Category Archives: internet

Tip: Selling Cars using eBay Motors Local Market

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In my experience, I’ve heard many dealers complain about eBay Motor’s Local Market service for dealers. For those who don’t know what it is, it’s NOT a typical auction-style listing service. It will post your entire inventory on eBay and offer shoppers two choices on your vehicle page on eBay – “Make an Offer” or “Contact Seller”.

One of the coolest things is that, different from a normal eBay message from an interested buyer, you actually get full contact info for the consumer as they have to be logged into eBay to complete the action and eBay passes along this information to you straight into your CRM. So if someone contacts you and asks you a question, you have the ability to follow up with them just like any other lead.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from dealers are that they continuously get ridiculous offers for vehicles – like an offer of $1,000 for a $10,000 vehicle – and they don’t want to waste their time. They believe there is little value in having their inventory on eBay because their perception is that all they get are stupid offers and little else.

What I ask dealers when they make this complaint is “If you had someone in your showroom making you an offer of $1,000 on a $10,000 car, what would you do? Would you tell them to hit the pavement?” The typical answer is “I’d sit down with them and work the deal starting off with explaining why that offer is not realistic.”

Keep in mind that, despite their unrealistic offer, these are people, first and foremost, shopping for cars. On top of that, out of the millions of cars listed on eBay, they happened to land on yours. Not only did they land on your vehicle, they took the time to contact you and/or make an offer on that vehicle – realistic or not.

Anyone offering you any amount of money for a vehicle is, in reality, starting negotiations. I’m sure you get unrealistic offers all the time from showroom customers in the box with your salesperson. You ask your salespeople to get a commitment when filling out the initial foursquare and, sometimes, those offers are unrealistic. These leads aren’t any different except for the fact that they aren’t in your showroom.

If you get an unrealistic offer on eBay, instead of looking at it like a waste of your time, realize that, chances are, this person is farther down the funnel than most of your internet leads. They may be higher maintenance and require more work than your typical internet lead but by making the effort instead of just declining their offer and dismissing them as a “jack”, you’ll find that you’ll be able to convert some of those ridiculous offers into sales.

TrueCar Launches National Compliance Campaign and Pro-Industry Product Changes – Press Release

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Just hit the newswire folks… 9:00pm PST

TrueCar Launches National Compliance Campaign and Pro-Industry Product Changes

Sweeping changes include a more balanced advertising approach, revised billing model in some states, consumer membership program, and formation of a Dealer Advisory Council

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — TrueCar, Inc., which is devoted to bringing innovation to the car buying process, today announced a nationwide, multi-faceted strategy to tackle regulatory compliance issues and demonstrate its commitment to state regulators, state dealer associations and to better serve its dealer partners.  Among other changes that are taking place nationally, TrueCar implemented a new flat fee-billing model in the Commonwealth ofVirginia, which has been OK with flat fee billing since January 2001. This change marks a significant step in TrueCar’s ongoing compliance strategy. TrueCar’s proactive modifications will include introducing a new billing model in certain states, adjusting advertising presented through the TrueCar website, establishing a TrueCar National Dealer Council, and launching a new consumer membership program.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110401/LA75616LOGO)

TrueCar announced this initiative as part of a “listening tour” by senior company executives that included visits with key constituents including dealer groups, dealer associations and manufacturers across the nation. “These meetings have been incredibly constructive.  We are in the business of innovation.  As such we have to embrace change as part of what we do,” saidScott Painter, Founder and CEO of TrueCar, Inc. “The feedback we have received, both good and bad, will enable us to better serve our dealer partners, and the industry overall. The changes announced in Virginia are a great signal that collaboration with state regulators can result in a constructive outcome for consumers and dealers.”

Compliance is an essential element of TrueCar’s mission. TrueCar has been engaged in discussions with regulators in several states regarding its fee structure and/or advertising issues.  TrueCar is responding immediately to any state concerns as part of a comprehensive national strategy, with a goal of achieving 100 percent national compliance. In the meantime, TrueCar has voluntarily suspended service in Louisiana, Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma in order to make certain changes to improve TrueCar’s service and to protect its dealer partners.  The company expects to have certain changes implemented in January.  “TrueCar’s dealer partners are central to our success and ensuring compliance is the foundation of TrueCar’s strategic commitment to dealers.  We will not put our dealer partners in jeopardy,” said Stewart Easterby, Executive Vice President of TrueCar, Inc.

Subscription Billing Model To Be Rolled Out Nationally

Most states have some version of either bird-dogging or brokering laws on the books.  TrueCar is taking a proactive national approach to this business model issue, shifting to a subscription-based billing model in those states where there is potentially an issue. For example, in California the company will be voluntarily and immediately commencing work on implementing its subscription-based model.

Over the long term, TrueCar will continue to work with state regulators in an attempt to identify ways to update existing laws and regulations to take into account innovation made possible by the digital age.  These innovations include the ability to help dealers achieve accurate performance metrics for their marketing spend and 100 percent visibility into their partners’ performance.

Dealer Management System (DMS) Data Practices

TrueCar is committed to maintaining the highest data standards including limiting the collection of information.  TrueCar does not sell dealer DMS data and does not use dealer DMS data for any purpose other than matching vehicle sales to customer leads and monitoring performance to enhance TrueCar’s service to its dealer partners. In addition to only collecting information with dealers’ permission, TrueCar is committed to working with dealers to enhance dealers’ control over access to and use of DMS data, including limiting the fields of data that are received from DMS to those fields necessary to perform the sales matching function.

Changes to Address Advertising Issues

TrueCar will implement important changes to the website to address certain advertising issues. As part of its commitment to its dealer partners, TrueCar will also develop new messages that focus on important dealer attributes, like proximity, selection and service rather than simply price. “Bottom line is we’re out listening and talking to the industry.  What we heard is that dealers feel our ads focused on price and did not tell a positive enough story about our dealer partners. We’ve listened to their concerns and are making adjustments. Qualitative considerations that drive purchase other than price will have greater prominence in future ads.” said Stephen Hansen, President of TrueCar.

National Dealer Council/Dealer Initiatives

TrueCar is also announcing several changes to take into account feedback and better serve its dealer partners:

  • Effective immediately TrueCar will be enhancing its TrueCar Price Report to enable dealers to more effectively market themselves, by providing consumers and dealers a much more balanced view of the market.
  • TrueCar will introduce its first-ever National Dealer Council in the next few weeks. The Council will serve as an important venue for TrueCar to hear dealer feedback – good and bad – on TrueCar’s products, processes and policies.
  • TrueCar will enable statistical and other tools to identify dealers with extreme price outliers.  TrueCar recognizes that price outliers may interfere with a sustainable dealer/consumer ecosystem and will work to alleviate these issues and include important qualitative factors in the decision process.
  • TrueCar will be making product, policy, and process changes throughout the entire business to enhance dealer confidence in TrueCar.

Consumer Membership Program

TrueCar remains committed to innovating to ensure higher lead quality for dealers and enhanced brand protection for OEMs.  Based on OEM feedback, TrueCar will introduce a new consumer membership program, which TrueCar believes will substantially alleviate the concern. With this change, dealer partners can expect even higher quality introductions from TrueCar. In the end, consumers and dealers benefit.

About TrueCar, Inc.

TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive solutions provider focused on changing how cars are sold by providing a significantly better customer experience while helping qualified dealer partners to gain incremental market share and reduce costs.  TrueCar is a visual publisher of new car transaction data.  TrueCar price reports help both dealers and consumers to agree on the parameters of a fair deal by providing an accurate, comprehensive and simple understanding of what others actually paid recently for a similar car both locally and nationally.  TrueCar works with a national network of dealers that provide up-front, no-haggle, competitive pricing to assist some of the nation’s largest and most well respected membership and service organizations to meet the auto buying needs of their members and customers.  Collectively these audiences represent over 1M in-market customers each month.  TrueCar is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and has offices in San Francisco, CA andAustin, TX.  With 131 percent annual growth since 2006, TrueCar has helped dealers sell over 400,000 vehicles and is developing a suite of products and services centered on radical clarity as a result of comprehensively analyzing market data and information.

You can follow TrueCar on Twitter and become a fan of TrueCar on Facebook.

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein is for noncommercial use on “as-is, as available” basis and may be used for informational purposes only.  TrueCar makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information contained in this press release and the results of the use of such information, including but not limited to implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.  The information contained in this press release may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.  Neither TrueCar nor any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or respective partners, officers, or directors, employees or agents shall be held liable for any damages, whether direct, incidental, indirect, special or consequential, including without limitation lost revenues or lost profits, arising from or in connection with your use or reliance on the information presented in this press release.

Available Topic Expert: For information on the listed expert, click appropriate link.

Scott Painter | https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=94535

TrueCar Goes Too Far

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Look, I’ve not been a big supporter of this TrueCar lynchmob for a few reasons. I don’t believe that TrueCar is solely responsible for all of the issues pointing their way. In my opinion, they are just a very visible and convenient target for a much wider-spread problem. My position has always been that the dealer needs to police its own data, not get mad at a vendor that’s been taking it and repurposing it. If you don’t want any vendor to have access to your DMS, don’t give it to them. Be mad, yes, but at yourself.

Transparency on the internet is not going away. Consumers won’t allow it. There are many third party sites that operate in a similar way to TrueCar. Getting rid of one is not going to stop other sites from taking their place.

If TrueCar is really changing to conform to state regulations, that’s a step in the right direction. You can’t blame THEM for the race to the bottom, dealers are to blame. Steve Stauning laid out the argument perfectly in his recent blog post: “How TrueCar.com Caught Dealers Off Guard”

This post, however, is not to debate whether TrueCar is right or wrong or any of the arguments for or against them.

I read today that TrueCar has purchased some interesting domain names from Domain Name Wire.

They are:

F*ckedbytheDealer.com
F*ckedbytheDealer.net
F*ckedbytheDealer.org

Now I don’t know about you, but that certainly doesn’t seem like a “dealer partner” to me. The only reason for buying those domains is to attract consumers who are pissed off at dealers. I mean, c’mon, anyone who wants to buy a car (which is what TrueCar is supposed to help people do easier, right?) and is searching with those keywords may not be a customer I want to have. That’s pretty extreme. Even if they optimize for DIFFERENT keywords, the fact remains that if someone were to click on that URL (after reading the domain name), I highly doubt they’re going there to try and buy a car. Chances are they’re going there because they feel like they’ve been.. well.. “f*cked by the dealer”. Now you’re going to try and massage that and send them to a dealer? What?!?

That’s a CSI nightmare waiting to happen and probably on a loser deal. (Not that the amount of profit should make a difference.)

Is this a preventative tactic? What will they actually PUT on those websites and/or where will they redirect them? Time will tell.

Like they didn’t have enough heat to worry about.

[NOTE: Since this post, I've added a new comment feature. Comments prior to today can be seen by scrolling down further under the "About" block of text.]

BMW Dealer Customer Service Fail Goes Viral

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A customer comes into your dealership because the warning lights come on in his Certified Pre-owned BMW after your service department tells him to bring it in immediately. He comes in and your first tier tech tells him the lights only apply to an emissions issue which doesn’t apply in his state, promptly turns the warning lights off and tells the customer he’s “good to go”. The customer leaves and two days later, the steering fails on his car while driving 65-75 mph on the freeway causing him to crash off the side of the road. When he complains to the GM, no apology is given and he’s told to bring the car back in. He expresses concern about his trust in the dealership and says he wants to go to a different one and is told that he can only bring the car there.

He then goes online and starts asking questions in a brand-enthusiast forum. After getting some information and advice from his peers, he meets with the GM at the dealership where, after expressing his concerns about the dealership’s service quality, the GM asks “then you shouldn’t even be in my office wasting my time”. The customer then agrees to let the dealer pick up his car via flatbed to look at it but is denied a loaner car.

Someone at your corporate office sees his online forum posting and has the corporate LAWYER call the customer requesting that he remove his online posting. He refuses and takes the car to an independent mechanic where he is told that the codes indicate issues with “steering and stability control”.

BMW North America gets involved. They ask the customer to bring his car into a different dealer and promise to fly in a team of specialized engineers. They confirm the steering and stability issues, charge him his $50 deductible and only fix two issues that are covered under his CPO warranty. Neither the corporate office or the dealership will explain to him what was wrong or take any responsibility and, when asked why, they say they “don’t appreciate that (he’s) made this a public issue on the forums.”

Yes, this really happened. What a train wreck.

The dealership? BMW of North Scottsdale. (a Penske Automotive dealership)

This story made the website “Jalopnik” yesterday. The article (in which the dealer is not only named but linked to) “Did a Dealer Ignore a Faulty, Dangerous BMW?” has received 27,334 unique visitors and has 209 comments. In one day.

The original forum post has 327 comments on it in less than 30 days and has been viewed by 27,956 unique visitors.

The Jalopnik article is now in the #6 position on Google Page 1 for a search for the store’s name, four spots up from their DealerRater page.

 

bmw

We’ve all experienced irate customers. We all make mistakes. There were so many opportunities for customer service to appear by so many different parties (technician, service manager, general manager, corporate office, manufacturer, the second dealership, and, of course, the corporate lawyer), yet it never did and now the dealer and BMW have a PR nightmare on their hands.

One forum poster actually said this: “Scottsdale BMW got a pretty good rating at dealer rater…shall we change that?”

What would you do if this happened at your dealership? How would you handle this?

Who Is Tapping YOUR DMS?

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There is a lot of controversy in the automotive industry regarding which vendors are pulling data (customer or transactional) from a dealer’s DMS and then re-selling it to vendors like TrueCar and others. (I guarantee you that TrueCar is not the only vendor that’s using your data against you, FYI)

[Note: For non-automotive industry readers: DMS stands for Data Management System and is what contains all customer, financial, vehicle and transactional data (ie. all that information on the credit application you filled out when you bought that car). There are dealer vendors (website companies, 3rd party services like TrueCar.com, Edmunds.com, Cars.com, etc.) that are given access to this information for various reasons.]

Consumer privacy laws and red flag compliance keep getting stricter and stricter when it comes to customer personal information and how it needs to be protected. This is all well and good but I’d argue that most consumers don’t care about their personal information. They may say they do but actions speak louder than words.

An industry acquaintance shared a website yesterday that assists people in seeing, and cleaning up, which apps and websites are accessing your various social media accounts. (You can find it at http://mypermissions.org/ )

As I played around with it, there wasn’t much in there that surprised me but I’m also very diligent about which apps I allow to access my information and I periodically monitor them to remove permissions for apps or websites I no longer use. Even though I do that, there were a few in there that I was surprised to see. I guarantee you that a normal consumer has way more apps and websites accessing their personal information than I do – games, iPhone apps, websites with social media log-ins, plug-ins etc. Most require (or ask) to access your personal information to use their service. How convenient is it to use Facebook Connect? It’s super-easy but, every time you do, you are giving yet another website or app permission to access your personal information – essentially trading your information for convenience and/or the ability to utilize that particular website.

As I thought about this collection of different social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn, etc. – it started to feel more and more to me like this was MY OWN PERSONAL DMS.

These accounts – singly and collectively – contain more personal information about me than any other source including the government.

Those social networks are free to use, but are they really? In one sense, they do exactly what your vendors are doing to your dealership’s DMS – selling your personal information for profit. Most consumers know this on some level and have chosen to allow that access in exchange for their information on some level. Sure, there are times when a consumer outcry occurs -  say when Facebook changes a privacy setting – but those quickly go away mostly because the consumer modifies the permissions again (ie. who can see your posts or other activity on Facebook).

So consumers do care about protecting their information, posts, etc. from people on an individual level, what they’re not shielding themselves from or thinking about is what companies are getting their personal data (either from the sites themselves or from outside apps and websites that they’ve allowed access) and what those companies are doing with it.

So, while we’re in an uproar about what vendors are getting access to customer data and what they are doing with it, keep in mind that you also have your own personal DMS and, just like you should care who has access to your customer’s information, you should care about who has access to your own.