The social media beast can’t be easily tamed
There was a time, in our not so distant past,(like maybe last week) that automobile dealers exerted a sizable influence over their local media channels. As big advertisers, they had a way of exerting certain pressures over local coverage.
A colleague of mine once worked as a reporter for a small Ottawa-area newspaper in the 1990s. When a dealership called her publisher to alert him they were having a special sales event on Saturday, well, she understood the drill. That meant that, on Saturday, she was going to convert the advertiser’s sales event into a grip-and-grin picture or small story for one of the paper’s biggest advertisers.
Dealerships spend a lot of money, and are used to getting favourable treatment when it comes totheir local media.
Not so in the social media world.
The endless new social media channels popping up can’t be controlled, because they don’t owe you anything, and the writers also don’t particularly care about things like balance, objectivity or fairness.For the most part, social media is popular because it’s written by real people. Real, ordinary folks with no real journalism training who just happen to walk into your dealership, visit your website, drop their cars off for service or call your store.
Someday, sometime, possibly right this moment,one of them is having a crappy experience at your dealership and knows just what to do about it. They’ll tell the world. And there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. Except to be great. Every day. And on every front. Online, in person,in your service bays, on the phones, in your communityand in social media channels.
Consequences
The consequences of not being great, is that your business can get punched hard in the stomach and poked in the eye. It won’t only cost you pride, it will cost you money.
Consider, for example, the growth in online customer reviews for all product categories, and increasingly, for auto dealerships. Much like travel reviews,consumers can let the rest of the world know what they think of your business. Sometimes, it’s great, sometimes it’s terrible. All it really takes is a couple of really negative reviews to convince a consumer to try another dealer or another brand.
One review that I readily came across online for a Toronto area dealership illustrates the point: “Terrible service,STAY AWAY!” is written in big bold type right after the one star the customer gave the dealership. “Terrible dealership, terrible service department…I walked out fuming!” Ouch!
The hard part, is that you can’treally make these things go away. Are you going to threaten Google? Or Yelp? Or DealerRater? Or any of the hundreds of other places people might write about you?
Since you no longer have much power to muzzle the press, my advice would be to keep tabs on your online reputation, and reach out to disgruntled customers – quickly! Above all, make sure everyone at your dealership isaware that they are living in giant social media fishbowl and that their actions, comments and interactions with customers in private – are one blog post away from being public.
No isolated incidents
If your service advisor told you that he had a bad day and had several run-ins with customers,well, that used to be an isolated incident. Now, any one of those incidents can becomethe first thing that people read online about your dealership. And trying to stop a rumour is like trying to un-ring a bell.
But consumers aren’t stupid. They recognize that people have all sorts of motives for posting negative reviews, and sometimes the more virulent the attack, the less credible there viewer. The secret is to really make sure that you fight fire with fire, and ensure you have enough positive reviews and customer feedback about your dealership to provide a more balanced and favourable outlook.
At the NADA convention and expo in February, social media and managing your online reputation were hot topics. There are also a host of new services and experts who can walk you through this new minefield to help ensure that your online presence puts your best foot forward. So, I leave you with one question: who at your dealership is in charge of monitoring and building your online reputation?
