I was just surfing the web again recently as I often do, searching for car dealer reviews and the new auto industry buzzwords. I visited a number of different sites and read a few of the reviews for the local car dealers in certain cities and rural areas.
I decided to check in different regions of the country to see all the differences in what was really out there. Some of the posts, including one from an upset customer of mine, were over 4 years old. I have seen the same post before but I noticed it was titled a bit differently and the information in the source data on it was different again. I realized that I had been away from the dealership sales floor for over 3 years and consulting for other dealers for 2 more years. I had taken screenshots over time because of curiosity. Hey, the customer had every reason to be angry and the sales manager that misled him while I was speaking at Digital Dealer was relieved of duty later. Funny, in speaking with the customer he informed me that he was so angry; and the only name he could remember was mine. Nobody else ever contacted him to even say thank you so why would he.  Here is the thing though

It was me who really dropped the ball by relying on others to do things for me. I remember now that I was just ready to get out of town so I settled for it. I remember the little voice saying, cover your customers before you go. Anyway, the store had a review that was not relevant for the last 3 years.
There was no moderation, I was never notified I had ever been reviewed nor was the dealer aware of it until a mechanic found it one day on Google. I am glad for that review though; it is what set my course in dealer training about relationships, learning more about the consumer – car dealer life cycle, and finally acquiring half of and redesigning Carfolks.com so all of this madness can stop. The Carfolks.com site you see now was built so that a car dealer’s professional staff can get credit for doing things right and attempt to correct or explain what seems to be negative by the customers they are already working with. (Not a stranger)

If your employee leaves for a different field, they get promoted, or had to be terminated to correct unsatisfactory results, you as a car dealer, need to watch constantly in case of a review. Do you think it would be helpful if you and all of your department heads were copied on every review? Wouldn’t it be better if your actual customers were invited to review their experience so any problem would be discovered earlier? You could handle it sooner, have it moderated and be proactive? What? I know reactive right? You would rather find it out in your detailed CSI report wouldn’t you? J (If they were not too mad to do another survey)
Do you think it would also help to have current, more relevant data available to be indexed by them damn search engines? I think that is what I am reading from all of these SEO Experts and Reputation Managers. I wonder as search engine logic changes because of Social Media if it wouldn’t be better to adapt to both? Social Media experts, (another created by necessity title) are pondering the demise of SEO. But, what if I want to see something in a full screen?  My handheld is charging, but my great wireless network just will not outperform Wild Blue at the cabin. And another thing I just told you that you did not hear REPUTATION MANAGERS.
Yes, that would be being reactive to situations that are already bad or problematic and REPUTATION MANAGERS will assist you with crisis control, at a very high price. You would be willing to actually allow someone to select what your reputation should appear like? Shouldn’t you, as a car dealer, insist your employees follow your lead and show everyone that reputation has been earned and built? Can you do that without management over time? No, you are already managing your reputation. You need assistance and maintenance not management.

Listen, Car Dealers!

Use Carfolks.com for car dealer reviews, proactive automotive reputation maintenance and programmable, automated social media. Send your inventory, dealer reviews and current incentives while staying out of the social conversations and personal streams. Or, jump in and enjoy too! I am finally tired of being scared someone will copy Carfolks. Nobody else does all of this that still sells cars but me so I am giving you the entire overview here. Pricing is available and it is cheap and one price for all because you pay for it with one half a bad car deal monthly.

And here is what you get:
Give every single individual in sales, service and parts gets a microsite with tagged photos, real optimization, communication, video insertion (yes optimized and tricked out) and of course backlinks everywhere.
You get a dealer landing page , your reviews placed on your site excellent support and there will be SMS 2 way soon.

Kim Clouse
Executive Director
Carfolks.com
kim.clouse@carfolks.com

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Learn this, http://revenuegurutraining.articulate-online.com/8685106781 and stop drinking the snake oil.

Or continue to do crisis management on your reputation.

Everybody else wants you to.         

Just what the doctor for car dealers ordered!

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Ok,

I know all of these so called professionals in SEO - BDC and PPC and on and on have all of the answers.

I just have one question.

Why don’t you go here and see proactive reputation management with real dealer reviews and comments?
http://www.scottcrumptoyota.com/dealer-reviews.aspx  brought to you by the leader in this platform www.carfolks.com

Then get over to http://twitter.com/toyotacarolina and look at the site AutoONE Media built for them www.ralphhayestoyota.com
While your at it, check out the Facebook fan Pages for both stores.

Or you could keep on drinking the same old Snake Oil

Just what the doctor for car dealers ordered!

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Carfolks.com wants everyone thinking about buying a car and visiting car dealer review sites to know:

Carfolks.com is the only car dealer proactive reputation management and auto dealer review site that offers every professional in the auto industry a chance to show that they walk the talk for free.
After all of this time, all of you searching the internet for a new car dealer or used car dealer reading this should understand; you need to ask your local car dealer if they are a Carfolks.com Member Dealer.

If not, why would they not even take the time to go and register to prove it for free? Now that there are so many sales professionals on Carfolks.com, those who have not joined just may be considered conspicuous by their absence.

Ask your local car dealer if they are a Carfolks.com Member Dealer and if they say no, ask them why.
It really is that simple. Now we will let the customers have the voice that the dealer refused to include because their skin is to thin or they practice bad sales habits that we all have come to know all too well in this industry.

It is time to introduce Carfolks.com to you, the customers, because we have given the dealers plenty of time to chase the shiny object in the water.
Of course, we thank and commend those who are professional enough to prove it and are already involved. For a list of Carfolks.com Member Dealer and Review listing go to http://www.carfolks.com

Kim Clouse | Executive Director

How Much Is Your Reputation Worth?

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Shouldn’t Your Online Reputation Be Accurate?

For the last year I have watched all of the industry blogs, trade magazines and networks describing the best way to manage your reputation. If you Google car dealer reputation management the results are staggering. Pages and pages of different opinions on the appropriate way to make sure all of your good reviews show up. Then, there are the manipulation tricks to cherry pick and post only good reviews and appear in the top spots on search engines.

Uhmm, excuse me, but do we as automotive professionals  actually think that our prospective customers and previous customers are gullible enough to think we are telling the whole story? Especially if they have had problems at a particular car dealership and all that is available is customer testimonials explaining how great that car dealership is; I certainly hope not. Customers and prospects are much more comfortable seeing the bad along with the good and they also want to see what the dealer or the sales person did to fix it the issue.  That is one of the many areas addressed directly by Carfolks.com.

If your reputation is not important to you and you do not care about customers and prospects, then you need to leave the car business. You are part of the problem that makes us less popular than visiting the dentist. The professionals at automotive dealerships on the pavement and in the service and parts departments deserve to be recognized for their hard work.

They have thick skin and are not afraid to address their mistakes then take the proper steps to correct them. They would rather have the whole story displayed and yes, the customers that are just taking advantage of them need to be exposed as well. We all know they exist and can seriously damage an individual as well as a dealer’s reputation. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone yell foul on those individuals? Carfolks.com will do that too.

The main reason I started this crusade and made the decision to get involved with Carfolks.com is because everybody screams ” help the dealers” and we should. But more importantly, does it makes more sense to provide online tools for these professionals so it’s easier for customers to find them? Without employees and customers car dealers will not exist.

I have firsthand experience with being reviewed by an angry customer and after the dust settled it was funny how I got excellent marks in every category on Toyota’s survey. But after four years my customers’ negative review, where he called me a liar, is still coming up in various web searches fed by the posting at a certain dealer rating site. When I requested they remove my name from the title and leave the review as it stood I was told they would check into it. Funny, now that I am an owner of a company that competes with them, it is being indexed with changes made to it. Of course, I kept a copy of the original for my records.

Carfolks.com assists auto retail professionals, the customers and the dealer by letting the truth shine through. We will do our very best to give you the tools you need to show your good reputation and  automate your social media marketing efforts while allowing you to react with your various streams like you should. We have other features and functionality that you will learn about as we go, but pitching dealers’ snake oil is not part or the plan.

Kim Clouse
Executive Director

Carfolks.com 

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Do you think Car Dealers should be aware of problems as they happen so they can be proactive? It seems to me that customers would prefer it that way. Yet with all of this buzz about Reputation Management  all I have heard or seen so far appears reactive. Go to Carfolks and have a look.
Then get to the blog  and discuss at what I like to call Proactive Reputation Management.

 Thoughts?

KC

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  Carfolks would like to thank all of the car dealer professionals and their customers for the warm reception.
Automobile new car dealer and used car dealer staff  from every department are signing up daily.  Go to the Carfolks.com site and enroll. Make sure you write a short bio and state your position at the dealership. No best deal, best price, lowest price advertising is tolerated on Carfolks. Grass roots, real stuff about you, your family, what you do in the community, your hobbies anything. But mention rate, payments, invoice, dealer cash and you will get expelled from the site. No exceptions! Learn to use the internet to get personal with existing customers, their families and friends.

Carfolks.com gives all of you professional, retail automotive employees the right tools to assist in letting people know you sell cars or work in a car dealership. At Carfolks were working on reputation management when it was still called customer service. A lot of us on the pavement and in the trenches have never been able to be rewarded for the stuff we do right every day.
It all changes now!
Get to Carfolks.com and empower yourself; Or be conspicuous by your absence.

Kim Clouse
Managing Owner
Carfolks.com
I auto Consultants

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Hello everyone,

I realize it has been a while since I have written anything longer than 200 or so characters without my thumbs. Really been off the radar for a bit, working on something I truly believe in. Something that I believe can provide our customers a fair representation of the true professionals in our industry. At every dealership, for all departments and employees Carfolks.com allows professional’s to shine and pretenders to flounder. It will let customers see us at our best and tell us when to improve keeping us sharp. And those responsible for keeping our industry in the toilet will want to finally go away. Our goal is to make everyone proud to say they work in the automotive industry.

According to most of the professionals reporting to all of us sales and dealer folks, just about all of our customers are online. The hard evidence is there every day at the dealership level, so we all really know it’s true. The part I love is “what I was taught” and “what I still teach;” Customer satisfaction and service go hand in hand and that is what builds a reputation.  Now, for us, “word of mouth” is really “immediate execution of thought” and it travels much further and quicker than ever before, instantly!

 Now I ask you, which obviously makes more sense? Being proactive when it comes to the new buzzwords “reputation management” or reactive to the negative posts of angry customers? Sure, some of these posts are wrong. But how can you demonstrate it or help them if all you are doing is just reacting to a situation that has escalated to the point of no return? Carfolks, lets you, your dealership, or group invite your customers to your personal pages and review your overall performance after they join and are verified. Carfolks.com is a neutral third party that works to help the customer opinion be represented in that instant execution of thought. The difference is we are helping you to create the thought and act accordingly, right then. If you are a partner dealer, post it to your website testimonials, fix it for the customer if needed, then show it online, or explain it instantly of course.

 And yes, partner dealers get an optimized micro site for every employee that touches or speaks to a customer. Each with video including video seo and wait; Uh, I think that gets us started.
 Let’s just say a big ole handful of goodies you will not believe that are just as exciting.
Get there now and sign up for free or I will say “I told you so.”

Kim Clouse
Carfolks.com

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I was finally able to come up for air today after the last few weeks. Then I realized I had not finished the Dealership Innovation Guide from Driving Sales. Must say, I love it. The particular article that came to my attention was by my friend Rafi Hamid entitled Internet Departments are on the decline, and that is good. In my opinion, it is the best description and explanation of where we all need to be going. Hat’s off Rafi  for sharing real and accountable information that the industry needs. Keep bringin it.
Kim

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To Tell The Truth!

Well, since I watched the video post by Ralph Paglia on Social Media Douchebags, (here for your pleasure if you missed it.)  http://bit.ly/92jg0U

I could not resist stirring the pot myself.

Okay, you have been at work all week, sold scared, followed every customer to the owner’s office door to introduce them for the mini and you’re burnt. As you enter the cashier’s office to get the last five dollars you have exchanged for ones you glance at the floor and see three one hundred dollar bills.

Nobody else in the world has seen them or you, now standing on them. You’re  invisible, you only have 4 cars out and it is the 15th. Your power bill is two months late and you are back to the go phone.

Tell the truth here and now.

What would you do with this money?

Answer, or if you’re scared, close the page.

Pretenders know.

Kim 

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