Page 54 - GIADA-Dec 2017-Final

CUSTOMER SERVICE

4 Tips for Turning Digital Reviews into

Customer Service Wins

By Hannah Wright

For nearly every business, online customer the content they’re looking for to maintain,
reviews are a fact of life. Ubiquitous across Instead, personalize each response. It will and potentially boost, SERP ranking. To
the web and available to anyone to read take more work to assess issues and respond ignore these reviews is to miss out on an
and contribute to, businesses like your car accordingly, but it will also humanize your opportunity to increase your dealership’s
dealership, are constantly faced with all of dealership and portray it as a business that digital visibility.
the challenges, and all of the opportunities, cares and values each customer and his or
online reviews present. her issue. And that’s well worth the effort. When it comes to online customer reviews,
you have two choices: ignore them and risk
On one hand, there’s the challenge of Turn an online review into an offline alienating current and potential customers
managing them (specifically, the negatives conversation. while potentially diminishing search rank;
reviews) that are there for all to see, forever. 2One of the best tacks to take when or embrace the opportunities they present
Reviews are typically user-controlled managing negative reviews online is to to win back customers who wouldn’t likely
within the domain of the website on move those conversations out of the public do business with your dealership again,
which the ratings were written, creating a eye as quickly as possible. Not only does while also making the search engines happy.
permanency that might continue to inform this prevent the potential of further damage
potential shoppers’ opinions about your to your brand, it also produces a quicker Have an online customer review response
dealership. resolution. strategy of your own? What’s working now,
and what hasn’t worked in the past? Share
On the other hand, however, online Most of the time, you can deescalate the your thoughts below. n
customer reviews present you with the situation or address the issue directly with
opportunity to positively engage with an email and then a phone call to rectify Hannah Wright is a senior social media
shoppers in a highly visible arena. Using things. If you reach a resolution, most coordinator at Dealer.com
a grateful, acknowledging strategy to say customers will appreciate your efforts, and
thanks for the positive reviews, and an may even amend their review.
empathetic, appreciative, and problem- 15%
solving approach for the negative ones Use reviews to influence change at
positions your dealership as one that cares the dealership.
tremendously, values feedback, and is 3Like every great business, you’re
deeply embedded within the digital spaces always seeking opportunities to improve OFF
where potential customers are shopping your dealership operations. You can use
for their next car, auto part, or service reviews as a dipstick to check in on customer
appointment. sentiment and steer future strategy.
YOUR FIRST
Given the importance and opportunity If traffic is down in the showroom or
found within these customer commentaries, service bays, for example, take a look at ORDER OF FORMS
here are four tips for turning any digital what customers are saying about your Enter coupon code
review into a win for your dealership: business online. This can isolate the issue,
give you an opportunity to respond, and at checkout:
Don’t use generic responses. shape the changes necessary to get traffic
A templated and pre-scripted business flowing again. GIADA15
1response to online customer reviews
is obvious when you see one. They’re Respond and maintain your search giada.org/dealersupplies
impersonal, and ineffective. Which is why, ranking. LIMITED TIME OFFER.
whether you’re responding to reviews in- 4Search engines use high-quality
house, or outsource the job to an agency, content to help determine ranking on EXPIRES DEC 31, 2017
authenticity is critical. Generic responses to search engine results pages (SERP). Timely
both positive and negative customer reviews responses not only show search engines that
come across as robotic and insincere. you’re digitally engaged, they also produce

52 | GIADA Independent Auto Dealer DECEMBER 2017