Successful businesses have one thing in common – a trusted brand reputation. Think of a time when you decided to avail a service from a business you’ve never heard of before. You probably searched online for customer reviews on the business to see if it’s trustworthy. The start of your customer’s journey is no different, and the automotive reputation management of businesses like yours has a big role to play here in making your business successful.

What is automotive reputation management?

Google search is the first place that your potential customers turn to when they want to purchase a new vehicle. It’s also the first place to build the reputation of your car dealership business.

Did you know that only 25% of online traffic goes beyond the first page of Google search results? It’s a no-brainer then that you’d want your car dealership business to appear at the top of Google searches. For that, you need a Google Business Profile (previously called Google My Business). It’ll appear on the right-hand side of the first page of Google search results when your potential customers enter ‘car dealers near me’ or ‘dealerships near me’ in the search bar.

Your Google Business Profile is where leads you probably cannot reach in other ways will find your address, location, service hours, contact information and the link to your website if you have one. That’s basically all the information they need to reach out to you for your services.

However, there’s one more very important thing that people look for when searching for a car dealer – customer reviews. In 2021, 83% of buyers used Google to assess businesses near them. That’s telling enough that the reviews on your Google Business Profile, social media pages and other digital channels really do matter.

Why is automotive reputation management important?

1. Sales growth

An automotive dealership with a reliable reputation is far more likely to grow its sales revenue than one with a bad name. Naturally, customers who are pleased with your services are more likely to refer more customers to you, and in turn, help you grow your sales revenue organically.

This is called word-of-mouth marketing which, according to SEMRush, drives 13% of global sales.

2. Brand awareness

If you want more and more people to know about your business, you’d want to ensure that you’ve made a good name for yourself on the internet and otherwise.

People are more likely to tell others about your business if they read positive customer reviews about your business.

3. Customer acquisition

Growing a customer base is, perhaps, one of the toughest things for an automotive dealer to do, especially because the competition in the market is tough.

While running Facebook ads will bring you plenty of traffic to your website, they won’t guaruntee that your website visitors will convert into customers unless you show them social proof that your business can be trusted. This is where automotive reputation management comes in. The reputation of your car dealership becomes one of the prime deciding factors for potential customers to use your services.

4. Brand credibility

Every business needs credibility among its customers in order to survive and grow. However, this credibility isn’t achieved overnight.

A whopping 94% of consumers reported that reading a positive review would convince them to trust a business. In other words, the more positive reviews your car dealership business has, the better its automotive reputation management and the greater its credibility among your customers.

How is a trusted automotive reputation built?y

1. Create an online presence

Building a trusted automotive reputation online doesn’t happen by simply launching a website. There are several other things that go into creating the online presence of a business.

Once you’ve made your website, as mentioned earlier in this article, you need a Google Business Profile. Setting it up is fairly easy to do but has a massive growth impact on businesses.
Next, you’d want to focus on SEO, both on the content and technical fronts, on-page and off-page. It’s what will give your website visibility in Google searches, and over time, also get your website to rank in the top Google searches within your niche.

2. Communicate transparently

Nothing builds trust more than honesty. There are plenty of car dealers around who aren’t entirely transparent with their customers, and that leads to a bad customer experience which, in turn, churns them out of the business. That’s the last thing you’d want for your business.

For instance, when a customer asks you for the price of a car you’re selling, be sure to quote the actual price. Let’s not forget that it’s fairly easy for customers these days to cross-check information online

3. Recruit customer reviews

Earlier in this article, we talked about how customer reviews are often the deciding factors for people to use your business.

Whenever you close deals with customers, remember to request them to write reviews on your Facebook page, rate your services on your Google Business Profile or post a review of your business to their Instagram feeds.

4. Value negative feedback

All feedback is good feedback, whether it’s positive or negative.

Most car dealers fear that negative reviews will sabotage their automotive reputation management efforts. If you really think about it, negative customer feedback is a blessing in disguise. Your customer has taken the time out to tell you how his or her experience was with your business while alerting you to problems with your business that you’re probably unaware of. Remember, not a lot of customers will do that for you. Consider the negative feedback about your business to be an avenue for improvement so that future customers emerge delighted by your service.

5. Digitize customer experience management

Attracting customers to your car dealership’s website is one of the key drivers of successful automotive reputation management. However, the process of customer acquisition can be quite hasslesome when the information customers need about your business is scattered across different platforms.

The solution to this problem is simple – your business needs a customer experience management software to do most of the work for you quickly and seamlessly.

Make customer experience management a breeze with Xoopah

Conventionally used tools can be extremely mind-boggling, time-consuming and difficult to use, especially when you have to jump between different support channels while tending to hundreds of customers.

This is where Xoopah comes in. Xoopah is an all-in-one solution to managing online customer experience, end-to-end.

1. Consistent online presence

Save your time spent responding to customer queries about the location of your business. Xoopah allows your prospective customers to retrieve your phone number, website’s URL and the directions to your outlet in one click.

2. Customer data management

It’s time to bid goodbye to wasting time handling customer data manually in spreadsheets. With Xoopah, you can store your customers’ contact information, manage prospective customers and assign existing customers to groups in one window.

3. Faster payments

Requesting customers for and accepting payments through third-party platforms is an ordeal and a half. Why bother with that when Xoopah can enable you to request customers for payments online with the click of a button?

4. Convenient appointment bookings

Xoopah comes with a built-in appointment booking system that’ll let you schedule time slots with all your clients in one place. It’s user-friendly, giving you the ability to grow the number of appointment bookings in a given duration.

5. Run marketing campaigns

Outsourcing your SMS marketing services from service providers and using a separate third-party email marketing tool is a hassle of yesterday. Xoopah lets you create and roll out SMS and email campaigns directly from its portal within minutes.

Conclusion

Imagine how many customers you’ll gain and how much time you’ll save with a one-stop solution like Xoopah.

Xoopah knows how to attract customers online so that you don’t have to.

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Book a Free Demo with our Sales team today.