Before the Internet people chose who to do business with based on their community and word-of-mouth. There were no review sites. Now, however, review sites are flourishing -- just about every third party listing service has adopted them and there are many stand-alone services too.

Consumers increasingly conduct their research online during their car shopping journey. Along the way they read stories from other customers about their experience at your dealership. Whether they actively seek reviews or not, they see and read them. And those stories could mean the difference between the customer choosing you or your competitor.

Regardless if you’re a vendor or a dealer, this is true. Prospective customers search for information online, review social media sites and read blogs, along with any criticism (or praise) that is published. This is why it pays to be diligent in protecting and managing all stories told about you.

From a public relations standpoint, these stories can be crucial in attracting or repelling business. Every single one of them can influence a buyer. Simply having more positive than negative reviews isn’t enough. Consider the shopper that had an elderly relative taken advantage of or, perhaps, a female co-worker. Maybe she is looking for a car and reads a single review about your dealership complaining about the treatment her elderly relative or co-worker received there. That one particular point of sensitivity for that buyer could elevate the weight of her decision.

While you certainly can’t control those reviews left by customers that cannot be satisfied no matter what you do, the few that perhaps hold you “hostage by review,” what you can do is be diligent in monitoring each and every review site and proactive in responding to all reviews, both positive and negative. The simple attempt to publicly rectify or discuss a solution in an honest effort to make things right (whether you are at fault or not) can go a long way to turn the opinions of prospective customers in your favor.

People don’t expect perfection. They do expect if mistakes are made, or problems arise, that you work with them to make them satisfied. Especially when the transaction is tens of thousands of dollars. Pay attention, respond professionally and do your best to right as many wrongs as you can -- and make this known by publicly responding to reviews. This can actually help mitigate lost business. It communicates to that anonymous researcher that you care about the experience your customers receive and are willing to try and make it right. And in many cases you also handle that upset customer – a win-win!

All customers want to know is that you will take care of them. By sincerely caring and showing that you appreciate the business of each and every customer -- and by being willing to work to rectify any complaints and publicly announcing that online --your reputation should improve and you should have a strong voice in your own online story.

Most companies view content marketing as a means to rank higher in search engines, establish thought leadership and engage with their audience. Content, such as newsletters and blogs distributed via email and social media channels, enables businesses to stay top-of-mind with clients and prospects. It can be used to educate existing customers and any prospects investigating a business’s products and services and tends to produce excellent results in the long term. However, there is one hidden benefit that many companies fail to consider -- the ability to use great content as an internal resource.

Regardless of if the business is B2C or B2B, all businesses sell something. Whether that is cars, software, or any other type of product or service, typically, there are salespeople involved. And, consumers tend to view sales pitches as biased. I mean, what salesperson is going to say that their product sucks? You can provide sales pamphlets, marketing materials, demos and many other resources to your salespeople to add to their toolboxes to help close more deals. But many times prospective customers view these as just what they are – solicitations. When you get those in the mail or in your e-mail inbox, what do you do? Chances are they go straight into the trash. So, how is content marketing any different?

Great content can also be used by salespeople. Let’s look at a classic example from the automotive industry. In days gone by, salespeople would keep binders at their desks filled with competitive analysis and comparisons of their vehicle versus a competing manufacturer’s similar vehicle – say an Accord versus a Camry – in order to convince a customer that they’re making the right choice.

This practice has virtually stopped in many case because most customers these days do their research online. But what about that customer who visits the dealership’s website, or is sitting at the desk with a salesperson, considering buying your vehicle, but wants to go home and research? What if instead of selling and/or comparing a vehicle to a competitor’s based on price, salespeople used content to educate consumers and sell them on value? That would certainly be useful, wouldn’t it? I realize it won’t always work, but it CAN be a useful tool to add to your arsenal.

There is so much noise in the world that it’s impossible for consumers to take it all in. Chances are they’re only paying attention when they’ve requested the information or they’ve looked for it intentionally.

What tools have you given your salespeople to use to effectively follow up with clients -- aside from more of the same marketing materials? Great content that is relevant to your product or service and helps educate prospects on value can be excellent material to use in follow-up.

A blog article explaining the importance of a product or service presented in an educational way could be a much more effective persuader than any templated follow up -- and much less intrusive. In addition, content can be used for indirect advertising. Prospects are much more likely to click on an educational or informational blog article promoted via social media than any in-your-face obvious advertisement.

And that’s exactly what you want to happen. If the prospect clicks on your blog article, they’re now on your website again. Even if they don’t convert right then, perhaps the next blog article… or the next one… will do the trick.

Creating content that is useful to your audience and can be leveraged by your sales team can supercharge your marketing and also add another tool for your sales staff to use, whether directly during a follow-up contact, or in the showroom while the prospect is sitting in front of them.

As long as the content supports your message, reinforces the importance of your product or service and isn’t a straight out product pitch, prospects will be more receptive to reading it and, when the time is right, might just come to you.

I bet that title got your attention. Imagine a world where automotive manufacturers prohibited dealerships from producing and publishing video content of any vehicles during dealership sales events. That would seem a little ridiculous, right? Social media can produce great results and lead to sales. However, if the manufacturer mandated that dealers couldn’t publish that content on social media under the threat of heavy fines, how would dealers be able to promote their vehicles, sales or dealership?

It’s already difficult enough to get organic reach for content on business pages. If the ability to post brand-related content was prohibited, what do you think would happen to engagement? It would die a quick death. And while this scenario may sound ridiculous, this is exactly what the NFL is doing.

First, I’m not a football aficionado. But there are many parallels between the NFL and its relationship as a corporate entity with the teams that play for it and the automotive industry. Think of the NFL as the manufacturer and dealerships as the teams. Not much different.

Anyways, back to my story: Mashable recently reported that it obtained a memo sent to all NFL teams outlining a policy effective as of October 12, prohibiting NFL teams from publishing video and GIFs (moving pictures) to social media during games and 60 minutes afterwards. The penalty? $25,000 for the first offense, $50,000 for the second with each subsequent infraction costing the teams $100,000.

On social media, timeliness is everything. There’s little doubt that football team’s social media accounts get the most engagement immediately prior to, during and immediately after the team plays a game. Yet this is exactly when the NFL plans to restrict their teams from posting the content which fans want to see. Why? According to the article, speculation is that this action would force NFL fans to pay attention to NFL social media properties. With NFL viewership declining, this would allow the NFL to – by default – control the messaging and content published online.

However, at the same time, each and every team is its own business seeking to satiate its fans, grow new ones and provide content that fosters loyalty and engagement. Yet the NFL intends to hobble them. In a spirit of generosity, the NFL will allow NFL teams to “share” any content posted by NFL social media accounts. How convenient… and beneficial for the NFL.

Social media is more important than ever as an effective tool that engages your audience -- regardless of if you’re an NFL team, a car dealership, or a local coffee shop. This move by the NFL could certainly influence other franchisors into considering similar policies. There are already more than a few social media agencies partnered with manufacturers who would like nothing more than to control the content dealerships publish to their social media profiles – that’s exactly why they offer co-op money for dealers that sign with those agencies and, in some cases, mandate their use.

If there was ever a time when you didn’t believe that social media is important, this move by the NFL should turn on the warning light. When multi-billion dollar corporations start restricting the use of social media in order to move eyeballs away from franchisees and towards themselves, you know that they’ve recognized its value and are eager to increase their eyeball market share – but it should not be at the expense of the businesses that operate under them.

In this era of dealership expansions and acquisitions, groups are often put in the unenviable position of inheriting promises or perks that were offered prior to the dealership acquisition. One would think that it is simply a matter of grandfathering the customer into a perk offered by the previous owners. However, one automotive group chose to take a different approach, as recently covered in an article in Automotive News.

Unique Value Propositions – or differentiators – are increasingly important in the automotive industry. Regardless of whether a dealership offers free oil changes, free “tires for life” or any other perk, each dealership will do what it thinks best to attract, sell, service and retain the maximum number of people. But what happens when a dealership has perks it’s promised to buyers and then is acquired? In this case, the acquiring dealer group decided NOT to honor those perks – which, in and of itself, may seem like a risky move – but was it the right one?

In any acquisition, one of the attributes considered is any existing promises made and how the community views the dealership as far as its honesty, integrity and reputation. Obviously, the better the reputation, the more attractive the dealership is for the acquiring dealer group. That being said, when a dealer group is expanding – and doing so under an umbrella brand name, versus simply taking over and retaining the original dealership name – the challenge is how to retain the acquiring dealer group’s existing value propositions and embrace its newly acquired customer base.

In some cases, those two things can be at odds, as it was with this automotive group, a well-known and highly respected group with its own unique set of values. According to the article, if they were to adopt the values of the previous owners for each dealership acquired, they would “be all over the map” and that would be very hard to keep track of and also incredibly confusing for customers. Imagine 10 dealerships all under the same brand name. One of them offers free oil changes for life. Another offers nothing. Another offers free tires. This list could go on. Not only would it be hard for executives to keep track of, it would also make consumers question which dealership they should do business with. It really doesn’t matter if the group’s dealerships are in the same PMA or not. It only boils down to this – when you go to one Wal-Mart, you expect every other Wal-Mart to have the same “rules”, if you will.

In this case, the existing customers of the dealership being acquired didn’t take the changes very well. The local media covered the issue and the customers also took to social media to vent. Did that change the new owner’s minds? No… and for a very simple reason. An organization with multiple value propositions that differ from location to location is doomed to fail. Customers will come in expecting one thing, simply because it is offered at another location, and will then be disappointed when they don’t receive it.

This group, however, understood the value of consistency in brand message and, despite the fact that they knew there would be upset customers because of this change in ownership and loss of perks, it chose to stay with the values and propositions the group was founded upon.

But what about those upset customers who lost the perks promised when they purchased their vehicles?

Their organizational values were non-negotiable so the dealer group trained its entire staff in how to handle these complaints and ensured that online reviews and social media complaints were quickly responded to and addressed appropriately.

The acquired dealership also addressed the ownership change on its website, offering customers discounts on maintenance packages and every fourth tire free. It also explained that Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. now gives free oil changes for the first two years.

As a result the group has begun renewing relationships with each individual customer and things are calming down.

They certainly didn’t buy the dealership because they wanted to alienate the customer base they acquired. But they also weren’t willing to deviate from their organizational values and selling propositions.

This is an interesting conundrum. Consistency and core values are key to any company. But, on the other side of the coin, customer acquisition costs are sky rocketing and the market is so competitive that an upset customer can easily defect to the competition. Did this group make the right move?

Consumers increasingly use their smartphones to research which businesses they should patronize. These days, online reviews are a big part of that decision process. If managed incorrectly, these reviews can easily flip your prospective customer away from your dealership and into the lap of your competition. And it’s not just a bad review, it’s how you respond to them and interact with the customer. Responsiveness is key -- Keep in mind that saying nothing is almost as bad as saying the wrong thing.

But what should you say when an upset customer takes to a review site and bashes you, your business, or your staff -- when you weren’t even aware there was a problem?

An interesting article on Moz.com shares some great facts about online reviews and how to respond, both correctly and incorrectly

Owners and managers can feel blindsided when a negative review appears. Quite often they aren’t even aware of the problem. Most business owners and managers care about their businesses, value their customers and, when negative reviews appear, take them personally. To summarize the article, the owner of a food truck involved in a really busy festival woke up to a negative review from a customer complaining about the length of time it took to get the food and that the food itself was not equitable to the price paid. The owner essentially blasted the consumer with all sorts of excuses and some aggressive insults. This, in turn gave the consumer an even lower opinion of the business. As a result they edited the review from 2-stars to 1, making the situation even worse. The article dissects the actual review along with the owner’s response and shares how the author would have chosen to respond had they been in a similar situation.

Rather than rehash the whole article (which you should definitely read), I’ll focus on why responding appropriately to negative online reviews is so important.

When it comes to a negative online review, it is important to keep in mind that they are on public forums. They can be read by other prospective customers and are typically memorialized forever. In enough quantity, reviews can make or break your business. While each and every negative review due to a poor customer experience needs an individualized and appropriate response, it’s difficult to advise an umbrella policy. That being said, one easy rule to remember is this:

When reading and preparing a response to a negative online review, imagine that you’re standing in the middle of your showroom floor packed with customers who are considering buying a vehicle from you. The customer is directly in front of you stating their upset loudly enough for everyone to hear -- both what the customer says and any response you give. Because of that, your response can impact whether or not other customers choose to complete their transactions with you.

This simple action can help you be more thoughtful in your response. It’s highly unlikely (hopefully) that you would rant at and insult this upset customer in front of the other customers.

In reality there is little, if any, difference between talking irately to a customer live in the showroom surrounded by other customers, or in responding abrasively to a negative online review – except for one major detail:

The potential size of your audience!

While the handful of customers in your showroom are the only people to witness this event, EVERY customer that visits your online review sites will witness it in perpetuity.

So which is more important? Well, they both are. How you handle a guest standing in front of you and fix a problem, or apologize for a mistake, is exactly how you should handle a customer online. It doesn’t matter whether you think the customer is wrong, is overreacting, or just trying to get something for nothing. Take your personal feelings out of the equation and focus on improving (or at least attempting to improve) THIS customer’s experience – which will also show every other customer that you care and would be willing to help them if a problem should arise.

People do business with people they like. Make sure that everything you do – whether that’s in person or in an online interaction – reinforces the message that you care about your customers and are willing to work hard to rectify any problem. You won’t be able to make everyone happy -- but other prospective customers will see that you tried. And in the end, that’s all that really matters to them.

Related resource: Top Reasons to Respond to Negative Reviews

These days, most companies have a social media presence. Some are healthy and vibrant, while others merely exist. Regardless of how well any particular company presents itself on these channels, social media has transcended beyond the term “social media” and could now also be said to be a:

1. Marketing channel
2. Content distribution channel
3. Customer service venue
4. Online review platform
5. Communication channel

While you personally may not believe social media is worth the time and effort -- your customers certainly do. For instance, customers now use social media to reach out to their airline when a flight is delayed or something happens. And, guess what? If it is one of the major airlines, they tend to respond.

Why do so many big brands respond to social media if it’s so unimportant? Because consumers value it. In today’s mobile, smartphone-enabled world, in a time of turmoil, many find that it is much more convenient to reach out to an airline or hotel provider than to attempt to call them. And, frequently, it produces a faster response. Consumer behavior is then reinforced and they continue to use social media platforms for customer service issues. While this may be limited to BIG BRANDS, it’s quickly becoming an expectation for consumers across the board. If you have a Twitter or Facebook account for your business, your customers will be talking to you.

For this reason, the employee you choose to respond to posts on your social media properties, and exactly how you set up the account, is essential to your continued online social presence.

Imagine this scenario. You establish a social media presence and post relevant and interesting messages about your dealership. You build a nice size following. After all of this hard work and nurturing, something unexpected happens – an administrator leaves. Or, perhaps your dealership hired a vendor to create and/or manage your Facebook account… and then you cancel with them. What happens now? Well, I hope you set your page up correctly.

The first thing you need to know about Facebook pages is that you ALWAYS need an administrator. Of course, most companies just assign everyone as an administrator -- whether that’s the owner, employees or vendors. Everyone can do their thing, whatever their thing is -- and everyone is happy, right? Wrong!

The problem is that as people drop off – employees leave, vendors get cancelled, etc. – your Facebook page can be at risk. In the worst case scenario, a disgruntled employee or vendor can remove every administrator, and then themselves as well, leaving no available access. This means your page is orphaned. Which literally means that, while your Facebook presence still exists, you no longer have control and cannot post any content, reply to any comments, or messages. It’s sort of in a state of limbo. And it’s not easy to regain control.

The good news is that there is a solution. Facebook provides multiple levels of access which include different types of privileges. If you pay attention and set things up correctly, you should never encounter a situation whereby you lose control of the Facebook page you worked so hard to build.

The levels of access are as follows:

1. Administrator – Think of this level as that of a dictator. You can do anything. You are the man. Whatever you want to do, you can do. Be careful who you assign this to.
    
2. Editor – This is the setting that you probably want most of your assigned employees and vendors to have. This will allow them to do everything EXCEPT manage administrators. This means that you always have complete control over your page. YOU can delete them (if needed) but they cannot delete YOU.
    
3. Moderator – This setting is very similar to that of Editor, except that they cannot delete or create posts on behalf of you. This would be the ideal setting for any online reputation company you hire, as they can respond to comments and posts,  but cannot mess with any content you create or post.
    
4. Advertiser – If you hire a company to specifically facilitate Facebook ads, this is the setting you should choose when adding them. This allows them to create and post ads for you and view metrics, which is exactly – and only – what they need to do.
    
5. Analyst – This is the lowest security setting of all. This only allows someone to see metrics and data, as well as view who (on an individual level) posted content.

As social media becomes more and more integrated into the everyday lives of consumers, these rules will become more important. It’s better to assign security settings that fit the tasks your employees and/or vendors need access to now, than to regret it later.

Ensure that you have control over your Facebook page through a rigid security standard -- or you could end up in a place where you cannot even access your own Facebook page… and I guarantee that an orphaned Facebook page isn’t easy to reclaim.

It only takes a couple of clicks. Pay attention, just as you would when giving someone access to your CRM or DMS, and you’ll be fine.

While lead generation is important, according to this article on Inc.com, many companies would see far greater results (and better, more-qualified leads) if more emphasis were placed on nurturing, engagement, and providing value through content marketing.

A good content marketing strategy should include many different types of content. The article lists the following top ten types of content most used by businesses, along with the percentage of businesses that report using each:

• Social Media Content (93%)
• Case Studies (82%)
• Blogs (81%)
• e-Newsletters (81%)
• In-Person Events (81%)
• Website Articles (79%)
• Videos (79%)
• Illustrations / Photos (76%)
• White Papers (71%)
• Infographics (67%)

While this list only contains the top ten types, all of the content on this list can serve to engage your audience and keep your brand top of mind. That is your goal in marketing, right?

Why is content marketing so effective? Simple. Because this content provides value to your audience. Each of these ten types of content is a way for your business to engage your audience other than screaming “Buy my stuff!” You’ve seen it yourself. Constant in-your-face style promotion just gets old.

Content marketing, on the other hand, can transform a business from obscurity into a resource where executives are viewed as thought leaders. Your audience’s perception is invaluable and can help place your business top-of-mind when the time is right.

According to the article, the first thing many companies want to do when entering the content marketing space, is generate leads. In fact 85% focus on lead generation, which in the author’s opinion, is a mistake. He states that, “companies would see far greater results (and better, more-qualified leads) if more emphasis was placed on nurturing, engagement, and providing value through content marketing.”

There is a place for content that generates leads. But, don’t make your content a constant stream of promotion after promotion. Instead, aim to engage your audience, by creating the types of content that they want to see – and you can only do that by listening and responding to the needs and wants of your audience.

Video content has pretty much become the preferred medium for consumers. Social media platforms increasingly give video content preferential reach and content producers have adjusted their strategies accordingly.

In retail automotive, video is used very effectively to market dealerships and their inventory, because the content successfully attracts consumers’ eyeballs in a very crowded market.

However, for automotive vendors in the B2B, rather than B2C space, video tends to be underutilized, despite the fact that it can be (and is) just as effective. I counsel clients all of the time to create video content as it typically performs well and elicits response and engagement.

If you are looking to use video in your content marketing strategy to increase your digital footprint and reach more potential customers, here are a few suggestions that can help:

1. Informational Videos: How often does your support team have to answer common questions? Video FAQs and tutorials can help answer those most commonly asked questions and alleviate some of the strain placed on support staff. These type of videos also tend to provide excellent SEO value.
   
   You can have the best product or service in the universe. But, if a dealer isn’t utilizing it (whether that’s because they don’t know how, or don’t know the feature exists), a cancellation letter is likely to follow. Informational videos can include explanations of features (existing or new), and tips and tricks about how your customers can get maximum value from your products and services. These videos can then be viewed on demand and the client can get any questions answered quickly and more efficiently learn how to use a particular feature.
    
2. Personal Introductions: Just as dealerships have a “Meet the Staff” page on their websites, most vendors do as well. Consider injecting some personality into your staff pages through the inclusion of video introductions and bios. Be creative, as these are a really great way to highlight your personality and company culture.
    
3. Video Emails: Video emails are a highly effective way for dealers to interact with consumers because they show some time and effort was taken to personally respond, and help build more of a connection. The same technology use can be used by vendors to elicit a more positive response and personal interaction with customers. Most will appreciate the time and effort that went into the video response.
    
4. Testimonials: Testimonial videos can be an extremely powerful way to leverage your existing customers to communicate the success they’ve had with your products or services. Consumers (and business owners) rely heavily on reviews, whether online, or through word-of-mouth. Video reviews tend to be that much more impactful, because viewers can hear and also see the sincerity, enthusiasm and satisfaction the reviewer shares.
    
5. Video Blogs: Video blogs tend to produce more views and interaction than written blogs. If you write and post blogs, consider adding video blogs into the mix. Just as in written blogs, these really should not be promotional. There is a time and place for product-driven blogs – posted on your site to explain new technologies or features, for example. However, for your social media and external sites, consider sharing your advice and best practices with the dealer community. There are several online communities where you can share your opinion, voice and expertise. And, if your content is good, your blogs will be welcome, read with interest and you can become better known as an industry expert, helping to keep you top of mind.

So, give it a try. Get out that camera and start filming. You’ll quickly find any time and effort put into creating video content will pay off through increased exposure, attention and business.

Social Media has become an important channel customers use to reach out to businesses. From tweets expressing their displeasure, to Facebook wall posts asking for additional information, increasingly, customers utilize these channels to engage and communicate with you.

Facebook realizes this and, as a result, has opened up new ways for customers to communicate with businesses, and vice versa. It also now holds businesses accountable through public notations that highlight how fast a business responds to customers.

These days, an improperly handled Facebook page or Twitter account can lose business and alienate customers. I have therefore put together 5 social media errors you can easily make, and why it is so important to avoid them. I hope these help!

1)    Ignoring Interaction:

For most customers, if they have an issue, there is nothing worse than reaching out to a company and feeling ignored. Yet this is exactly what businesses do when they ignore customer interaction on social media, and it happens more often than you may think.

Regardless of whether the interaction is a complaint, or a simple product or business question, be sure to pay attention and respond in a timely manner. You will earn the goodwill of the customer and at the same time show potential customers that your company cares.

In our digital world, ignoring these interactions is the equivalent to ignoring a phone call or a question asked in person. Make sure that you pay attention to your social media properties and acknowledge your customers when they choose to interact with you.

2)    Being Completely Promotional:

 By definition, social media is, well, social. Individuals do want to interact with any friends, families and businesses they may care about. However, while there’s nothing wrong with running ad campaigns, or even occasional posts about your product or service, bombarding your fans or followers with promotional content is the fastest way to lose your audience.

It’s hard enough to get their attention in the first place. If you spam their newsfeeds or Twitter streams, you’ll find out quickly just how easy it is for consumers to hide, unlike or unfollow you.

3)    Lack of Consistency:

As digital noise increases, social networks are making it harder for businesses to deliver content to their audiences. With organic reach hovering in the 4-6% range (or lower), it is important to maintain a consistent presence by posting relevant content on a regular basis.

Your Facebook page is rather like an extension of your storefront or business location. When someone visits your Facebook page and finds that the latest post is months old, it seems like the lights are on but no one is operating the business – you are obviously not very creative and care little for your customers.

It doesn’t take much time to find a single piece of content that’s relevant to your business and/or share an interesting picture with your audience daily. Make it a priority to ensure that something gets posted regularly and avoid the appearance of apathy.

4)    Ignoring Your Audience’s Needs & Wants:

It’s very easy to fall into the “social media as advertising channel” trap. However, Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks make it easy to ensure that you serve up desirable content, with tools that inform you of the types of content your audience desires. It’s actually quite simple. Every time content is posted, the audience votes. They’ll engage with the content they like and ignore (or fail to engage) with the content they don’t.

Pay attention to the content that your audience engages with and post more content along similar lines. In general, content that gives your some personality, such as videos and pictures of employees, community involvement or other real-time events at your business will be the best performing content.

There’s a big push for video content which performs very well. So highlight what’s going on at your business through images and video and you’ll find that your engagement soars.

5)    Inappropriate Content on Personal Accounts:

Just as social media is now a useful tool for screening potential employees, potential partnerships can easily be dismissed by an errant post on social media. When key executives of a company post content that is divisive (religion, politics, etc.) or illustrates inappropriate behavior (excessive drinking, partying, etc.) this can cause a potential customer or partner to disappear.

I’m not saying that executives need to live their lives as saints. I’m simply saying that if the content or activity wouldn’t be appropriate in front of customers or partners – potential or actual – than it’s probably wise not to memorialize those same things on personal social media accounts.

An argument could be made that privacy settings can prevent this. However, keep in mind the simplicity of taking a single screenshot and the damage that it can do unbeknownst to the executive.

Social media has become a viable and oft-used form of communication. As companies have increasingly realized its importance and become faster at responding to and resolving customer problems, customers have become better trained in the fact that social media is an effective means of interaction. When and if a customer reaches out, failing to react appropriately can result in negative consequences which are so simple to prevent. I hope that these 5 tips help improve your presence on social media. By no means is this a complete “how-to” list, but rather a guide to help you begin to have a solid social media presence.

Dealers are in for a wild ride. The next 5+ years will be filled with revenue from recall work; a shortage of technicians; shop capacity that can’t keep up with demand; parts availability issues; and, as a result, irate customers.

Recalls certainly challenge consumers’ patience and dealers can find themselves in a constant battle, fighting to put out fires, attempting to appease and retain customers.

A lack of parts availability for these recall repairs has already presented a huge challenge for many dealers. Customers are upset and there is sadly very little dealers can do to help. How do you handle a customer that has been informed that they will now have to drive an unsafe car for as long as 6 months before a part is available?

As it is such a huge issue, many media outlets have turned to tabloid press tactics, blowing things out of proportion due to some localized dishonest dealers that do not necessarily represent how dealers nationwide would choose to handle their customers.

A local Cincinnati news outlet reported an incident in which a customer was sent a recall notice from a local dealer. The customer went in to get the repair completed and the part wasn’t available and needed to be ordered, so the dealer told the customer about some needed front end work, to the tune of $922. The customer accepted the work. Two weeks later, when the part arrived, the customer returned to the dealership to get the recall repair completed. Another inspection was done and the customer was informed that his vehicle now needed an additional $2,000 worth of work. Needless to say, the customer declined and went to an independent repair facility for a second opinion. There he was told that he only needed $300 worth of work. While one might think this is an isolated incident, the article quotes an article in Consumer Reports which stated that, “some dealerships are exploiting safety recalls as a marketing hook to sell additional repair work.”

Due to these type of media reports, along with that Gallup poll that annually ranks car dealers near the bottom, sadly this industry does not always enjoy a very good reputation in the eye of the consumer. Recalls bring an even bigger challenge to this perception – even for the good, honest, transparent, customer-centric dealerships.

One dealership by itself, perhaps can’t change industry-wide perception. However, what you can do is have some impact on your local community. Do everything within your power to set yourself apart from your competition and, perhaps, earn new customers through a commonly used public relations technique.

When a business is under fire and the news is full of how “bad” they are, one of the tactics that can be used is to get out as much content as possible, in as many places as possible, that tells the other side of the story. If the public only hears how everything is bad, you should tell your customers and community why YOU are good. In order to do this, you DO have to make sure it is the truth. So, if you need to change things to ensure that you DO offer a great customer experience, then take a look at what you need to do internally first, to ensure you do maximize the customer experience for each and every customer.

Then, put out content in as many ways and on as many channels as you can that reassure people in your community that you care about your customers and that you are there to help. Make sure that you are including these messages in your newsletters and on your website. Place it on all your social media properties. Include it in your print ads, email communications, radio and TV ads. Identify happy customers that you assisted with a recall repair and get testimonials from them. Perhaps film your service advisors talking about challenges the dealership is facing with parts on a specific recall and put that online on your site, on YouTube and on your social media. Publish blogs and press releases with dealership specific information on parts availability, average timelines for repairs and resources that your dealership has to help make everything more convenient for your customers. It may not all be great news to the consumer, but the point is to be a resource of real information and be a trustworthy source for the consumer.

Don’t stay silent. The media has already done a great job of filling the vacuum with bad news, souring public perception. And, be careful not to keep forwarding the negative message that the press puts out there. Don’t talk about all the bad news in an effort to counter it. Your job is to forward positive news about your dealership. Yeah, it’s tough as there is a lot of truth out there and this current recall situation certainly is not a pretty picture. However, the goal is to fill the vacuum with YOUR message. One designed, in essence, to counter at least some of the negativity. Doing this can help to spread the word and reassure the community that your dealership is a great place to do business with. That you care about your customers and the local community.  If done properly, all of this content can also serve to increase your page ranking in search results and grow your dealership’s digital footprint.