Automotive News - February 4, 2008 - (Page 30) 30 • FEBRUARY 4, 2008 The online dealer INSIGHT Dealers must monitor disgruntled bloggers Bradford Wernle bwernle@crain.com L ate last year, Danny Chronister, general manager of Apple Nissan in York, Pa., got a call from his marketing manager. Someone had posted an unfavorable comment about the dealership on the automotive Web site Edmunds.com. The anonymous customer said he or she had “horrible service” and a bad experience at the dealership. The critic urged customers to “Go Elsewhere.” Chronister sprang into action. In an e-mail response through Edmunds.com, he thanked the cus- tomer for the feedback. He explained that the Apple Automotive group recently had bought the dealership formerly known as York Nissan and was taking steps to improve customer satisfaction. He closed by inviting the customer to visit the dealership. Chronister, who has worked for Apple Automotive for 23 years, never heard another word. He still doesn’t know who the customer was. “It’s grossly unfair,” Chronister says. “I don’t think a person who does something like that has any concept of how much damage it can do to someone. We have a justice system that allows you to meet your ac- NADA Chairman Dale Willey: “It’s tough to fight the fire if you don’t know where the fire is.” cuser, so criminals have more rights than we do.” Venting in cyberspace Chronister and other dealers say they worry about consumers’ instant ability to spread bad stories about dealerships, often untrue or unverifi- able, via the Internet. A quick check of the Google search engine using the term “automotive dealer fraud” will produce tens of thousands of hits. Some Web sites that post dealership ratings, such as Edmunds.com, are legitimate. Others are merely blogs where people can vent anonymously. Still others link to lawyers who are fishing for clients, hoping to lure them into suing allegedly crooked dealers. Dale Willey, outgoing chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association and a General Motors dealer in Lawrence, Kan., says dealers must be vigilant in the Internet age. “It’s incumbent upon a dealer that they monitor this,” Willey told Automotive News. “But it’s tough to fight the fire if you don’t know where the fire is.” Edmunds.com vets submissions carefully and rejects those that are unsuitable for public consumption, says Sylvia Marino, the company’s director of community affairs. “When you allow people to just vent rage and flame, with excessive profanity and name calling, it’s not productive and helpful to other consumers,” Marino says. “There’s a way to convey that you had a poor experience without being abusive to others.” Edmunds now divides postings by dealership customers into separate categories for sales and service, Marino says. Topping the page Some consumer Web sites have figured out how to code their data so that their Web page pops up on the earliest pages of a Google or Yahoo search. A customer searching for a dealership’s Web page to get a phone number or address might inadvertently stumble upon a negative blog. Eric Chase, a lawyer in Florham Park, N.J., who represents auto dealers, says information — true or untrue — can spread like wildfire on the Internet. “Just Google the word ‘fraud’ next to any dealer’s name and see what happens,” Chase says. “You’ll get a fair number of hits with most of them. It’s going to be a very tough problem to solve.” Chase says dealers often find themselves in a no-win situation. It’s often hard even to identify the author of a negative post. If a dealership gets involved in a back-and-forth blogging duel with its accuser, “it just repeats the slander,” he says. Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., says his firm surveyed 600 people who had complained about dealerships on various blogs. “We found a large percentage weren’t even real customers,” Spinella says. LIFE CREATES CAR SHOPPERS. WE TURN THEM INTO CAR BUYERS. Offer Kelley Blue Book® Values on your Web site and generate more sales. Watch and learn NADA suggests that dealers monitor what is written about them and contact consumers to try to resolve disputes as quickly as possible. The association recommends its survey service called NADA-24, which can notify a dealership about a complaint within 24 hours of a transaction. Says Bob Williams, president of NADA-24: “If they have a problem, within 10 minutes or 15 minutes the information is e-mailed to the dealership and they have it in their hands instantly. They can put the fire out before it gets too far. What knocks customers out is the speed of recovery.” Dealer Chronister says he is puzzled by the lack of restraint people show on the Internet. Most people wouldn’t dream of putting up a billboard that slanders a business, he says, but posting a blog on the Internet amounts to the same thing. “The old polka-dot-tie, cigar-chewing guy is long gone,” Chronister says of modern dealerships. “It’s now a reputable business. We’ve become very customer-oriented and very professional.” Adds Chronister: “The last thing we need is someone who has a bit of a gripe to suggest this dealership is just horrible and nasty.” c LeadDriver ™ adds Kelley Blue Book® Values to your dealer Web site. Your customers get instant trade-in values. You get detailed customer information. Since 73% of online car shoppers are more likely to buy from a dealership that offers Kelley Blue Book Values on its site, we suggest you contact us to learn more about LeadDriver and the rest of our Internet marketing solutions and services. You’ll be 100% glad you did. Come see us at NADA booth 6441S. ©2008 Kelley Blue Book Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://Edmunds.com http://Edmunds.com http://www.800bluebook.com http://www.800bluebook.com
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