With 88% of your potential customers starting their car purchase online and 78% of them going to third-party sites during the car buying process, it's extremely important that you monitor what your customers are writing about your business.

We know. There are so many third-party customer review sites. Who has the time? That's precisely why we've created a list of the top sites that you should monitor. 

Why are these the top review sites for automotive businesses?

It’s important to get your customer reviews on automotive sites that prospective customers know about and visit. The more often a potential customer visits a review site, the more likely they are to read and post reviews there. The is especially true for higher web traffic sites with has lots of users. And this suggests it’s easy to frequent visitors to leave a review—having no need to go through a lengthy registration process.

1. Edmunds.com 

While the reviews on Edmunds.com are more product-focused than dealership-focused, it's important to know what people are saying about the product you are selling. Customer reviews on Edmunds.com do call out the dealerships from time to time, so it would be good to monitor Edmunds.com on a weekly basis. 

2. Cars.com

Cars.com lets the user see reviews of the product, dealership, and employees because they integrate reviews from our #3 choice, DealerRater.com. Cars.com makes it very easy for users to leave a review--they do have to submit their email address. 

3. DealerRater.com

DealerRater.com let's potential car buyers see customer reviews of the dealership/staff, service reviews, inventory, car recalls, as well as awards the dealership has won. DealerRater.com makes it easy to leave a review, and it an excellent resource for car buyers and dealerships alike. 

4. CarGurus.com

CarGurus.com offers potential car buyers many ways to find a car: by Used Cars, New Cars, by distance, and by Research. CarGurus.com makes it very easy for users to review the dealership and/or the car itself, and it provides a very handy price analysis tool.

5. SureCritic.com

SureCritic.com distinguishes itself from the pack by focusing on their Verified Reviews. The site's motto is "Never Filtered. Never Deleted." They have access to all the dealerships' that are featured on the site Point of Sale system to verify customer status. SureCritic.com is also a great review site for Mechanics. 

If you're feeling ambitious and want to go beyond these five sites, make sure you tackle the bigger, non-industry-related sites like Google reviews, Facebook, and Yellowpages.com.

Online review monitoring is not only a great way to find out what your customers thinking about your business so you can make changes if needed. But it's also a great way to build relationships with your customers so they buy their next car from you. And most of all, it's important to respond to the bad reviews in a timely manner before a mountain is made out of a molehill. 

Ready to take the next step in growing your business with customer reviews? Then this free eBook is a great next step. Download "How to Get Your Customers to Do Your Marketing for You" now.