In today’s digital age, online reviews play a major role in influencing purchasing decisions, also in the automotive sector. 84% of users consider them as reliable as word-of-mouth referrals (source: BrightLocal), and this directly impacts how customers perceive a dealership or workshop activity.
Think about the number of times you’ve chosen a business based on its reviews: it’s been a common habit for quite some time when buying something from Amazon, booking an accommodation on Booking.com or Airbnb, or choosing a restaurant for food delivery on Deliveroo or Glovo, but it’s rapidly becoming a widespread practice in other sectors, too – automotive retail being no exception.
When it comes to buying vehicles – whether new or used – or purchase an after-sale service, trust in a dealership or workshop is closely tied to customer reviews, for which both quantity and quality matter. A retailer with no reviews may seem unreliable, while overly generic or seemingly artificial reviews can make the business appear untrustworthy.
In a previous blog post, we’ve analysed e-reputation dynamics more in depth, already coming to the conclusion that this is a key asset to nurture for automotive retailers. Now we take a step further and explore some of the best practices for effective review management in automotive: why it is important to handle reviews and how to do so in a strategic way.
Customer feedback is the only way for you to validate that what you are delivering is relevant for your clients; you will learn where your excellence actually lies but you will also likely find out about your pitfalls and areas of improvement.
Always ask for feedback but be aware that you cannot please everyone
First off all, you need an effective system to gather and organise customer feedback. You should expect that negative reviews will be the ones to come more spontaneously: as a matter of fact, users tend to praise in private and blame in public (according to Zendesk, 46% of spontaneous reviews tend to be negative vs. just 27% of positive ones).
With a specific strategy in place, though, you will be able to also encourage positive reviews and somehow balance the others out.
When asking for customer feedback, think it through
Customer satisfaction surveys are your main instrument to collect feedback. You can opt for a simple rating of the experience and maybe a free-text comment, or a more structured questionnaire. A good one should follow a few golden rules.
- Plan it carefully, avoiding assumptions and biased questions
- Keep it short and engaging, by focusing on meaningful queries and varying the type of questions; limit open-ended questions to one or two
- Stick to a consistent rating scale to avoid confusion
- Briefly explain the purpose of the survey at the beginning, estimate its completion time and don’t forget to thank respondents at the end
- Consider the best timing for submission and leave customers enough time for its completion
- Test your survey in advance to avoid kinks
While most customers appreciate it when brands ask for feedback, a typical response rate doesn’t exceed 30%. By carefully planning your survey or relying on a validated template, you can increase this percentage and significantly improve your performance at this delicate stage of the process: after all, the more opinions you can get, the more likely it will be for you to collect well-rounded feedback.
Acknowledge the good and the bad, and make good use of both
Accepting customer feedback is a necessary step: both positive and negative comments are, in fact, a valuable source of insights and learnings for you. This does not mean that you have to acknowledge them passively, especially when customers are not singing your praises. Remember that even negative feedback can be an opportunity to improve your reputation if well handled; this is possibly more valuable than a positive score with no additional details about the specific customer experience.
Try to address reviews promptly: express your appreciation for a positive comment and apologise for a negative experience. Only if relevant, add a brief explanation. There’s no harm in using templates for your replies, as long as they are varied enough not to sound robotic and, needless to say, are appropriate for that specific review.
When managing reviews, always put customers first
When someone is judging your work, of course it becomes personal. And yet, when handling reviews you have to accept that every customer experience is different and may not unfold as you had planned or intended to; accidents may happen, but if someone points them out, it’s an opportunity for you to make amends and show that you care. After all, a “perfect ten” all the time is not a realistic scenario and users may even get suspicious when something looks too good to be true.
You might have bumped into one of those weird online exchanges where business owners act as extremely defensive or dismissive and try to undermine customers who are expressing their disappointment for a negative experience; think about how awkward you felt and, should it happen to you, too, don’t be that person!
While you may argue that the client is not always right, sometimes you just have to let it go. On the other hand, the way you handle a tricky situation will show your clients that you are accountable for your mistakes, you admit your flaws and apologise for them; even more, you own them and are willing to go the extra mile to offer a solution to the problem or, if it is something that cannot be fixed in the short term, come up with an adequate improvement plan. This is a crucial moment for you to set the tone, with your past and current clients and, most importantly, with your future ones.
Research shows that 88% of consumers would use a business that replies to all of its reviews (source: BrightLocal); by managing your e-reputation effectively, you therefore have a real opportunity to enhance your activity. Moreover, a successful recovery strategy can increase trust and loyalty in your business and ultimately boost sales.
Embrace artificial intelligence as a powerful ally for e-reputation management
If review management can be performed manually for a business in its early stages, you will need support from technology to be in control of your online reputation in the long run.
AI-based tools will not only allow you to gather reviews from different sources and reconcile them, but will also help you analyse the overall sentiment of your customers and identify recurring pain points as well as areas of excellence to further cultivate.
Don’t be afraid to also leverage artificial intelligence to support you in collecting feedback and replying to reviews: if you have clarity around your e-reputation management strategy, this will simply help you perform recurring tasks faster and more effectively, and provide you with useful insights on your performance. It will not (and should not) do the job for you, though.
Leverage reputation management to power your growth flywheel
Managing your online reputation in a professional way carries additional benefits and can truly assist you in building brand advocacy and growing your business.
In general, an integrated approach to e-reputation will provide you with a deeper customer knowledge and useful insights to boost your operational excellence.
In terms of sales, engaging with your customers through their reviews can also help you identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Moreover, successfully addressing a negative situation can result in additional business for you.
Discover FidSparK, MotorK’s digital reputation management tool
FidSparK, part of the SparK Platform, is MotorK’s SaaS solution specifically designed for automotive retailers to give them full control over feedback management. It automates customer satisfaction surveys via CRM and DMS integration and pulls social reviews from platforms like Google, Facebook, and Autoscout24. Responses can be customised or AI-generated, and negative feedback is flagged for expert intervention.
FidSparK also doubles as a lead generation tool, by investigating the customer’s future purchase intentions and feeding them directly to the CRM. Finally, it offers a powerful analytics dashboard to identify strengths, generate reports and track competition.
A MotorK study found that using FidSparK for e-reputation management delivers a 32-fold ROI, with 8% of revenue coming from effective recovery strategies.
Do you want to transform your dealership’s online reputation and see tangible results? Discover how FidSparK can help you grow. Request a free demo now and learn how to improve your review management and generate new leads.
