ms marketing solution
JaySkowron
founder & principal for DealerDefender \ 866.618.8264 \ jskowron@autosuccessonline.com
THE CUSTOMER ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT, BUT THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS THE CUSTOMER
We’re going to discuss something controversial today: online reviews and how to respond to them. DealerRater reviews. Facebook reviews. Google My Business reviews (or is it Google+ Local? Google Places? Who knows these days?) How about Yelp reviews? There, I said it. Is your heart racing all of a sudden? Blood pressure up? Face red? Good. Now settle down and take a breath. We’re going to get through this together. We’ll focus on Yelp today, but what I’m going to say translates to all review sites. I know, dealers hate Yelp. You hate Yelp. Many businesses hate Yelp. I get it. Just about every dealer we talk to wants simply to ignore Yelp. But consider the following: Some Statistics
Between 65 percent and 90 percent of consumers, depending on which study you read, are influenced by online reviews. For Yelp alone, as of March 2016, there are an average of 167 million unique visitors per month (77 million desktop computer visitors, 69 million mobile Web users and 21 million app users.) About 72 percent of consumers say positive reviews make them trust a business more, and 90 percent say positive reviews directly influence their buying decisions. And guess what? People are more likely to share a negative experience than a positive one. Okay, enough statistics. So what does all that tell us? It tells us that the opposite is also true. Negative reviews influence people. It also tells us that your customers probably use Yelp. You probably even use Yelp yourself to find a restaurant, or a new barber or any number of businesses you need to research. You might even take a peek at your own dealership reviews once in awhile. Can you afford to risk 65 to 90 percent of your potential customers reading your negative reviews and just pretend they don’t exist? The Service Drive
Let’s use your service drive as an example. (Yes, it’s different than your showroom, but consumers rarely make that distinction.) There are thousands of ways you can drop the ball in the service drive. Keys get lost, paint gets scratched, cars fall off the lift. More likely, though, it’s
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employees keeping a customer waiting too long or being perceived as rude or dismissive. I know, your employees would never be rude or dismissive. But two things: 1. Perception is reality for customers. 2. Your employees absolutely can be rude or dismissive. It happens. Like the title says, the customer isn’t always right. Perception, however, is reality. And they are always the customer. You want to keep their business? Get referrals? Sell more cars and warranties? You need to fix your negative reviews. So, here’s my “best practice” strategy. How to Handle Negative Reviews (the “Recovery”) 1. Respond as quickly as possible. You should
respond within three hours of a posted review. But certainly, strive for less than 24.
2. Respond publicly. First, apologize. Show
the public you care about your reviews, you welcome the feedback and you want to fix any problems. Keep it cordial, professional and non-argumentative. If the review is particularly egregious, you can sometimes mention one or two facts to set the record straight — but this is delicate. Avoid being too matter-of-fact or passive-aggressive. Don’t get into a pissing match; avoid making the customer even angrier. Tread lightly. I know; it’s tough to back down when a bad review is posted, especially an unfair one.
3. Get the guest to communicate offline with
you. Ask them to send you an email, call you, stop by in person or even send them a private Yelp message. But make every effort to keep the conversation going.
4. Offer some kind of incentive for your
customer to come back. Maybe a free oil change, or a free car wash, a gift card — anything. Compensate them somehow for the inconvenience.
5. Ask them to speak to you personally next
time they come in. Do a meet and greet and roll the red carpet out for them. Make sure their return visit is as close to perfect as it can be. Tell them you want them to have a five-star experience. Yes, it’s a little subconscious trick, but it often helps.
6. Bonus Tip No. 1: Yelp allows you to flag
reviews. Sometimes, a review will be taken down by Yelp if you can make a good case that it doesn’t represent a personal consumer experience, or perhaps it was written by a current/ex-employee or a competitor. Example: “My friend came here and he said it sucked,” or “I used to work here and the GSM was a jerk,” or “I work at the dealership across the street and I agree with the last guy: the GSM is a jerk.” You can’t flag a review for “factual disputes” — they don’t care. That’s what the public comments are for.
7. Bonus Tip No. 2: Yelp sometimes “hides”
reviews. They use a secret algorithm that helps to detect fake reviews. It’s even more secret than the recipe for Classic Coke. So some negative reviews will be hidden (this used to be called “filtered” — now they call it “reviews that are not recommended.”) Some positive reviews will also be hidden — a good reason not to ask for positive reviews, besides being against Yelp’s terms of service. These hidden reviews don’t factor into your score, but you should still respond to them.
Dealerships following these tips will see positive outcomes. First, many times, customers will update their review and add additional stars. Second, customers who have been recovered using these techniques often become extremely loyal fans of the business — sometimes even more so than if they had a good experience to start with. Going the extra mile and showing the attention makes a big difference. A recent study showed that a one-star increase in a business’ Yelp score translates into substantial revenue increases. You may hate Yelp, but you can’t afford to ignore it. So take your head out of the sand, swallow your pride and win back a customer.