Statistics show that a customer who has a good experience will tell 4 to 5 people. However, a customer who has a bad experience will tell more than 20. In addition, they will usually leave a negative review to go with that word of mouth to leave a permanent finger pointed at your dealership in a bad way.

Maintaining your online reputation is crucial to new customers and previous customers deciding whether to make you their choice. If you don’t manage complaints and deal with them effectively, you are losing what could be a loyal customer and preventing prospects from ever becoming loyal customers.

But maintaining that reputation doesn’t start online, it starts at your dealership with each and every customer.

Here are 6 Tips to Maintaining a Great Online Reputation:

1. Have someone assigned to monitoring your review sites.

It is important to know what is being said about you in the digital world. By knowing when a negative review is posted, you can have someone handle the complaint immediately, and hopefully have the customer revise their complaint into a compliment, (preferably BEFORE anyone sees the complaint).

2. Know How to Handle Complaints.

Everyone in your dealership should be able to “manage” their own complaints. If you are the only one equipped to handle complaints, this may monopolize your time, thus eliminating the time needed for planning, strategizing and development your department and your dealership.

3. Prevent Negative Reviews with Great Follow-Up.

A follow-up phone call should be made to each and every customer 24 hours after their purchase or service visit to make sure that they are completely satisfied. It is important that the person making these calls have the authority and knowledge to handle complaints and who to assign a customer to should they need to return. Having a minimum wage college student handle this for you may actually cause more miscommunication and dissatisfaction in the long run. Put someone in place that understands how a dealership runs and has a strict guideline for how to handle a complaint.

4. Give Great Customer Service.

I know this one should be a given, but I want to emphasize that great customer service includes knowledge, honesty, quality and sincerity. You can’t just put a smile on your face and expect people to worship you. You have to know your product so that you can answer their questions and gain their trust. Be sincere and let them know that you are there to help them, not rip them off. When you are not sincere, it shows and makes the customer leery.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for a Positive Review.

A lot of customers don’t even know that you have a review site or even think to post a review unless they are upset. Asking a satisfied customer to post a quick comment about why they love your dealership will give your online reputation a huge boost. Whoever you have making your follow-up calls could request this, or if you have a follow-up email created to go out to customers you could include a link in the email to make it easier for the customer. But it is important that if you include this in an email that you give the customer the option to voice a complaint. This can be a link that will allow them to submit a complaint to the General Manager. Otherwise, only having a link to POST a review could lead to more damage.

6. Know How to Handle a Negative Review.

When a negative review is posted, you need to do damage control and FAST. Before you contact the customer, do your research.

• Who was the advisor and technician or salesperson?
• What did they purchase or what service did they have done?
• Will they need to return to the dealership?
• How long have they been a customer?

When you contact the customer you should know and anticipate what they will say, want and need. Your ONLY goal should be to please that customer, not defend your dealership.

In conclusion, by preparing for complaints and negative reviews and knowing what to do to prevent negative reviews and unsatisfied customers, you will be able to proactively manage and build your online reputation to secure a life long supply of loyal customers.

We would like to know what strategies you have in place to build your online reputation and what you would recommend to our followers. What have you done to build your online reputation?

The best tools in the world are only as good as their user. Similarly, loyalty programs are only as good as your employees make them. The best loyalty program in the world still requires staff buy-in to make it work. If a current program isn’t working, dealers should take a closer look at their culture and create strategies to develop a positive work environment and motivated employees. Here’s how to get started:

1) Find out what’s important to your employees.

The best way to do this is to conduct an anonymous survey. Not everyone is interested in great pay and benefits. Once basic needs are met, many people value things like recognition, advancement opportunities and training. Ask for suggestions.

2) Pay well.

Find out what your competition is paying and try to pay a little bit better. Give your employees opportunities for spiffs and perks, and put them in writing. Since benefits are important, offer the best you can afford. Here’s the thing: the best employees know they are good, and will always be looking for a place to work that includes good pay and benefits. Also, make sure your employees take their vacation days. Most people need time off to recharge so they don’t burn out.

3) Show your appreciation.

Thank and reward employees for a job well done. Gifts don’t have to be extravagant; it could be a pair of movie tickets or a free lunch once a week to the employee who has put in the most effort. Commend them with certificates or letters of thanks. Have an employee of the month and of the year. Remember their birthdays and give them a card.

4) Help them with goals.

Promote employees from within whenever possible, and help them identify a career path within your company. Most people don’t want to feel “stuck” in one position forever. Empower your employees to make decisions, set their own goals and then hold them accountable.

5) Make them feel like they’re part of a team.

A team can be the entire company, or departments within the company. Some friendly competition among teams can help motivate and boost energy levels. Make it clear how each person’s role contributes to the company’s goals, and therefore their goals.

What do you think makes a positive workplace? What makes you feel motivated and to go to work every day? Do you notice a direct correlation between happy employees and happy customers?

Targeted e-mail campaigns are still one of the most effective forms of marketing, and marketers say that e-mail is still a strong performer as a generator of both website traffic and revenue. Experian recently released a white paper titled, “E-Mail Market Study: Acquisition and Engagement Tactics.”

E-mail engagement proves your subscribers are interested in your brand and the content you are delivering. Email marketers are using new methods for email engagement and also improving upon older methods to gain a greater understanding of their customers needs and wants.

Here are some interesting facts and best practices from the white paper:

1) Point of Sale is the Best Place to Collect E-mail Addresses

• Seventy-eight percent of retail brands use sales associates to collect email addresses.

   • Thirty-six percent of brands collect email addresses on paper (not recommended due to spelling errors)

  • The majority of marketers (73 percent) source and track email addresses acquired at point of sale differently than other addresses

   • Thirty-three percent of marketers report that more than 25 percent of their customers are willing to provide their email address at point of sale

2) Use Incentive Signs at Your Cash Register A successful example Urban Outfitters used was “Ask to be signed up for our e-mails and receive 10% off your next purchase.” This tactic would be most effective in the service department. Post a sign in your waiting room or at the cash register offering an incentive to sign up for your e-mails.

3) Use Pop-Up Windows Pop-up windows on websites are one of the most aggressive and successful method for e-mail address acquisition. When Sport Chalet installed a pop-up window on their website saying “Sign up for Our E-mails,” they experienced an 84% increase in the total number of valid e-mail addresses and a 39% increase in total opens. If this isn’t an option on your site, offer e-mail opt-ins in several places across your website. Experian finds that above-the-fold opt-in locations perform better than those below the fold.

4) Use Opt-Out Surveys Opt out surveys are used after a customer opts-out of your emails, and can help identify why your customers are dropping off your list. Ask questions like:

   • Do they not like the time of day they’re receiving emails?

   • Have they had a life change that would make them unsubscribe?

  • Do they not like the frequency with which they receive your messages?

  • Do they find your content interesting or useful? The answers to these questions can help steer your program in the right direction

5) Use Subject Line Testing Companies surveyed agreed that subject line testing wins when it comes to results. Over time, if subject line testing is done correctly and consistently, open rates can improve significantly. With today’s sophisticated CRMs, subject line testing on different groups can be accomplished very easily. Every marketer should make this type of testing a common practice.

What are your best practices and recommendations for e-mail acquisition? What has worked and what hasn’t?

A recent article in Direct Marketing News offers an in-depth analysis of the typical obstacles that companies must overcome to build customer loyalty. If your business is not getting the most out of its customer loyalty program, it’s probably due to one of the following four reasons:

1. Difficulty in measuring and using data

Loyalty programs cannot be measured in traditional ways. In fact, three of the top five reported challenges are measurement related. Measurement needs to focus on these three metrics:

1. Specific changes in the customer value equation
2. Shifts in consumer value
3. Customer engagement and advocacy

Each metric needs a clear definition of success for now and the future. Measurement then becomes part of continuous loyalty loop, in which customer intelligence creates customer insights, which feed into the loyalty program and creates more customer data to start the loop again

2. Picking the right mix of rewards and benefits

Most loyalty rewards involve discounts, but this becomes difficult to execute as everyone has the same offerings and retailers have trained consumers to look for nothing but discounts. This is a delicate tightrope act: give rewards that are too expensive or popular and the budget gets blown. Starbucks, Virgin Airlines and National Car Rental offer just a few of the programs that earn rave reviews with customers, without breaking the bank to do it. The key to success is activating “soft benefits” that have high perceived value.

3.  Programs lack true innovation

The average customer is a member of more than 10 loyalty programs. As more and more retailers launch programs, making a splash with a new program isn't easy. Before loyalty programs, customers would stay with their favorite retailers based primarily on price or location. Loyalty broke this inertia, giving customers a reason to shop at another retailer. If faced with a choice between companies, loyalty broke the tie.

But, as more companies start programs, a new inertia has formed. Nearly 60% of consumers state they only participate in a few loyalty programs. Meanwhile, customers feel they are getting less out of programs. About 30% of consumers feel that there is little or no value in joining a program.

Offering differentiated benefits gives customers a reason to engage. Assess the competition and do customer research to find these benefits. Carefully test to pick the winners.

4. Marketing and operations are not on the same page

Customers can receive years of good interaction with a brand and program only to have it all ruined by one negative experience. Executing a program happens on two levels: systems to identify the customer and present them with the right reward/recognition, and store operations to carry out the needed tactics. System issues are frustrating but easy to explain, while in-store issues cause more frustration.

Soft benefits are ideal because customer benefit outweighs cost. Failed execution means customers will not trust the company in the future; operations need to deliver on marketing promises.

        TechWeb, a division of United Business Media (UBM Tech) recently released a comprehensive white paper sponsored by IBM, titled, “The State of Customer Analytics: Taking a Proactive Approach to Loyalty & Retention”. The white paper explores how customer analytics can increase customer retention and minimize defections through optimally timed, personalized retention offers while significantly improving a company’s bottom line.

        Most companies have vast amounts of data about their customers, but have trouble sorting through it all to make meaningful decisions. New analytic tools are becoming available that make it possible to do this.

        By using customer analytics to create 360-degree consumer portraits, and then personalizing communications, companies can up-sell and cross-sell to those clients to maximize profitability and increase customer lifetime value. Businesses doing this are not only increasing revenue, but maintaining and developing crucial relationships with their customers.

        Customer loyalty & retention analysis enables companies to calculate customer value and to determine whether the retention effort for that specific client is worth the investment. Loyalty is not only concerned about rewarding customers with personalized offers through loyalty programs, but also with turning satisfied customers into successful brand advocates. Techniques such as social network analysis enable businesses to identify those customers with a significant sphere of influence among their peers. As customers’ trust in traditional marketing messages has been steadily decreasing, the ability to leverage peer recommendations by capitalizing on those active in social media is a powerful way to enforce brand loyalty.

        Retention analysis allows companies to identify early warning signs of defection. Companies can proactively approach the best customer to target based on their likelihood to accept an offer to stay and not stray to a competitor.

        An emerging area, social media analytics, unlocks the value of customer sentiment. It functions both as a listening tool and as a means for predicting consumer behavior and improving customer satisfaction. As business professionals assess the critical infrastructure necessary to cope with the Big Data onslaught, one component is key—comprehensive customer analytics adoption. From accessing rich social media data to increasing customer loyalty & retention, businesses today have a number of goals to focus on at once. A key question remains: How are business leaders viewing the role of technology in assisting them to accomplish their loyalty and retention tasks?

        By implementing proactive loyalty and retention initiatives, they can better understand who their satisfied customers are and turn those customers into successful brand advocates.

        MediaTrac has released several ebooks demonstrating how dealerships can boost sales with customer loyalty and retention programs. They are available to download for free at http://www.media-trac.com/resources/whitepapers.shtml

A survey of more than 13,000 individuals conducted by Carnegie Mellon University reveals there are three types of buyers:

-Average/unconflicted: 61%

-Spendthrifts: 15%

-Tightwads: 24%

Each of these types responds differently to different marketing messages. So, how can you identify which is which, and how do you sell to them?

Tightwads tend to feel pain associated with buying; they tend to avoid spending money even in situations where most individuals would find the expense to be justified and of good value. Tightwads are differentiated from ‘frugal’ people, as frugal people don’t tend to feel pain at buying, they just enjoy saving more. Tightwads tend to carry little credit card debt and have more money in personal savings accounts than the “average” or “spendthrift” buyers.

To sell to tightwads, you want to minimize their buying pain. One way to do this is to appeal to the utilitarian or practical aspect of the purchase. For instance, if they need a pick-up, don’t try to sell them the luxury model; to a tightwad, paying extra for luxury features is unnecessary. Another way to minimize their buying pain is to watch how you use language: avoid saying things like “immediate payment in full,” or a “fee of $100.” Instead, say things like, “small down payment,” or “only a $100 fee.” Also, tightwads don’t like per-item pricing; bundling features together in package pricing works better.

Spendthrifts are three times as likely as tightwads to have credit card debt, and they are likely to have less in savings. This means that right up front, although they are willing to buy, financing will be more of an issue. Spendthrifts tend to derive great pleasure from buying; these are the types that respond to the “luxury” pitch, or the emotional satisfaction of immediately driving off the lot with a new car (unlike tightwads that don’t respond to that type of sales pitch). Spendthrifts want instant gratification.

“Average” buyers fall somewhere in the middle and are susceptible to both types of marketing messages and pitches.

Identifying what type of buyer is in front of you can be accomplished with casual conversation; ask a consumer about past purchases, and what they did or didn’t like about cars they have previously owned. Tailoring your marketing messages to different types of buyers can help boost sales and customer retention, especially to the 24% of the market identified as “tightwads” – but please don’t use that term in front of your customer!

Do you segment your customers into buying “types”? What have you found to be effective for selling to tightwads, spendthrifts and “average” folks?

Neuromarketing is an interesting blog combining brain science and marketing. A recent post discusses the growing trend of using scent logos: and not just by large companies, but by small and medium-sized companies. So what is a scent logo and could it work in your business?

An olfactory logo, also called scent branding, is a custom scent that the brand creates to embody its unique brand characteristics. Much like a graphic logo, the olfactory logo is used wherever the brand is present. After repeated exposures to the logo, customers strongly associate the smell with the brand.

For example, Abercrombie & Fitch disperses their signature fragrance, Fierce, in all of their stores. Fierce is strong, edgy and appeals to young, upscale consumers. Fierce is also sold as a personal fragrance and is the number one selling fragrance for men in the U.S. and Europe. Abercrombie & Fitch customers claim they can identify authentic A&F jeans solely by their smell.

Most of the major hotel chains also use a scent logo. For example, the Westin uses a cool and relaxing white tea fragrance, and the St. Regis uses an elegant blend of rose, sweet pea and pipe tobacco. If you’ve walked into the Mandalay Casino in Las Vegas, you’ll recognize an exotic floral, coconut spice scent; and other casinos each have their signature scent too.

So would this work in a dealership? People are bombarded by an average of 5,000 marketing messages a day, and scent is a big differentiator. Smell creates a powerful emotional response and can boost brand identity as well as customer loyalty. Here are a few ideas for incorporating an olfactory logo into your dealership marketing:

1. Diffuse the scent throughout your dealership.
2. Instead of selling hanging car scent trees with other odors, get trees made with your own signature scent and hang one in every car you service and sell.
3. Include a scent strip on your postcard and brochure mailings to customers.
4. Sell the scent in your dealership, or give it away free with purchase.

What do you think? Is it crazy, or could scent logos work in your dealership? Think about the personality of your brand; is it relaxed or power charged? Is your target market young, middle-aged or older? Are they value or luxury buyers? Are you a rural dealership, in the woods, or do you have a hip, urban location? These characteristics can be matched with different fragrance elements to create a scent that embodies your brand characteristics.

So what would your scent logo be?

According to Google’s 2012 Our Mobile Planet Smartphone Research report, within the past two years, the number of Google searches on mobile devices has grown by 500 percent! As a result, tech and marketing pundits everywhere are touting 2013 as the “year of mobile”.

If you’re like most businesses, you’re probably researching and/or implementing methods for incorporating mobile into your search and marketing strategies. And, as you probably know, mobile marketing requires specific considerations. Consider the following statistics from Equation Research:

• Seventy-four percent of consumers will wait just 5 seconds for a Web page to load on their mobile device before abandoning the site.

• Seventy-one percent of mobile browsers expect Web pages to load almost as quickly or faster as Web pages on their desktop computers.

• The majority of mobile Web users are only willing to retry a website (78 percent) or application (80 percent) two times or less if it does not work initially. One third will go to a competitor’s website instead.

Obviously, patience is not a virtue with mobile customers. Engaging them and keeping them engaged presents a challenge, but like every challenge, includes an opportunity. If you can incorporate the following best practices into your mobile marketing strategies, you can create a following of loyal mobile customers—who then become real, purchasing customers and refer you to their friends. Here are some tips on how to make that happen:

1)  Establish a Presence on Mobile Third-Party and Review Sites.

Mobile marketing is more than just creating a mobile-friendly website. Establishing a presence on other sites is just as important. Mobile customers may not always come to you directly if they have questions. They may find it easier to do a Web search for answers and information. Make sure you are there, not just to provide support, but to reach new customers who are searching for and comparing product and service information to make a purchasing decision.

2. Respect Your Customers’ Time.

Simplify content and keep it brief so that customers do not have to continuously scroll up, down, left and right; bold the most important content; and ensure text accompanies images and video.

3. Ensure Ease of Customer Service. Provide an application to empower your customers with convenient mobile account management, support, click-to-call features and the ability to submit support related photos via their smartphone or tablet. As a best practice, no more than three keystrokes should be needed to access the majority of options. Make load time, ease of use and speed a priority in your mobile customer service efforts.

4. Convey meaningful mobile content. Use SMS alerts and emails sparingly to alert customers about offers, potential or current service problems before complaints go social and to thank customers. Also, recognize personal milestones such as birthdays, purchase anniversaries or other special occasions. This type of proactive communication has been shown to increase customer loyalty, satisfaction, retention and enhance brand reputation.

How are you getting ready for the mobile tsunami? Which best practices will you incorporate into your mobile marketing strategy in 2013?

How is your company’s customer service? Pretty Good? Sure about that? According to statistics provided by Bain & Co., 80% of companies surveyed said that they offer a superior customer service experience, but only 8% of their customers agreed with them. Ouch.

Okay, so you’re not sure about your customer service. But you think it’s pretty good because your online reputation is good and you have five thousand followers on Facebook. Well, think again. In another customer relationship study conducted by IBM in 2011, companies were surveyed as to the reasons why their customers followed them on social media sites. The companies listed discounts among the least important reasons, but when the customers themselves were surveyed, they listed discounts as a major reason for following a company on a social site.

For a majority of businesses, there is clearly a disconnect as to how they believe they are viewed by their customers and how their customers actually view them. One reason for this is because so many dealerships are focused on pushing out marketing messages—whether it’s via e-mails, snail mail or other advertising channels. Even with social media, which offers an opportunity to engage with customers, many businesses fall short because they are focused more on responding to criticisms or coming up with witty or engaging content—than what the customers are saying. In short, most businesses aren’t really listening to their customers.

In today’s competitive environment, simply having a great product or service and providing a good customer experience isn’t enough. Customers now want a fantastic experience—they want to feel appreciated for their business. You may roll your eyes at that, but if you do, you will be overlooking profits. In return for a fantastic experience, customers reward you with their loyalty. We’ve all heard the statistics:

Ÿ A 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75% (Bain & Co.)

Ÿ 80% of your company’s future revenue will come from just 20% of your existing customers (Gartner Group)

Ÿ Attracting new customers costs your company five times more than keeping an existing customer (Lee Resource International, Inc.)

A CRM may give you a response rate and ROI on dollars spent on this month’s campaign, but it gives you no indicator of what tomorrow’s campaign may do, or how customer perception will affect your revenue next year. A loyalty program, on the other hand, gives you the ability to answer the questions, ‘what do your best customers care about most?’ and ‘why are they doing business with me?’ With a loyalty program, you can easily identify, track and promote to individuals who are most likely to become loyal, long-term sources of revenue. 

A recent study by the Tempkin Group found that it takes an average of five clients giving positive referrals for your business in order to get one new client. Yet it takes only two disgruntled customers speaking negatively about your business for you to lose one customer.

You do the math...that means it’s twice as important to ensure that you don’t have unhappy customers than it is to maintain good relations with your happy customers. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus on the latter—of course you should. But it also means that if you don’t have a system that empowers or motivates your employees to solve customer problems, you may be feeling the negative impact on your business.

Most people don’t set out to dislike or become a detractor for a business. The reason this happens is when a satisfied or neutral customer encounters a problem or an issue that isn’t resolved. At that point there is an immediate decline in loyalty. However, if the problem is handled well, the customer’s loyalty increases above his or her original loyalty level.

The biggest determining factor as to whether a customer becomes or remains loyal after a problem is whether that problem has been resolved. Unfortunately, many times employees believe that they are resolving a problem, when in fact they aren’t.

This happens more often than you might think. Employees jump to a solution for the customer; quote company policy back to the customer; or go for the easiest solution, which is often a discount. The end result is an unsolved problem and a frustrated customer.

To ensure that your customers feel like their problems are resolved in a satisfactory manner, be sure that every employee follows an established process for customer complaint resolution. These steps should include acknowledging the problem, taking down facts, taking ownership of the problem, ensuring the customer receives a resolution to the problem and following up to make sure they are happy with the resolution. If one or more employees don’t follow this process, make sure there are consequences so that next time they will be motivated to follow the process.

It only takes two detractors to undo all the hard work and effort you put into building a positive image that results in one new business referral. You may want to consider spending as much time training employees in customer complaint resolution as you do in coaching them how to get referrals.