In yet another move by LinkedIn to create a more engaging user experience, the company has decided to penalize any users of the InMail feature that send mail that is irrelevant to the recipient. As LinkedIn cannot read the messages, it had to formulate a way to determine which messages are more likely irrelevant – namely those which receive no replies. LinkedIn used to offer…

Do you remember the AT&T ad slogan “Reach Out and Touch Someone” from the early 1980s?  It may have been thirty years since that slogan reached its peak in popularity, but it still has a similar meaning today. Our high-paced, digitally driven world has made it even easier to stay in touch with our friends and family. A few typed words on a smartphone, or the sharing of a…

The largest complaint that consumers have when considering a vehicle purchase is the fact that the process takes too long. Even with all the new technology processes that dealerships have employed over the past few years, the purchase process is still as long and cumbersome as it was twenty years ago.

AutoNation recently started to roll out a vehicle purchase…

Regardless of how hard you work to ensure that your customers have an excellent experience, mistakes happen. No doubt you’ve had customers complain about something – it took too long for their vehicle to be serviced, there was a miscommunication in pricing during the sale, or a general failure to deliver on promises (big or small). Whether the…

When did you last walk through the customer entrance of your dealership and look at what is truly being experienced by the customer?

Forget for a moment whether a sales consultant’s work area is messy, or if there are smudges on the windows. Let’s look a little closer at what a customer could see, hear or feel when they interact with your dealership in any…

A few years ago, car dealers across the nation were caught in the net of a struggling economy. Fewer sales compounded by budget conscious customers caused many car dealerships to restructure their corporate operations, reduce staff and tighten their wallets. Many dealership owners, along with their manufacturers, were faced with downsizing or total elimination. In the midst…

When consumers think of loyalty programs, they typically think of racking up miles, or frequenting a business in exchange for rewards, perks or freebies. No matter what business you patronize, there is a good chance that it is offering some sort of loyalty incentive. In fact, many argue that loyalty programs are so prevalent nowadays that they are losing some of the initial…

You don’t have to live in a bustling city to see that people are in a hurry. Compared to even ten years ago, it seems that everyone is in a rush to get something done fast and with as little inconvenience as possible. The reality is - people have less time, which means they demand more of businesses, including your dealership.

In today’s hurried environment,…

Is your car dealership doing everything possible to keep your customers satisfied and happy?  Now, more than ever, your reputation for building relationships and retaining customers may depend on your company’s focus on providing the very best customer service.

How is good customer service defined?  There isn’t a clear cookie-cutter answer to the…

There are many stories of young kids or teens starting successful businesses. And there are as well the simple stories of kids mowing lawns or washing cars to earn extra money while their friends are out playing. A similar story gained…

Do you think your customers feel the same about your company as you think they do?  Think again, they probably don’t.

These days, car dealerships, try to express their individuality from their competitors through value propositions. Almost every dealership has some sort of template or message as to “Why Buy from Us” integrated into their communications with…

There’s no doubt that customer satisfaction is important to all car dealerships. Whether a dealership actually cares about making the customer happy, or merely wants to ensure that their CSI scores stay acceptable to the OEM, these scores play a major factor in the overall health of a dealership. Poor online reviews can sway a buyer to go somewhere else. Poor CSI scores can…

As a sales and marketing professional, you probably learned a long time ago that the best way to present your products is by using words that paint a picture. Not just any picture, a picture that puts each shopper in the picture; helps them visualize owning your product; and then mentally experience the emotional pleasure that results from that…

In May I wrote a blog article explaining how employee retention in service will become increasingly important due to many factors. Apparently, that’s becoming true faster than even I thought. Auto Remarketing published an…

I am sure many of you have heard about the recent customer service debacle involving Comcast over the past week. In case you aren’t familiar with what happened, a customer called into their service center attempting to cancel his service after almost a decade. He was transferred to a customer retention…

A recent event held by Edmunds named “Hackomotive” brought together some of the brightest technology innovators in the automotive industry. The purpose of this event was to streamline the automotive buying process for consumers. Technology and shopping portals are increasingly becoming more prominent in our industry. A couple of companies that are gaining steam include the…

Last week, the newly appointed host of “The Tonight Show” mentioned on the air that he was in the market for a new truck. Of course, manufacturers couldn’t resist the golden opportunity to try and convince the star to choose theirs.

Ford responded first urging Jimmy to check out the 2015 F-150, within minutes of his proclamation.

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I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “Work your pay plan.” It doesn’t matter whether you held a position in sales, service, or parts, this advice has always been considered good. Towards the end of the month, when Sales Managers need those extra units sold on the weekends in order to hit bonuses from the manufacturer, they throw cash bonuses at the salespeople. The same thing…

Many dealers are intimidated by the concept of “customer loyalty.” The simple attempt at trying to design and implement a strategy that creates lifetime customers is certainly a daunting one. It takes a lot of work and effort to accomplish this, for sure. However, just like you train your sales advisors in the steps of the sale and the importance of following each step in…

In my last post about making the internet department good for gross, not just volume I talked about having the right people in the Internet Sales department.  The most important part of that was this (you will see this again too!)...

The internet salesperson should be an experienced salesperson, who can quickly and easily function as the salesperson, finance manager, and sales manager.  They need to be able to quickly answer any question, and overcome objections with…