The Impact of Online Reviews in Dealership Market
If you are in the auto market, you know how referrals and word-of-mouth marketing serve as the vitality of your business. When you have a satisfied client, they will surely recommend your dealership to their acquaintances. The digital realm has become more involved in our daily life. It is only expected that the conversation of car buyers has moved in the online world. The conversation could be extremely powerful since they are not simply sharing their experience with their friends; they are sharing this for the whole world to see. The impact of online reviews on customer decisions has become more apparent, as shown by the latest reports.
The Impact of Online Reviews on Consumer Perception
Consumers are not only posting their reviews on forum sites or online databases; they will also share their opinion about the company or brand in their social media profile. According to the survey, about 84% of consumers consider online reviews valuable, especially in their decision-making. Moreover, 87% of the clients in the auto sales market would prefer to do business with a dealership with at least a 3-star rating. At least 91% of the consumers will also read online reviews when looking for vehicle maintenance and car dealer. Learning the impact of online reviews will help you understand how critical it is to maintain a healthy volume of customer testimonials.
How Should You Ask for Customer Review?
Your customers may not know the impact of online reviews on purchase intention. Therefore, they may not spend time to leave you a review unless they are disappointed with the service they received. It would be best to remind them that they can leave you a review and that it would be helpful to market your growing company. Study shows that 70% of the customer will leave their reviews if you only ask them.
When to Ask
Ask the customer when they are at their happiest. Usually, it should be after the deal has been closed. You need to seize this opportunity. Their emotion will be at the tipping point at this time. You don’t want to wait for your after-sales support team to do this. If you wait for too long, the customer may not be able to remember enough details. Moreover, if they encountered any issues on the car that did not show up during their purchase, their review can become negative. The impact of online reviews can turn out to be harmful to your business.
TheImpact of Online Reviews: Offering Incentives
Since word-of-mouth marketing has become super effective in reaching out to potential customers and boosting sales, you should take advantage of it. You can encourage people to leave a review by providing small incentives like special deals and discounts. You can also give them a referral code and provide them with a short remuneration for every successful conversion.
Listen Attentively
As a businessman, you should be able to gauge the satisfaction level of your clients. If the customer is likely to give you positive feedback during the appointment, it might be good to ask them. On the other hand, if you think that the customer is dissatisfied with your service, fix the problem first before asking them for a review.
Be Responsive
If a customer is not delighted with the experience in your dealership, remind them to send you a message first before leaving a review. Tell them about the impact of online reviews on your business, and they would gladly listen. Be sure to be empathic with their problem. Also, show a firm intention that you are willing to fix the problem. It offers you an opportunity to refine your process and improve the public perception of your dealership.
How Online Review is Reshaping the Car Buying Process
In the past couple of decades, there has been a rapid development in the car industry. The significant growth has also been reflected in the way people purchase their cars. Today, 59% of the consumers will be spending most of their time researching online before going into the market. Moreover, the study shows that the buying cycle is longer today compared to years ago. Consumers prefer to use their current car for an average of 6.5 years, which is significantly longer than 4.3 years on average a decade ago. With the challenges that car dealers have to face, they need to fully understand the impact of online reviews on customers decisions.
Consumers Are Researching Cars
The buying cycle of the consumer in the automotive industry is perhaps one of the most intricate. While customers will still complete the purchase at their chosen dealership, the most influential and decision-making processes will happen online. Based on the reports published by Google, 95% of auto buyers will choose the digital realm as the source of their information. 65% of them will take around three weeks to complete the research process. It will include reading reviews from independent websites, customers, and their social media connections. To understand more about the impact of online reviews on customer decisions, understand that 6/10 undecided buyers will be more open to other car makes and models. However, after the research process, they will be firm in purchasing the vehicle they want. Video reviews are also crucial to them. Around 70% of the consumers will choose a video review on YouTube.
The Impact of Online Reviews: The Process Will Not Start in the Dealership
When researching, customers will not essentially visit the website of the manufacturer. They head to the comparison site to check for reviews and prices before scheduling an appointment with the dealership. 56% of the new buyers will head to third-party review sites before ending on the dealership website. The organic traffic to these websites providing information about cars and dealerships has increased to 12%, while traffic on dealership sites has decreased by about 2%. Websites like Auto Sales Reviews offer the customers timely and relevant information in just a couple of clicks. It is the impact of online reviews on purchase intention. Reviews provide unbiased and neutral information that customers need in their decision-making process.
Customers Need a Personalized Service
Car buyers are looking for more personalized service. One method to ensure this is by reading customer reviews to understand the dealership’s level of customer service and experience. More than 57% of car buyers in the US have checked the review on Facebook. In addition, about 64% of the consumers have been influenced to choose a different dealership after reading online reviews. Adding a personal touch in the car buying process is the key to win the buyers. Knowing the impact of online reviews on consumer perception will encourage you to provide a more personalized service to your customers.
Car Companies Need to Be Omnipresent
Most car buyers will spend at least 10 hours when researching for suitable cars to buy. The recent survey shows that only 55% of the buyers are satisfied with the information provided by the dealership website. When they were asked how this influences their decisions, the dealership website only ranked third. Car dealers will need to be present on various channels. They should be able to follow the customers to the right platform. Study shows that more buyers will rely on independent review sites and database when searching for information. The impact of online reviews is undoubtedly undeniable.
Customer Reviews Allow You to Understand Pain Points
Reviews are an excellent source of customers’ pain points. Check what the consumers are saying about your dealership on social media and review sites. Listing sites has become a platform to voice out the customers’ grievances. You will know that irks or what satisfied the customers. With reviews, you will understand which part of your service needs improvement. You will be surprised to read some of their suggestion since it offers a desirable solution for some of your issues. On some sites, they also allowed the buyers to leave a review on your salespeople. By reading this, you will be able to identify your key employees. While most dealerships are resorting to paid reviews, it is crucial to maintain the authenticity of your reviews. False reviews will equate to erroneous data. It will also cause a lower satisfaction rate for your audience.
The Impact of Online Reviews: Customer Reviews May Help You Build Community
We mentioned before that your business with the car buyers would not end with the purchase. It will be a long-term relationship. With online reviews, you will be able to keep your connections with your customers. You can find out how satisfied they are with the purchase. You can continue engaging with them and build a robust online community. It is simple yet very effective in collecting your customers in a single location. For the customers leaving negative reviews, you can offer them the solution to make them feel valued
Digital and word-of-mouth marketing has been proven effective in driving sales. It helps you connect to potential customers. The impact of online reviews on the dealership industry is so significant. Those who lack a healthy number of reviews have been losing business opportunities. It is the go-to source for consumers to collect and verify the information. Marketing your business by monitoring the online reviews can significantly contribute to your business’ success.