Today’s shoppers are online before they are in your store, especially when it comes to shopping for a vehicle. One of the first things they do before contacting a dealership is checkout their online reputation. What other people are saying or aren’t saying matters. It has never made sense to me that in most dealerships there is no one that is actively managing and responding to reviews, positive or negative. All it takes is one negative review to turn away a customer. In the information that follows I will give you a solid strategy to manage and build your online reputation.

The first thing that you need to do is to claim your dealership on all review sites and setup auto email responses to all reviews posted. Then you need to have the person assigned to follow-up reviewing all reviews to see which ones may require immediate action.

Preventing Negative Reviews

Managing complaints quickly and correctly is crucial to preventing a negative review. The most effective way to manage online complaints is to PREVENT them. This is done by following up with every customer and addressing any issues immediately before they have the chance to create a negative review. Every customer that comes into your dealership should receive a follow-up call no more than two days after their visit. When a follow-up call is made the customer immediately sees an opportunity to voice their complaint. If the complaint is addressed immediately they feel that they have been heard, that they are appreciated and the complaint is being addressed; then it no longer needs to be voiced through a survey or negative review. We have already discussed this in part 3, so if you are looking for a specific process take a look.

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