According to a recent eMarketer survey, nearly 75% of retailers in North America list personalization as one of their top priorities when it comes to customer experience.

Retailers want to provide personalization to both first-time and repeat customers with relevant content and recommendations, but the reality of its implementation seems a little more complicated.

However, according to Drew Giovannoli, product marketing manager at Bazaarvoice, it doesn’t have to be so complicated. We interviewed Giovannoli to get the scoop. 

“They’re not expecting anything futuristic. They just don’t want retailers to waste their time,” said Giovannoli in a phone interview with DrivingSales. “They aren’t trying to learn and navigate your store – they want what they’re looking for without having to go in a million different directions.”

Giovannoli is the product marketing manager in charge of personalization data products at Bazaarvoice, a company that has been working with leading retail and brand clients for over a decade. In the interview, he said a common conversation he holds with clients tends to focus on personalization and giving a better experience to customers, which then provides returns for the business.

However, there’s often a disconnect between what retailers think they’re doing and what customers feel like they’re getting. Add in the difference between personalization and customization, and the waters muddy even more. 

“You can customize into different segments, but when you personalize it, it’s really talking about that one-to-one experience,” he said. Many times, Giovannoli added, retailers are catering to an A/B Test.

“For example, let’s say you sell three different types of ice cream. You ask Joe what his favorite flavor is, and he says chocolate. Customization would be knowing Joe prefers chocolate, but going with strawberry because that’s what the largest group likes,” he said. “It’s personalization if Joe says he likes chocolate ice cream and that’s what we give him.”

“Where the disconnect really occurs is when a retailer starts to cater to the masses instead of to the individuals,” Giovannoli said. “If we are tailoring an experience at all, we’re often just splitting among a demographic instead of tailoring to the individual preferences.”

So, what are the best dealerships doing to maximize the customer personalization experience? Making recommendations based on what shoppers are looking for, not based on who the dealership thinks a shopper is. You don’t want to just know who they are; you need to find out “what this person actually cares about,” said Giovannoli.

“63% of folks who are actively shopping automotive retail say a personalized home page makes it easier to find items that they like,” said Giovannoli. “But only 26% of those same folks have actually experienced a personalized homepage.”

When it comes to personalized sites, customers should rarely be viewing content thats feel “new” to them, according to Giovannoli. Rather, it should feel like they landed in just the right spot. Things like relevant videos and content, display, production recommendations, and search personalization are great tools for improving site personalization.

On the other hand, the least effective dealerships are catering to the masses rather than the individual.

“Businesses start to fail when they treat everyone the same,” Giovannoli said. “When someone walks into a dealership, you can start to figure them out immediately, but that immediacy isn’t available online, so you have to find a way to bring that same experience to your website visitors.”

The idea and implementation of personalization is hardly limited to a single industry, but there may be a notion that it isn’t as applicable in the automotive industry, said Giovannoli.

“In retail automotive, there is a huge interest among consumers when it comes to finding what they’re looking for, and there are a number of different factors: are they more of a premium customer or a value customer? Sports or adventure?” he said. “Personalization is not just for high-end apparel retailers; taking advantage of this kind of data can give automotive retailers a huge competitive advantage.”

In the first installment of this series on high- vs. low-trust culture within a dealership, we discussed how, while progressive employee benefits are certainly welcomed and appreciated by most employees, all the vacation time in the world can’t save a dealership that operates on a low-trust culture.

In this second installment, we’ll talk more about how a low-trust culture can prevent a dealership with incredible potential from thriving in the marketplace. We’ll then go over some examples of how to identify a low-trust vs. high-trust company culture. 

Let’s start with biology. Did you know that the human brain perceives distrust as a social threat? And that it responds to a social threat much the same way it responds to a physical threat? When we operate in a low-trust environment, our brains lock down, and our thought-processing abilities become limited to basic survival instincts. In other words, “When we are experiencing a threat response, our brains simply aren’t capable of the same level of cognitive analysis, problem-solving, or collaboration that is often desired by organizations.”

So, right off the bat, we can see that taking the time and energy to build a high-trust culture is in the best interest of your management, your employees, and your dealership as a whole.

It doesn’t end there, though. A low-trust organizational culture can be pricey, to say the least. Consider the following:

• A study conducted by the global consulting firm Watson Wyatt found that high-trust companies outperformed their low-trust counterparts in total return to shareholders by 286%.

• The businesses that made Forbes Magazine’s list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” (where at least 60% of the criteria is comprised of trust factors) earned more than quadruple the return of the broader market over the preceding seven years.

Now that we have at least a small glimpse of the negative effects a low-trust environment can have on any organization, you might be thinking that you need to make some drastic changes at your dealership. And in Part 3 next week, we’ll learn how to build and manage a high-trust culture. But before we can really do that, we need to understand what each type of trust culture looks like, and how to identify a low-trust culture versus a high-trust culture.

The level of trust on which a business operates can affect numerous different aspects of the company’s operations and ultimate failure or success, but it always impacts at least two measurable outcomes: speed and cost. A low-trust dealership will function at a lower speed, and will do so with higher costs. Conversely, a high-trust dealership will operate at a higher speed but will have lower costs.

These two measurables, of course, arise from the existence and perpetuation of a number of less tangible outcomes; indeed, there are arguably too many of these intangible signs and symptoms to reasonably cover in this article. But in his book First Things First, the legendary Stephen R. Covey provides an excellent starting point for understanding what each type of culture looks like. I’ve compiled Covey’s descriptions into a single chart here, for quick and easy reference:

Now that we have a better picture of the differences between a high-trust versus low-trust dealership culture, it’s time for the hard part: Over the next couple of days, take a clear, honest look in the mirror. Pay attention to your employees’ overall energy levels, how they behave, and how engaged or disengaged they seem to be. Then, be honest: Are you running a dealership with a high-trust or low-trust culture?

Whatever the result, be on the lookout next week for the final installment in this series, where we’ll learn what it takes to build a low-trust culture into a high-trust culture, as well as how to foster and manage an already high-trust culture.

Could this small change make a big difference? If you already do this, have you a seen a difference from before you did it?

You put a foosball table in your dealership’s break room. You stocked the kitchen to the hilt with free food for your employees and bestowed upon them more paid vacation than they could ever possibly use. You probably think you’re nailing the whole “company culture” thing.

So, why can’t you seem to hold onto any good service techs? Why do your salespeople arrive exactly on time -- never a minute earlier than they have to -- and cut out the moment their scheduled shift ends?

The answer: they don’t trust you. Or their supervisors. Or their co-workers. It may sting to hear this, but the reality is that if you’re struggling with engagement, retention, and performance issues, your employees likely aren’t operating in a culture of trust, no matter how many “progressive” perks you’ve thrown at them.

Paul J. Zak, author of Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performing Companies, refers to these types of benefits as “golden handcuffs,” and he’s here to burst your bubble: Without a high-trust culture, such perks may create some sporadic short-term happiness, but they won’t improve performance or increase retention in the long run.

Through years of extensive research on the neuroscience of human connection, trust, and teamwork, Zak has found that:

This may sound like a fluffy chunk of common sense, but the numbers don’t lie -- and they’re eye-opening, to say the least:

 

Stay tuned for the next two installments in this series:

• What High-Trust vs. Low-Trust Cultures Look Like

• How to Create and Manage a Culture of Trust

Ian Coburn is the author of The Customer is Never Right: Sell More Trucks, Cars, Buses, Parts… Anything in One Month. He is a former training manager at Navistar and president of the soft skills talent development and training company GPA Training, Inc., but he started his career in a rather unorthodox position: as a stand-up comedian.

“It was my job, touring across North America, for ten years,” Coburn said. “No one realizes the value of a dependable vehicle and thus a great mechanic and knowledgeable source on vehicles [more] than a comedian. I was once on the road for 106 straight weeks. Literally, the only relationship in my life as a comedian was my car.”

Uncommon, to be sure, but touring as a comedian served to build up a useful repertoire of skills. When Coburn got tired of the comedian lifestyle, it made “perfect sense” to get into sales and customer service; after all, he’d developed the ability to speak in front of people and, most importantly, how to listen to people.

“It was a huge advantage because unlike when we are dealing with a customer, I didn’t have any numbers, deadlines, quotas, etc., to hit,” he said. “I could just listen, which got me interested, which led to me asking questions to learn more and really dig into the details. I learned to do it, effectively, and quickly.”

His first job after being a stand-up comedian was selling office supplies, where he was “immensely successful,” breaking sales records. His first day on the phone, he made 39 calls. Of those, he scheduled nine appointments and sold a man twelve computers – a 26% close rate. Two weeks later, his employers created the training manager position and promoted him.

And so it went. Coburn would start a sales job, get great results, and be put in charge of the team or training after a few months. Eventually he became a sales consultant, setting up, training, and/or “revamping” sales and customer service teams. In 2016, Coburn joined Navistar as a training manager, quickly becoming a frequently-requested speaker at conferences.

So why did Coburn decide on the automotive industry? Simple: he wanted to help.

“Auto and truck have been ignored by L&D, which is too bad, because you won’t find a better group of people who deserve to achieve maximum results,” he said. “They make everything happen,” from selling and servicing vehicles that take children to their soccer games to spending long hours on their feet dealing with disgruntled people, especially in service.

“Other jobs, we hear people sometimes ‘go above and beyond.’ In auto and truck, the job [itself] is going above and beyond, like when techs drove to Mount St. Helens from Chehalis, 100 miles away, to pick me up at 2:30AM because my ball bearings had busted, leaving me dangerously stranded in a curve heading up to the mountain,” Coburn said. “So I jumped at the chance to help truck dealers improve when the opportunity arose, and then to later add auto to the mix.”

What Successful Dealers are Doing Right

One word: listening.

“Top sales and customer service people, whether at dealerships or in other industries, listen and respond. They ask questions and make few statements. Then, once they feel they have all the information they need, they sell you the solution you need,” Coburn said. “That solution is never a vehicle, part, or service; instead, it is the dealership. They also build good relationships with everyone within the organization.”

Coburn talked about an auto rep who sold Coburn’s own mother a car in Lima, Ohio. The rep asked her a few questions: What are the most important features you’re looking for in a vehicle? How will you be using the vehicle? What about passengers or other drivers? And then the rep listened to her responses and asked follow-up questions before providing exceptional service – including a free oil change.

“My mom was so impressed,” said Coburn, “that she now drives one hour to Lima whenever she needs something for her car, even though she used to use the mechanic just down the block from her.”

What Unsuccessful Dealers are Doing Wrong

Conversely, struggling salespeople and customer service employees talk more than they listen.

“They rarely ask questions, causing them to frequently take customers down the wrong path, then must backtrack, somehow blaming the customer. And they aren’t shy about letting the customer know it: ‘I wish you had told me that,’ or ‘You should have said something,’” Coburn said.

And , he added, even if a salesperson does assume everything correctly, failure to ask questions (and listen to the answers) causes, in turn, failure to build rapport with customers. Even worse, sometimes salespeople will bad-mouth other departments in their own dealership, which is unlikely to encourage repeat or referral customers.

What Can Your Dealership Do?

Coburn puts it like this: Stop marketing; start selling.

“There is a muddy area between marketing and selling in the dealership world. When we stand in front of someone and point out all the features of a vehicle to them (‘The seats fold into the floor, I’ll demonstrate.’ ‘You can remove the cupholder to reveal a hidden department.’), we are marketing,” Coburn said. “When we ask questions (‘What are your top three must-haves in a vehicle?’ ‘What qualifies as good mileage to you?’), we are selling. There’s a reason someone coined the phrase, ‘Telling isn’t selling.’”

Coburn also advises that asking questions (and – you guessed it – listening to the responses) can be used to control the conversation. There is talk in the industry about not being “order takers,” but Coburn points out that many dealerships train their staff to be just that.

“We teach them to ask, ‘How may I help you?’ at the onset of the conversation, which tees up the customer to ask the questions and our staff to answer. The problem is, customers aren’t experts, so they don’t know which questions to ask,” he said. “Better to teach your staff to ask, ‘What part/service/vehicle are you interested in today?’ It sets up staff better to continue asking questions.”

Take the time to walk around your sales floor and listen to your staff, and see who ends up asking the questions. Chances are, you’ll find it’s almost always the customers. Once, as an experiment, Coburn walked around 22 different car dealerships in the western suburbs of Chicago, and the salespeople were the ones asking the questions in only four instances.

Another thing you can – and probably should – do is answer questions with more questions. People usually tend to answer questions with statements, but oftentimes, the question being asked is not the “true” question. The goal should be to identify and answer that “true” question. To find out the real question, Coburn recommends following these three steps:

1. Acknowledge the question.
2. Get permission to ask your question.
3. Go straight into asking your question.

Coburn referenced an interaction he witnessed at a dealership, involving a sales rep and a customer. The customer asked the sales rep if a particular vehicle got good gas mileage on the highway, to which the sales rep replied, “Yes, sir, 24 miles.” The customer thanked him, refused the his offer of a brochure, and began to walk away.

At this point, Coburn jumped in, asking the customer what qualified as “good” mileage on the highway to him. The customer said it was 28 miles, so Coburn asked the rep if there were any vehicles that fit that standard. When the customer was asked if he would like to see those vehicles in particular, he said he would, and the rep led him off.

“The ‘true’ question was not, ‘Does this vehicle get good gas mileage,’ but ‘Do you have vehicles that get at least 28 miles per gallon on the highway?’” explained Coburn. “That’s the question the rep needed to identify and answer. Why didn’t the customer ask that question? It goes back to L&D – how the adult brain works.”

“The customer  knows what qualifies as good mileage to him, he knows the car he is looking at, he processes the information, and then asks, ‘Does this get good mileage on the highway?’” Coburn elaborated. “Interestingly, a child would have been more likely to ask directly if the car got 28 miles on the highway, because children’s brains aren’t developed to the point where they do such processing.”

Coburn says your dealership should also practice objection handling. The simplest way to do this is to bring the customer with you, by “repeating the objection, [getting] permission to ask a question, [and asking] your questions instead of making statements.”

When Coburn and his wife went into a Toyota dealership to buy a minivan in 2016, they looked at the Sienna. Coburn told the sales rep he liked the folding seats in the Pacifica, and the sales rep retorted, “Yeah, but it doesn’t have [this feature] and [that feature].”

“None of those features mattered to me,” Coburn said. “He pushed the product, came off slightly confrontational, and turned the atmosphere negative by putting down the product – worse, it was a product I had told him I liked, which some customers could mistakenly take as him putting down their personal tastes or judgment.”

You can circumvent this effect by bringing the customer with you. Instead of putting down certain features, sales reps should ask the customer questions to determine why they like a particular feature.

Coburn’s final piece of advice? Have fun!

“Take it from a former touring comedian: when it comes to communication, delivery is more important than content,” he said. “If you’re having fun, the customer will have a much better experience, because your delivery will be much better. Top sales and customer service reps are always having fun, regardless of their numbers or the challenges they may be facing outside of work.”

Coburn’s book, The Customer is Never Right, is available here. DrivingSales members can receive a discount by using the promo code DRIVINGSALES.

Whether you’re a veteran digital marketer or you’re fairly new to the game, you (I hope!) already know that the importance of keywords can’t be overstated when it comes to your ad campaigns. But there’s another, equally important component that a vast number of marketers -- including some of the most seasoned ones -- are full-on neglecting: negative keywords. In fact, research conducted by WordStream has found that, over the course of one month, nearly 50% of digital marketers fail to add a single negative keyword to their AdWords accounts. And the reality is that if you’re one of those who aren’t incorporating negative keywords into your PPC and search strategies, you’re almost certainly tossing boku marketing bucks straight into the trash can. As the folks over at Google have summed it up, “One key to a highly targeted campaign is choosing what not to target.”

What Are Negative Keywords?  As we know, Google functions like a type of auction, where you bid on keywords you’ve deemed most relevant to your dealership’s website and marketing objectives. But what you may not know is that you can also tell Google the search terms for which you don’t want your ads to appear. These are called “negative keywords” (they may also be called “negative matches”). Here’s how Google defines negative keywords:

When you run a PPC campaign, you fork over money every time someone clicks on your ad -- even if that person isn’t a member of your target audience and doesn’t give two hoots about the product or service you’re offering. When this happens, you’re paying good money for a totally useless click: not exactly an ideal way to distribute your ad spend. To illustrate, here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re in charge of digital marketing for a Ford dealership. A classic cars enthusiast -- we’ll call him Sam -- wants to find parts for his Ford Edsal, a model that was in production from 1958 until 1960. He performs a search query for Ford Edsal car parts, and an advertisement for your dealership appears in the search results. Sam’s not in the market for a new car and he’s not looking to have his current vehicle serviced, but he accidentally clicks on your ad (or maybe he clicks it on purpose, thinking that a Ford dealership would sell the parts he needs). Boom. You just spent precious marketing dollars on a useless click. Or maybe you’re paying per impression, and your ad shows up on Sam’s blog, which is a forum for people who are obsessed with restoring vintage cars. The result is the same: wasted money. Enter negative keywords, which “offer an opportunity to strategically restrict your PPC advertisements so they only reach your best potential audience.”

Benefits of Using Negative Keywords.  As I’ve just illustrated above, using negative keywords can save you money and increase your ROI. But implementing them into your digital marketing strategy also has some other, less obvious benefits.

For one thing, it can help you create more relevant ad groups: “By weeding out keywords that aren’t related to your business, you tighten the relevance of your ad groups. Small, closely-related ad groups allow you to craft a single message that speaks to your entire group of keywords.”

Using negative keywords can drastically impact your click-through rate (CTR), as well. By eliminating uninterested users from your audience, you automatically increase the likelihood that those who do see your ads will click on them -- and eventually make a purchase.

Choosing Negative Keywords.  Not sure how to decide which keywords should make your negative keywords list? Google suggests looking for “search terms that are similar to your keywords but might cater to customers searching for a different product.”

You can use the same discovery methods for negative keywords that you already use to find regular (“positive”) keywords. For example, you can search for a term in Google’s AdWords Keyword Planner tool, just as you’d search for a positive keyword. As you browse the list of related keyword searches, look for items in the list that you know are irrelevant to your dealership and marketing objectives. Likewise, you can use the Search Terms Report tool within AdWords. Because this tool shows you the actual search queries that have triggered your ads, you can use it to eliminate those that are irrelevant by adding them to your negative keywords list.

How to Add Negative Keywords to a Campaign or Ad Group.  Google provides the following instructions for adding negative keywords to your campaign or ad group:

• Sign into your AdWords account and click Keywords from the left-hand page menu.

• Click Negative Keywords, and then click the blue ⨁ button.

• From here, you can apply new keywords, add a new negative keyword list, or add an existing negative keyword list to your campaigns or ad groups:

  • Apply new keywords or add a new negative keywords list:

    • Select Add Negative Keywords or Create New List.

    • Choose whether to add negative keywords to a campaign or ad group, and then select the specific campaign or ad group.

    • Add your keywords, one per line, making sure your negative keywords don’t overlap with your positive keywords.

    • Click Save.

  • Use an existing negative keywords list:

    • Select Use Negative Keyword List.

    • Choose the campaign to which you’d like to apply negative keyword lists.

    • Check the boxes of the negative keywords lists you’d like to use.

    • Click Save.

A Note of Caution.  It’s important to remember that negative keywords don’t work for Display and Video Ad campaigns the same way they do for search campaigns. According to Google, “[d]epending on the other keywords or targeting methods in your ad group, some places where your ad appears may occasionally contain excluded terms. For Display and Video ads, a maximum of 5,000 negative keywords is considered. You can also avoid targeting unrelated sites or videos by implementing site category options and content exclusions.”

I recently read an article in HBR titled: Managing Yourself: How to Negotiate with a Liar, by Leslie K. John. In our world we assume that most people come into a dealership/store and think that the salespeople are the liars...when, from my experience, the customers are far from innocent in this respect.  

Here are some of the key takeaways from the article:

1. Encourage Reciprocity.  Humans have a strong desire to reciprocate sensitive information... we want to match their transparency.  A good way to kick start this is to be the first to disclose an issue of importance.  This allows the other side to see you are being fair and more likely to disclose something to you.  Overall we are building trust.
2. Ask the right Questions.  Most people lie by omission. We claim that "If the customer asked me, I would have told the truth."  In a situation like this we want to make sure we are asking questions that can help uncover issues that can help strengthen your bargaining position...i.e.  When was that last time the check engine came on in your car?  What was the last repair you had to have done on the car?  Were there any recommendations that you didn't have done at that time that I need to tell a customer about in the future?
3. Watch for Dodging.  People will answer a question that they wish you would have asked.  If they don't want to answer the question they will steer their answer to answer a question they weren't asked. The best way to avoid this is write down questions then refer back to them to make sure you got your questions answered. 
4. Don't dwell on Confidentiality.  People are more willing to talk to you and share information when you keep the tone conversational.  When we start to ask questions and tell someone "I will keep this confidential" or "I will make sure your answers do not leave this room."  This puts people on the defensive and either causes them to stop talking, or start lying on their answers
5. Cultivate Leaks.  Listen to the questions a customer asks.  If they say "What would happen if I am late multiple months on my payments?"  This is normally an indicator that they are expecting issues on being able to make the payments.  We can encourage clients leaking information to us by giving them options.  If we know a customer likes a vehicle we can propose either them buying the vehicle outright and the payment plan, and propose them leasing the vehicle to show a lower monthly payment.  The option that the customer tells you they like will let you know their priorities and allow you to ask follow up questions and discover what the customer really wants. 

What the author really drives home in this article is that lying surrounds us.  We need to use better tactics, based in science, to bring about the best in both parties when we negotiate.  

Erik Nachbahr, President of Helion Automotive Technologies, talks about the biggest mistake today's dealers make when it comes to their data security.

Google this week went live with its new ad blocker for Chrome. Wait, what? Doesn’t Google rake in massive revenue from internet ads? Well, yes. Keep reading.

Turns out, Google just wants to block annoying ads. The hope is that if ads are more engaging and useful to Chrome users, then fewer people will be inclined to install third-party ad blockers. Specifically, Google wants to accomplish three things: (1) decrease the use of third-party ad blockers; (2) present users with more useful and engaging ads; and (3) encourage marketers to publish less annoying and intrusive ads.

With these objectives in mind, the search giant joined the Coalition for Better Ads, a group that has devised a set of criteria dubbed the “Better Ads Standards,” and has now adopted those standards into its Chrome browser.

The Coalition for Better Ads officially describes the Better Ads Standards like this:

The obvious question for marketers now is, of course, “How do I know whether my ads are compliant with these standards?” What follows is a quick-and-dirty overview of how the ad filtering works and what types of ads don’t meet the Better Ads Standards (a more complete and detailed description can be found on the Chromium Blog).

There are four types of desktop ads and eight types of mobile ads that do not meet the Better Ads Standards.

[The images below are from the Coalition for Better Ads website.]

Desktop Ads

• Auto-playing video ads with sound 
• Prestitial ads with countdowns 
• Large sticky ads 
• Pop-up ads 

Mobile Ads

• Pop-up ads 
• Prestitial ads 
• Ad density higher than 30% 
• Flashing animated ads 
• Auto-playing videos with sound 
• Postitial ads with countdown 
• Full-screen rollover ads 
• Large sticky ads 

But don’t panic: Google isn’t exactly planning to embark on a massive, hired-guns-style, ad-blocking rampage. If a website’s ads fail the Better Ads Standards, the site owner will be given an opportunity to remedy any ads identified as problematic. Here’s how it works:

• Google will evaluate the site for violations. This evaluation will be based on a sampling of pages from that site.
• The evaluation will result in the assignation of one of three possible grades:
  • Passing
  • Warning
  • Failing
• If Google identifies any violations during the evaluation, the owner of the site will be notified and will have 30 days from that notification to address the violation and resolve it.
  • Once they’ve fixed the identified issues, the site owner can submit their site for re-review.
  • If the violations remain unresolved after 30 days from the owner being notified, Chrome will start blocking ads on that site.

Publishers won’t simply be left out to dry, though. Google has taken steps to help site owners and marketers understand and comply with the new criteria.

• The Ad Experience Report. This is a new tool developed by Google to provide site owners and ad publishers with a clear idea of how the Better Ads Standards apply to their own websites and pages.
• Guidelines & Recommendations. Google has published some guidelines and best practices, including recommendations on what types of ads to use in place of those that fail the Better Ads Standards. Those resources can be found here.

We asked Michael King, founder of NYC-based digital marketing agency iPullRank, whether search is more of an art or more of a science. Here's what he told us.