SearchOptics

This is part 3 of a 3 part series, to read part 1, click here; to read part 2, click here

…UGH!! They are awful. Most people search at times when a talking head is VERY inconvenient. Either at work between 11 and 2 or in the middle of the night when their toddler has just fallen asleep after 114 bedtime stories. In either case your walking, talking, suited salesperson is going to make them mad and cause them to bounce off your site. When they get to a dealer site they know what they are looking for. They don’t need instructions (unless you have 65 places for them to click on the page, in that case you might want a big yellow arrow pointing toward the specials tab).

A funny story. The other day I am out doing an analysis of a dealers site. When I click on the site, out of nowhere comes this loud voice in the middle of a teenage dialogue (it was a radio ad that they had playing on the website as you entered the site). Even though it is my job to check out sites and my boss would be happy to hear the voice because it is a definite opportunity for us to redo the site, I instinctively closed the browser window to stop her from talking. I went back in, of course, and listened to the whole ad because there was no way to turn her off. There was no button, no mini-window, no X close to shut her up. Even if your daughter wants to be a radio announcer at least give the customers a choice of whether they want a voice to talk to them . After a month of choosing you will probably be able to save yourself some money by taking the voice off the site.

Lastly, answer your reviews wherever they are. I know after talking to hundreds of dealers how frustrating it is when someone posts something negative about your dealership. It hurts, because most of the time you do a GREAT job but not many people go out and say anything about that experience, you just get the complaints. When you do, make sure you answer them politely. Tell them you are very sorry they had that experience, tell them you would like to speak to them personally and ask them to send over contact info so you can call immediately and straighten it out. The same reaction you would have if someone walked into the dealership with a complaint. You wouldn’t fire back that it was their fault,would you? You would probably ask the person to come into your office (so the rest of the customers don’t have to listen to the issue) and quietly resolve it. Do that on the internet too. I have a customer that posted the nicest response to a negative review. He said that the feedback was very important to the dealership and he appreciated the customer sharing it with him (as if no one else saw it but him). He said it was a family business and that they prided themselves on customer satisfaction. He asked if the person would please send their contact information and that he would call personally to do what they could to make sure that the customer was happy. When I read the review and the response, all I remembered was the response. I don’t even remember the complaint. People just want to be heard and to know that you care about what they had to say. That’s it.
Good Luck, I’ll try to think of another funny story for next month.

By Cristina Foster (email her)
// Midwest Regional Director

Cristina Foster, Midwest Regional Director, brings over 20 years of automotive experience to Search Optics. She began her sales and marketing career at IBM, working on re-engineering at General Motors. Working at Sun Microsystems in sales and marketing, she specialized in CRM strategies and moving Midwest clients to the internet during the dotcom expansion.

Cristina was then recruited into event marketing and public relations helping technology and automotive clients leverage their experience in customer reference programs. Most recently Cristina comes to Search Optics from R.L. Polk & Co. where she was responsible for OEM initiatives. She helped her clients measure ROI resulting from effective marketing campaigns and closed sales in the dealerships. Cristina attended Michigan State University and resides in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

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