Manage Negative Dealership Reviews. Online reviews are a powerful tool for consumers when researching businesses. A study by BrightLocal* showed that 88% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. As a car dealer, it’s important to make sure that you’re positively handling any negative reviews. This blog post will give you some tips on how to do just that. Keep reading!
Treat Negative Online Reviews as a Chance to Improve Your Business
According to the same BrightLocal study, the most common reason for consumers to leave online reviews is to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a product or service. As a car dealer, when you get a negative review of your business, you should treat it as an opportunity to improve. On the flip side, when your dealership gets a positive review you should treat it as an opportunity to thank the customer for their business and make sure that they leave a review on one of the leading car dealership review sites.
Respond Promptly to Negative Online Reviews
When your customers are taking the time to leave you a review on one of the leading car dealership review sites, you should take the time to respond with a public reply. It might seem uncomfortable, but a courteous reply will go a long way in showing that your dealership cares about your customers.
Address the Concern, Don’t Ignore it!
If you find yourself in a situation where your customer is complaining about an issue, simply let them know you hear them and you are here to help. Offer to jump on a phone call to address their concern, and provide extraordinary customer service.
Thank Your Customer for Their Feedback
It’s important to thank your consumer for their feedback. This is the best way to open up a path for future communication between your customer and the dealership.
Show Your Consumers that You Care
When you show your consumers that you care, you’ll build a solid rapport with them. It’s a step above the competition, and it will have your customer coming back for more.
Keep Your Customer in the Loop
If you’re not exactly sure how to go about resolving an issue, it’s okay. You don’t necessarily need to resolve your consumer’s complaint at the moment. However, you should keep them in the loop, so that they know that you’re working on it.
Online reviews are here to stay and as a car dealership, you will likely face some negative ones. It’s important to have a plan in place for how you will deal with them. Responding quickly and professionally, while always being compliant, is the best way to handle these situations. Don’t forget that your customers and their lawyers are watching – so make sure your response sets the standard for customer service excellence.
Have you had to deal with negative online reviews? How did you respond?
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If you deal with something more than just a bad Yelp review and you need legal advice, contact Auto Legal Group, LLP, experienced California Lawyers who exclusively represent car dealers.
*Source: Murphy, R – Local Consumer Review Survey 2018. BrightLocal
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