What are you doing this Thursday?  Besides eating and some football.  Some will travel a bit and some will stay home.  But too many may find themselves forgetting that this day is more than just a day off in the busy lives of those in the car business.  I'm hoping to change that.

This year I am thankful for the new associations I've made.  I am grateful for all of those who took the time to teach me more about this business as I grew.  I want to sow my appreciation to the hundreds of…

(as appears on our Car Chat 24  blog today).

Once you saw “Tis the Season” in the title, did you get a little scared? Don’t worry, I cringed a bit writing it. Alas, I do have an…

Got a stack of magazines on your desk? Tear out relevant articles and ditch the rest. You will get through it faster and feel better.  

If you want to fancy it up, separate your articles into folders or files.

If you are digitally savvy, scan them in, fax them to yourself, or take a photo with…

Good afternoon,

I wanted to share another blog post Paul Long wrote, in regards to the value customers find in staying loyal to your brand. 

Have a look, and see what your customers may be thinking when they walk into your dealership.

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What do I get for staying loyal to your…

Automotive Digital Marketing Pioneer Joins Online Automotive Innovator

VENICE, Calif., Nov. 21, 2011 -- Mota Motors, a leading provider of online vehicle and selling platforms, today announced that automotive digital marketing pioneer Jeffrey Schwartz has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of…

 I just came back form a work shop in Michigan. I said lets talk like friends and ask any question you want. Before I got started a guy in the back said,is this one of those motivational deals that you go home all fired up and don't know what to do? Before I could answer a guy up front spoke. He said, I don't need to know that I should get my name out there as much as possible. Are you going to show us how? I told him I will show you how to spend one dollar per customer and get your name…

A friend shared a story about his pastor, who, wanting honest "In your face" feedback about his sermons, invited two close friends to lunch, gave each a pad of paper and pencil and invited them to “unload" with comments about the things that they did not like about his sermons.” They did.

As difficult as honest feedback usually is to hear, isn’t a truthful assessment of how others perceive us, (personally or as a business), valuable information to…

Google has made a major upgrade to the Google Analytics Interface and I will be writing a number of articles highlighting some of the most powerful features that can be leveraged by car dealers.

If you have not taken time to work through then new interface and reports, I strongly suggest that…

We here at Paint Overspray Removal International Services are the leaders in overspray removal and claims management. Our company has saved insurers, contractors, and individuals millions over the years by repairing vehicles from all sorts of paint damage. This years along we saved a major insurance company over 525,000 dollars on a single claim. We did this by removing 100% of the overspray from 175 vehicles. This would include the paint, glass, trim & molding pieces.



To…

We put a spiff on today.  10/10/10/10.  The salespeople were challenged to have all of their appointments in the CRM by 10am.  Any logged appointment who shows is good for $10.  If that same appointment writes, another $10.  If that same write Spots, another $10.  As of 2pm we had 16…

"With today's fast paced world, it's time for our service advisors to upgrade as well.  In order to stay current and successful they are going to have to make a small change with their follow-up."…

Over the last year (plus) there have been numerous hypotheses shared regarding Google Places and the practice of customers entering reviews while still in the dealership or business. The crux of the discussion was whether or not Google was blocking reviews from a common IP address because of the possibility of gaming the system or as some have suggested, because a customer might feel “pressured” if asked to do this review while still at the business location.

Many opinions and…

Women-Drivers.com announced new features to its no-cost brand reputation management tools available to car dealerships. The site connects women buyers and browsers with Certified Women-Drivers Friendly™ Dealers, and allows users to locate…

The reality is your staff is failing because there is no process, no game plan and you are leaving money on the table! The question is are you sick of wasting advertising dollars only to have customers choose not to do business with your dealership?

The first impression customers get over the phone is critical and "Making it up", or shooting from the hip just…

Important for Auto Dealers….

Adding Video to your existing page is often over looked, this type of digital media can separate your dealership from the next one, realize now that it is such a very important step in marketing your dealership, you can connect with over Millions Video Users, around the world.

Sounds Easy, right? It is very easy, and effective, and can help to SEO your Dealership.

Grab the video icon, and upload your videos daily to different friends pages. …

I have a different perspective about online reputation and ratings for car dealers.  It comes from my days working the line, selling cars, and from eventually managing stores that were consistently #1 in our market.  Our team always knew they were a vital part of delivering an outstanding experience.  The success…

HTML5 has been in the tech news lately, especially since Adobe announced that they are going to stop developing Flash in favor of HTML5 on mobile browsers.  This doesn’t mean the company is abandoning the technology on desktops, but according to Mike Chambers, the lead in Adobe developer relations, “a lot of the things that you have done via Flash in the past will increasingly be done via HTML5 and CSS3…”.…