The consumer shopping process is at the focus of conversations everywhere in the online automotive retail world.  Couple that with the gaining traction of Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) and you’ve got all sorts of questions to answer.  Google and research firm, ShopperSciences, produced the following video, sharing insights compiled from interviews of over 500 recent car shoppers.  This easy to understand animation demonstrates the fundamentals that influence the car shopper in particular and is the first Automotive ZMOT production from Google with automotive-specific research. 

Enjoy the video and be sure to keep an eye out.  It’s highly likely that others will build on this model in the near future.

As you have already noticed today, websites all across the Internet are blacked out to participate in the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA).  DrivingSales is one such website, standing up for free speech and standing against Internet censorship.  You can find more about the bills and more about our stance in our previous posts.

All this commotion is already making waves as TechCrunch reports that some Congressmen are pulling their support from the bills and even joining the protests as well!  Meetings are getting cancelled and some of the confrontational pieces of the bill are getting a second look.  The largest Internet protest in history is causing this bill to move from swift passage to rising barriers and hopefully a steadfast block in Congress. 

Thank you for your support and helping to change the tides.

Over 1500 websites, including WordPress, Craigslist, Wikipedia, have gone dark today to raise awareness about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and it’s cousin, Protect IP Act (PIPA).  Both of these bills are well intentioned:  they aim to put a stop to unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content.  Remember Napster?  These bills hope to punish sites like that, which promote online content theft.  The difficulty arises in that most of those sites are hosted overseas, meaning the US government doesn’t have jurisdiction over their actions.  With hands tied, legislators are pushing SOPA and PIPA forward, holding domestic sites responsible for any near infraction regarding copyrighted materials.

DrivingSales fully supports anti-piracy.  Plagiarism and content theft of any kind are disrespectful and cowardly; however, the current state of these bills has consequences far greater than providing financial credit to a deserving artist.  The verbiage in these bills grants far-reaching power to the government to censor websites and even block their addresses from being accessed – all with little oversight. 

This is why we’re joining the thousands of websites all across the country in the strike against SOPA.  Our website will be blacked out from 8am to 8pm local time to show our opposition to these bills.   You are still able to access our site past the blackout page, but we are steadfast in our support against these bills as they are written today.  The passing of SOPA or PIPA could dramatically change how DrivingSales does business, how effectively we can serve our community, and how our community can interact with us. It will undoubtedly affect your own online presence and Internet strategy as well, when the sites you share inventory on and where you socially engage with your customers get pulled down, too.

Join us and thousands of other websites across the country in helping to raise awareness against SOPA and PIPA, in educating ourselves and our industry about the dangers of these bills with regard to censorship and free-speech, and protecting the kind of innovation that only the Internet can engender. 

We’ve had so much fun with this Vendor Ratings Contest.  Not just because we get to hand out cool prizes, but because it brought us closer to our true goal, which is to increase the Vendor Rating database – a collection of ratings and reviews that helps dealers make informed decisions about their operational investments and equally pushes the industry’s vendors to better serve the dealers.  Thank you to everyone who not only participated in the contest, but also those who rated and reviewed their vendors all year long. 

Congratulations to Aaron Holland, Larry Whitson, and Jeff Collins for winning the weekly contest drawing and receiving a $100 Amazon gift card each!  And for the first time, we’d like to announce the winner of the MacBook Air:  Congratulations to Michael Baker from Antioch Auto Center! 

Mike has already received a brand new, straight from the store, 11-inch MacBook Air.  When we spoke with Mike on the phone while verifying his review (as we do with all of our reviews), Mike was thrilled.  And we were thrilled to learn that our Vendor Ratings system is getting at its intended purpose.  Mike revealed “I have totally used your Vendor Ratings to look up other vendors and products that we might want to use, so I agree with you on the importance of it."

The prizes and contests are one thing, but that we are able to provide a platform for dealers to access verified, honest feedback about industry professional services and products to inform profit-making decisions – that’s what we’re here for.  And we can’t do it without you.  Thank you to all the dealers for sharing in the vendor ratings system and contributing your valuable experience and expertise.  And remember, you can rate your vendors all year long – once per quarter for each vendor.  Each review makes the database more robust and better informs dealer decisions.

Again, congratulations to Mike Baker as the grand prize winner of a brand new MacBook Air! 

Happy Rating!

A BMW driver takes his car into the dealership to get a warning light checked out and left with no service – customer or mechanical.  Steve Rock, owner of a Certified Pre-Owned BMW 335i, took his car into the BMW North Scottsdale dealership because he had warning lights flashing at him; the service technician told him it was merely an emissions alert, disengaged the code, and sent him on his way.  A few days later, when his steering failed on the middle of the highway, he found himself crashed off the side of the road.  Oops.

Rock did what many people do these days and took his incident to the web.  No, he didn’t blast the dealership or smear their brand all over his favorite social sites.  He simply logged on to his BMW-enthusiast forum and posed the scenario to his virtual acquaintances – has anyone else had this problem, or something similar?  After reading feedback suggesting that the warning lights were definitely not indicators of an emissions reminder, Rock contacted the GM of the BMW dealership.

The GM didn’t take responsibility and didn’t even offer an apology.  I’m starting to wonder if the man even asked Rock if he was okay (which he was, thankfully).  The GM wanted Rock to bring the car back to the dealership to be looked at – a feeble attempt to make nice, maybe?  Rock tried to express his understandable concerns of fading trust in the dealership’s diagnostic ability, to which the GM replied, “Then you shouldn’t even be in my office wasting my time.” 

Yes, my eyebrows went up and mouth dropped when I read the original article on Jalopnik as well.  Rock reluctantly lets the dealership take a look at his car and then subsequently has an independent shop evaluate it  as well, who confirmed that the warning lights were attributed to steering and stability control.  BMW North America even asks Rock permission to look at the car again with a team of specialist who never showed up.  Penke Automotive then has the nerve to ask Rock to remove his comments posted online about the incident and the store.

As of now, Rock hasn’t filed a lawsuit and hasn’t even requested any money to fix the damaged car.  What he wants is an explanation as to what the real issue is with his car and why on Earth he was told that it was an emissions reminder when it clearly wasn’t.

What I find more interesting than the story itself, which is a direct example of appalling business operations and atrocious customer service, is the discussion forming around the article.  In the hundreds of comments that have surfaced since the story broke, self-described and insinuated technicians are calling out this guy as a fraud, saying there’s no way that the steering could freeze up or that’s what could have been the problem when he previously brought the car in.  They’re calling BS on Rock, declaring he crashed the car on his own and is simply looking for BMW to take the fall. 

Fair enough, I can appreciate that kind of loyalty to their brand and expertise on mechanical service.  But the real issue is the lack of service Rock received on all fronts: from the service technicians, the GM of the dealership, BMW North America, and even the lawyer from Penske. 

People make mistakes and maybe that’s what happened in the first round of service.  It happens all the time.  And maybe the technician didn’t make a mistake in this case and Rock is trying to pull a fast one on them to see what he can get away with – who knows.  Either way, it’s the dealership’s responsibility to respond to the customer’s valid concerns in such a way that at least appeases the expectations of the customer while simultaneously backing the confidence they have in their staff and vehicles.  The GM could’ve, at minimum, apologized that Rock experienced the situation he did, if for no other reason than to validate that the guy was in car accident!

In addition to the horrid service, this is another clear example of a dealership not having an appropriate social media strategy or even enough of an understanding of social etiquette to know how to manage the online situation.  Rock maintains that both BMW and Penske have stated that they “don't appreciate that [he’s] made this a public issues on the forums."  Well, get over it.  These conversations are happening online on a daily basis and how dealerships respond to them is even more telling than the original posts.  They really have no right to ask the customer to take down the post until they actually fix the problem or at least address it.  Asking the guy to bring his car in might be sticking their good foot out, but it in no way addresses the Rock’s concerns about the previous service he received, or the misdiagnosis.  A simple apology would’ve gone a long way for Rock and for their reputation. 

Bart Wilson, our Business Development Manager, walks into the local Barber Shop for a haircut.  Standard procedure.  And no, this isn’t an old-school, 1950’s shop – this is a modern, up-to-date business.  And like most companies these days, they operate under the guidance of a standard CRM system. 

After entering the shop, the lady looks Bart’s information up in the system and finds his details and hair-cutting preference.  He settled in the chair and waited for his service. 

It only took one swipe of the clippers for Bart’s eyes to widen and his mouth to drop.  This is as close to shaved as Bart’s probably ever been.  His typical Nick Carter-esque hairstyle was instantly shaved down to the length that his younger son usually comes away with.  

And that was exactly it.  The information pulled from the CRM system was the details of Bart’s son, who also gets his hair cut at that same location.  Was it a malfunction in the system or a misread by the hair stylist herself?  Hard to say at this point.  Bart was too shocked to stick around and find out.  But it begs the question:  How are you using your CRM system?  Is the data extraction as reliable as the data itself?  The CRM is a tool to help aid our memories about customer details that would be impossible to retain on our own.  But if we let the system take the place of our own operating intelligence, all we’re left with is a bunch of information and even more uncertainties in its validity.  Take the proper measures to ensure your customers are who your system says they are to help avoid a more-than-disgruntled customer walking out your door for the last time. 

The DrivingSales Vendor Ratings are now more robust than ever.  Thanks to dealers like you, the retail automotive industry has access to verified, honest feedback about industry professional services and products to inform profit-making decisions.  But the year isn’t over.  Be sure to rate your vendors to contribute to the thousands of ratings and reviews already collected.  The more dealers we get to anonymously share their opinions, the more accurate a picture the industry gets of the vendor landscape. Inform and be informed.

http://www.drivingsales.com/surveys/vr/customer-management

And hurry!  There is only one week left to enter into our DrivingSales Vendor Ratings Contest.  We feel so strongly about dealers having access to unbiased ratings and reviews that we’re giving away a $100 gift card to Amazon each week all throughout December to a dealer who rated a vendor.  Time files when you’re having fun and now there’s only one week left!  Rate your vendors for a chance to win: www.drivingsales.com/surveys/vr/customer-management

And that’s not all – Once the year is over, we'll do one final grand prize drawing from every dealer who submitted a review during 2011 and randomly select one lucky winner to receive a brand new MacBook Air!  The more ratings you provide, the more you're entered to win!  Log on to www.drivingsales.com/rate/contest for more information or start rating your vendors NOW.

Good luck and happy rating! 

"The best proof that the world has changed is someone tries to stop it." - Anonymous

Many people have been curious about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and what they mean.  They basically say that any intellectual property holder can request a website to be blocked for infringing content.  For example, sharing or posting TLC's "No Scrubs" or Britney Spears' "Baby, One More Time" with your friends on Napster would result in the site getting shut down.  Seems fair enough, right?  Until the YouTube video you posted of your inventory gets blocked because you have Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" playing in the background.  And the worst part is you don't even appear in court to defend your use.  The person filing the complaint can simply fill out a complaint and your site will be blocked until further notice.  Bye bye traffic.  Bye bye revenue.  Bye bye leads.  Your social media strategy and efforts will be dramatically restricted.  Check out the video and inforgraphic below for more information.  

Online reputation is important.  Please take 3 minutes to rate your dealership vendors on DrivingSales.com so all dealers can see who performs and who doesn't. (Don't worry, we verify that only dealership employees submit reviews and we keep all reviewers anonymous.)  Click the link below to get started:

http://www.drivingsales.com/surveys/vr/customer-management

Rate Your Vendors to Win a Macbook Air!

To reward you for leaving a rating, we are giving away a Macbook Air and a few Amazon gift cards. Simply click the link and rate your vendors to qualify. Winners are announced weekly.

For those of you new to the DrivingSales Vendor Rating platform, it is the only online mechanism where dealership employees can rate and review their website providers, CRM providers, DMS providers, etc. to keep the vendor market transparent and hold vendors accountable. Before you ever sign with a vendor, you should always learn from your peers and see how that vendor is rated at www.DrivingSales.com/ratings.

Here's How it Works: 

1. Go to the Vendor Ratings section of DrivingSales.com and rate your vendors.
2. Tweet or post on our Facebook wall the following: "I just rated my vendors at drivingsales.com/ratings and now I'm entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card! #drivingsales #contest." Remember, all reviews will be verified, so no funny business.
3. You're then entered into the weekly drawing for a $100 gift card to Amazon.com and the MacBook Air grand prize drawing!

If you have more questions about the contest, visit http://drivingsales.com/rate/contest.  For the rest of you, click the link below to leave your ratings and be entered in the MacBook Air contest.

http://www.drivingsales.com/surveys/vr/customer-management

As an enthusiastic recycler and a newbie to the automotive world, I couldn't *not* post this. Enjoy!

Infographic produced by the Kars4Kids car donation program.