{"id":634,"date":"2014-09-03T14:47:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T19:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/?p=634"},"modified":"2014-09-03T14:48:19","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T19:48:19","slug":"resist-urge-splurge-tips-maintaining-high-performance-profitability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/resist-urge-splurge-tips-maintaining-high-performance-profitability\/","title":{"rendered":"Resist the Urge to Splurge: Tips for Maintaining High Performance Profitability"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Contributing<\/a>It would be safe to say that everyone in the retail automotive space lost some weight following 2008, figuratively speaking.\u00a0 But, it would be surprising to find a dealer who didn\u2019t tighten-up his or her business operations during the Great Recession, both in terms of people and in terms of demanding greater ROI in money spent.\u00a0 We saw the number of personnel in dealerships become laser-focused on only those who were necessary, and then only those who could perform to hit certain standards.\u00a0 We saw dealers begin to take advantage of technology as a less expensive means to drive traffic and branding, as well as a more sophisticated means of measuring and tracking business operations.\u00a0 In essence, dealers came out of the Great Recession as lean and analytical business athletes with the ability to run a marathon.<\/b><\/p>\n

Fast forward to today.\u00a0 Life is good \u2013 this year\u2019s car sales are leaving last year\u2019s records in the dust! Consumers are actively looking for protection products, the economy is looking better with unemployment numbers gradually dropping, and each deal doesn\u2019t take nearly as much work as it did from 2009 – 2012.\u00a0 Let\u2019s live a little!<\/p>\n

The key is to live a little<\/i><\/b> \u2013 don\u2019t hit the all you can eat buffet.<\/p>\n

While the Great Recession was incredibly painful for all aspects of the industry, from materials sourcing all the way through to the customer driving away in their new vehicle, it did correct significant operational issues that had long needed to be addressed<\/b> in the retail automotive space.\u00a0 And, it did so in a condensed period of time.\u00a0 The new operating model requires a whole different level of analytics: diligence in compliance; proactive management and capture of online car shoppers without forcing them into the showroom right away; and, individualized training programs for personnel along with key staff retention strategies \u2013 in short, much closer and empirical daily management.\u00a0 Call it \u201cdaily cardio\u201d for the business.<\/p>\n

Now that things are rolling, dealers are tempted to skip their proverbial workout. <\/b>\u00a0You stop hearing as much about how every deal counts.\u00a0 You see less training in exchange for more people on the floor, less career path planning and higher turnover, as well as less urgency around online customer reviews.\u00a0 And the pounds start showing up around the waist and on the hips of the business.<\/p>\n

Resist the urge to splurge and stay focused on your goals by focusing on customer service. You cultivated a strong reputation of providing quality customer service during the recession. Keep that up and watch your reputation soar both online and off.<\/b><\/p>\n

Beyond servicing customers at the dealership, it is also important to service them online. It\u2019s time to come to terms with the fact that online reviews and online shopping is here to stay. Car buyers today actively research both car reviews and dealership reviews, and they trust these more than any advertising tactic.<\/p>\n

So, how can dealerships manage reviews?<\/b><\/p>\n

How about asking for them? Sales professionals are trained to ask for the sale. It\u2019s time to motivate them to ask for the review. Remind your team that consumers often choose who they want to work with before they even enter your store by looking at reviews. Therefore, more reviews correlates with increased opportunity for sales for both the team members and the dealership.<\/p>\n

So, can we pay for reviews?<\/b><\/p>\n

No. Yelp, Google +, Cars.com, DealerRater, etc. all have strict policies against paying for reviews and they have sophisticated algorithms to track and penalize companies using this practice.<\/p>\n

Can I have them write a review before they leave?<\/p>\n

No. Online review sites treat that in the same way as paying for reviews.<\/p>\n

What about negative reviews?<\/b><\/p>\n

Negative reviews aren\u2019t necessarily a bad thing. Instead of seeing them as detrimental to your image, treat negative reviews as an opportunity to demonstrate customer service. This does not mean \u201cgive in to their demands,\u201d but rather work to take the conversation offline and discuss the situation either on the phone or in-person. It\u2019s much easier to understand and diffuse a customer complaint offline. Then, when it\u2019s resolved, ask the customer to either update their review or post a new one. If they don\u2019t, then you go out and post the resolution and how pleased you were to address their issue.<\/p>\n

If your dealership at least demonstrates an attempt to resolve a negative review, online shoppers will see that as positive information that you take their experiences seriously and will treat them with respect.<\/p>\n

Stay focused and healthy, and set your dealership up for future success.<\/b> Focus on providing excellent customer service both in the dealership and online. \u00a0With more than three decades of delivering dealership profitability solutions, EFG Companies<\/a> gives its clients the edge in the market. With training from our AFIP certified<\/a> professionals and unmatched partner engagement<\/a>, we know how to ensure your future success. Contact us <\/a>today to find out how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It would be safe to say that everyone in the retail automotive space lost some weight following 2008, figuratively speaking.\u00a0 But, it would be surprising to find a dealer who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[313,92,195,140,194],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reputation-management","tag-efg-companies","tag-john-stephens","tag-negative-reviews","tag-online-reputation-management","tag-positive-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hsqu-ae","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":636,"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efgintelligence.com\/dealershipcorridor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}