capabilities. CAR-Research XRM, a single-source CRM solution uniquely branded as; “XRM, Exceeding CRM”, today announced a new system of holding their Client Relationship Specialists accountable to new benchmark reports that ensure all auto dealer clients reap maximum benefits from the CRM.  The Client Relationship Specialists are compensated based upon how well auto dealerships under their care use the CRM, improve their processes, capture more sales and increase profitability.

The benchmark reports monitor key statistics and processes that ensure that the dealership sales team is making optimum use of the CRM; logging showroom customers, promptly following up with customers and leads, setting appointments and closing a good percentage. The new system takes a crawl, walk, run, fly approach. The dealership starts at a basic level, then when all benchmark areas turn green, the dealership graduates to the next level and the Client Relationship Specialist receives a pay increase.  To help guarantee top performance, if the dealership should fall back into a previous lower level, the pay likewise decreases until the dealership is again raised to the next level.

“Some auto dealer vendors and CRMs have been criticized in the past for selling and installing the system and then walking away and never contacting the dealer again.  This results in a system that is not used to its full potential, if at all,” said Patrick Kelly President and COO of CAR Research XRM.   “There’s a reason CAR-Research maintains a 98% recommendation from its dealers. Our new benchmark reports ensure that our field staff is out there in their stores regularly; not just making an appearance and shaking hands, but actually going over the reports and looking at the system to see areas of strength and areas that can be improved. We work hard to ensure that our dealerships are not missing any opportunity to follow up, make a sale and improve profitability.”

CAR-Research XRM has developed a proven singular solution that helps an auto dealership run more effectively and proficiently. It is a web-based, comprehensive CRM solution that helps increase revenue from sales and service, improve customer satisfaction index (CSI) and service satisfaction index (SSI), and boost the dealership’s gross profit. A dealership can consolidate all its departments into a manageable solution that delivers value through proven processes at every stage of the customer life cycle.

The XRM platform offers over 50 CRM and Marketing Applications, including Internet Lead Mgr, Showroom Control, Desking with DMS push, Websites, Call Center, Integrated Telephony, Mobile XRM, Inventory Control Manager, Service Drive Control Manager©, and Social CRM. The XRM integration model allows dealers to eliminate redundant vendors and save money on their customer relationship efforts by bundling custom solutions for their store.

“It’s been a pleasant surprise to have found a vendor that I can count on to deliver on the ‘promise’ of their products,” said Brian Cole, e-Commerce Director with the Napleton Auto Group. “So many other vendors in the past have been great at making presentations to us, but fell far short in ‘delivering the goods’. CAR-Research really has been a great combination of ‘product and people’ and I look forward to many more years of partnering with them.”

# # # # #

About CAR-Research XRM:

CAR-Research XRM provides auto dealerships with a comprehensive single-source CRM solution and has been helping dealerships grow their business and increase profits since 1994. Its founders worked in the retail automotive industry for years before forming CAR-Research XRM.

Using this experience and industry knowledge, the company built its dealership solution one piece at a time, resulting in the industry’s most advanced single-source dealer solution, one that exceeds traditional CRM's. For more information visit www.CAR-Research.com or call 800-376-5918

Dallas, TX –May 7, 2012 – RedBumper, (http://redbumper.com/) a new breed automotive inventory management company, today announced it has solved a major pain point for auto dealer groups with the release of a complete suite of inventory analytic and management tools for auto dealer groups. Key features include powerful enterprise reporting, group trading, group appraisal optimization, group buying tools, and mobile group tools. This first comprehensive mobile inventory management solution for auto dealer groups works in real-time on a Smartphone mobile platform, providing the ultimate in flexibility for auto dealer groups; an inventory management tool in the palm of the hand.  

RedBumper’s enterprise solution includes intergroup trading tools that optimize trades across the entire group. Any manager at any store can view inventory for their own store, or for the entire group, all on their Smartphone or desktop. If a buyer is out at auction buying for multiple stores, he can scan the vehicle and view every store’s stocking needs within the group.  The tool immediately enables the user to see which store has the greatest need for a vehicle and where it should be placed with the best opportunity to turn the fastest and yield the most amount of money.

“There’s nothing quite like this on the market for dealer groups. RedBumper’s Smartphone enterprise solution optimizes trades across the entire group and provides flexibility and efficiency the Industry has not seen to date. If one store has a vehicle they don’t need, either in current inventory or at the point of appraisal, a simple scan identifies where the needs are within the group. Via the user’s Smartphone, the vehicle can be inter-group traded or an instant Smartphone push notification can be sent to a sister stores’ managers for bid,” said RedBumper Founder Bruce Thompson.

RedBumper’s enterprise solution Integrates all inventory within the group and connects with SmartLot, the first dynamic inventory analytic tool that blends historical performance with local market data to provide the optimal inventory stocking recommendations. The system will automatically sync the inventory mix and adjust to achieve maximum turn times and profits.

Instead of each dealership operating autonomously, RedBumper’s enterprise solution leverages the needs and buying power of the entire group. It enables each manager to view the group’s inventory as a whole and see where the greatest opportunity is to move that vehicle for the most profit in the least amount of time. Everything can be viewed in real time and accessed on one screen or Smartphone. The user can drill down from national to regions to stores, all the way down to an individual vehicle.  If a vehicle is overstocked at one dealership but needed at another, RedBumper identifies where the vehicle should optimally be placed and provides all the tools needed to trade from one store to another. All accounting systems are rolled up in real time to seamlessly facilitate and conduct trades across the entire group.

“Statistics tell us if get the right vehicle to the right lot, 80-85% of the time it will turn within 21 days or less, for optimum profit,” Thompson said.

For more information about RedBumper call: 1-888-339-1116, or visit, www.RedBumper.com

# # # # #

About RedBumper:

RedBumper is a new breed automotive inventory management company created by Bruce Thompson. Thompson is widely credited for pioneering modern day inventory management when he introduced new tools to the industry in 2001 with American Auto Exchange (AAX). RedBumper is a very powerful next generation system offered on a flexible Smartphone-centric platform, with tools that are both innovative and intuitive. Its objective is to streamline auto dealer workload by delivering a system that is simple to use and direct.  The company aims to take a new approach, offering fresh and creative tools the industry has never seen while at the same time leveraging proven technology. RedBumper prides itself for delivering ground- breaking tools that give auto dealers a significant competitive edge by being first to market. Creating the most powerful suite of tools on a flex platform allows RedBumper the opportunity to reduce much of the cluster and redundancy prevalent in current market products. It enables auto dealers to turn inventories faster while realizing more profit, month after month.

 

Most Comprehensive Online Reputation Management & Social Monitoring Platform for Auto Dealers Hits the Market

WALTHAM, Mass.  - May 2, 2012 - DealerRater®, the world’s premier car dealer review web site, today announced national availability of its new comprehensive online reputation and social monitoring platform, 360Certified™. The premium platform is now available to new dealership customers as well as an upgrade for existing Certified Dealers. 

360Certi­fied is the premium level of DealerRater’s popular Certi­fied Dealer Program. In addition to the full suite of review-gathering and leveraging tools, 360Certified offers car dealerships a comprehensive online reputation and social monitoring platform. The new 360Certified expanded tool kit, featuring DealerRater’s proprietary 360 Dashboard, enables car dealers to efficiently monitor reviews across the Web, improve their dealership’s online visibility for potential customers, and better track and promote their efforts on social media sites. 360Certified also automates the gathering and ­ filtering of consumer sentiment from across the Web allowing dealers to focus on promoting quality customer service and building a superior reputation.

“In the few short weeks we have been using 360Certified, we have been able to increase our visibility and organize our online presence in a convenient and intuitive way.  It’s incredibly helpful to have a tool that is able to give us daily insight into the effectiveness of our SEO and reputation management efforts,” said Liz Kelly, e-Commerce Director at Suntrup Automotive Group.  “We love the reporting capabilities that are complex, yet delivered in easy-to-consume visuals.  This product really helps cut through the muck to give us the information we need to compete in an intense digital market.”

DealerRater’s 360 Dashboard provides dealers with a complete snapshot of the dealership’s online reputation, Web visibility and social media efforts. This single dashboard view enables a quick and comprehensive examination of all of the relevant and critical components for maintaining a positive and profitable online presence. 360Certified has an all-inclusive set of features and drill-down functionality so dealers can save time while ensuring a positive online presence.  

DealerRater’s 360Certified platform enables dealerships to:

·         Monitor reviews across all major third-party review sites

·         Share positive reviews across major social media sites

·         Monitor online conversations about the dealership in blogs, news sites, and social media outlets

·         Track dealer visibility across major review sites, search engines and directory pages

·         View consumer sentiment (positive/negative) on the dealership

·         Determine online “share of voice” in search engine results as compared to competitors

·         Rely on executive reporting and email alerts to measure the dealership’s online visibility, review mix and social media progress

“360Certified represents the most complete online reputation and social media monitoring platform in the dealer market, allowing dealerships to take full control of their online reputation,” said Chip Grueter, president at DealerRater.  “The initial response to our exclusive product preview has been overwhelmingly positive and demonstrates the true need for such a solution in the marketplace.”

A customized product demo can be arranged for prospective or existing dealer partners by contacting DealerRater at 800-266-9455.

About DealerRater:

DealerRater was founded in 2002 as the first car dealer review website worldwide.  DealerRater is the world’s #1 online resource for anyone seeking third-party information on automobile dealerships.   DealerRater features more than 41,000 U.S. and Canadian car dealers, 700,000 consumer reviews and over 1,000,000 cars for sale.  DealerRater attracts more than 8 million consumers every year who visit the site to search for car dealerships, read current reviews, write their own descriptive reviews, and find car deals – all for free.  Car dealers are rated on the criteria of customer service, quality of work, friendliness, price and overall experience.  In addition, DealerRater offers qualified car dealers a Certified Dealer Program as an online reputation management tool for car dealers, to help them grow their online presence and achieve higher SEO rankings across the Web.  Today, more than 4,300 dealers are members of DealerRater’s Certified Dealer Program.  For more information, visit www.DealerRater.com or call 800-266-9455.