Category Archives: Management

Buying Reviews and Car Dealerships

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In the last few days, there has been national media coverage of a vendor on Amazon who decided to “stack the deck” and buy reviews. The two articles, one on Gizmodo and one in the New York Times, told the story of a company selling cases for the Kindle Fire on Amazon who included notes in the packages asking for positive reviews from buyers in exchange for a full refund of the purchase price they paid.

Within the automotive industry, there have been (and still are) companies that promise to increase your online reviews and, while they claim the reviews are all genuine, people paying attention can easily dissect the fact that they are not. I wrote an article in June of 2011 that investigated one company, Review Boost, that was suspected of doing just this in which I interviewed the owner.

Most dealers do not participate in or knowingly hire any companies that do this.

One statement in those articles, which was included in the letter to consumers who purchased the Kindle Fire case, caught my attention though.

“We strive to earn 100 percent perfect ‘FIVE-STAR’ scores from you!”

Does this sound familiar?

Most dealerships have a time, usually in their delivery process, in which the customer is “educated” that they will be receiving a survey from the manufacturer and how important it is for the dealership to receive top scores in all areas. Some dealerships even get as detailed as having a copy of the survey with the desired answers highlighted and reviewed with the consumers. I know dealers who ask the customers to fill it out and bring it into  the dealership in exchange for something – a free oil change, t-shirt, etc. Some ask for the survey to be returned blank (which they obviously plan to fill out themselves) and some just ask them to return a completed survey which they can then read and decide for themselves whether to return it or not. I know dealers who will even RDR the car with a different address if there is heat on the deal so that a customer never gets the survey at all.

While this is certainly not identical to the vendor in the articles, in which they offered a refund for the product in exchange for positive reviews, it’s pretty close.

Reviewing a CSI survey with customers when they buy a car is skating a fine-line especially when there’s coaching involved. When you throw in a free oil change or some other incentive, it’s the same thing. Every dealer knows that they aren’t supposed to do this. However, CSI scores can be tied to future incentives from manufacturers so dealers are always under pressure to keep their scores high.

The problem with any of this is that you never get an opportunity to truly improve. You don’t get real feedback on what (or who) is broken in your process. Even though these aren’t “public” reviews and are only viewed by the manufacturer and employees of the dealership, the opportunity for improvement still exists.

You should embrace the opportunity, take your lumps when they come, and do your best to solve the customer’s complaints or criticism with your CSI surveys just as you would with your online public reviews. Even though consumers might not see these when choosing your dealership, making sure that ALL your customers are happy by attempting to solve issues they may have had, whether you received the feedback publicly through an online review or privately through CSI survey feedback, will help you grow as a dealership.

Embrace all reviews, both negative and positive, public or private, and use them as a learning experience and an opportunity to fix broken processes, clean house of cancerous employees, and become a better dealership.

I guarantee that by doing this, you’ll see less negative reviews.

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?

Buy Here ‘Cause They Suck

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Most dealerships and businesses in general know that it’s bad practice to bad-mouth your competition. That being said, I know of and have heard plenty of salespeople and managers using their online reviews to help close a deal by comparing them to their competitors online reviews. This practice is similar if not exactly the same. You are leveraging negative comments about your competitor left by other people (who you are representing as real – we all know fake reviews exist) to your positive reviews (you aren’t really showing people any negative reviews about your dealership, are you?) in an effort to “sell” yourself and your dealership. So, while this isn’t talking bad about your competitor directly, it is indirectly, and what you say can now get you in some deep water.

In a precendent setting ruling, an Alabama car dealership has been awarded $7.5 million dollars due to slanderous comments made during a close to consumers by both the salesperson and sales manager. Apparentley, the dealership’s competitor was owned by an Iranian-born but naturalized U.S. citizen. The sales manager told at least one couple while attempting to close a deal that the competitor was “helping fund insurgents there and is also laundering money for them.” The salesperson was also accused of telling the same couple that the dealer was ”funneling money back to his family and other terrorists…” and that he has a “brother over there and what you’re doing is helping kill my brother.” It is also reported that the competitor was frequently referred to as “Taliban Toyota”.

The jury awarded the Alabama dealer  $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages after deliberating for 3 hours.

While this is certainly an extreme example, it bears watching where the “line” is. This had more to do with a leveraging of race, stereotypes and bigotry but there’s no telling what future lawsuits outcomes would be utilizing this ruling as precedent.

I find it astonishing that, it appears, the sales manager, at least, is still employed at the dealership based on the statement that neither of them were available for comment per a “dealership spokesman”.

I think there are now 7.5 million reasons to add prohibiting the “bad-mouthing of your competitor” to your employee handbook. 

Is Underachieving A Disease?

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(Originally published on Dealer magazine)




A friend of mine shared via Facebook an organization that has completely blown my mind.


Underearners Anonymous


I absolutely had to read more about this organization. What exactly are they about?


Well, this is what they define as an “underearner”:


“UA is a Twelve Step Fellowship of men and women who have come together to help themselves and one another recover from underearning.
Underearning is many things, not all of which are about money. While the most visible consequence is the inability to provide for one’s needs, including future needs, underearning is also about the inability to fully acknowledge and express our capabilities and competencies. It is about underachieving, or under-being, no matter how much money we make.”


The “symptoms” of underearning are (copied from their website):


1.    Time Indifference – We put off what must be done and do not use our time to support our own vision and further our own goals.


2.    Idea Deflection –We compulsively reject ideas that could expand our lives or careers, and increase our profitability.


3.    Compulsive Need to Prove – Although we have demonstrated competence in our jobs or business, we are driven by a need to re-prove our worth and value.


4.    Clinging to Useless Possessions – We hold onto possessions that no longer serve our needs, such as threadbare clothing or broken appliances.


5.    Exertion/Exhaustion – We habitually overwork, become exhausted, then under-work or cease work completely.


6.    Giving Away Our Time – We compulsively volunteer for various causes, or give away our services without charge, when there is no clear benefit.


7.    Undervaluing and Under-pricing – We undervalue our abilities and services and fear asking for increases in compensation or for what the market will bear.


8.    Isolation – We choose to work alone when it might serve us much better to have co-workers, associates, or employees.


9.    Physical Ailments – Sometimes, out of fear of being larger or exposed, we experience physical ailments.


10.  Misplaced Guilt or Shame – We feel uneasy when asking for or being given what we need or what we are owed.


11.  Not Following Up – We do not follow up on opportunities, leads, or jobs that could be profitable. We begin many projects and tasks but often do not complete them.


12.  Stability Boredom – We create unnecessary conflict with co-workers, supervisors and clients, generating problems that result in financial distress.


I was completely blown away by the fact that this organization existed at all. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself and/or turn your professional life around as the multi-million dollar self-help and motivational industry can attest to.


However, are we really in need of a 12-step program that likens underachieving to a disease?


I would argue that professional success originates from how you run your life. If you strive to live a good life, be a good person and do the things needed to succeed – you will. In the past, these ideals were instilled in us through our social interactions – whether through school, church, or work. My guess is that there aren’t many 18 year olds in this group and that the demographic consists of working age adults well within their careers. Sitting in a group consisting of other underachievers is not, in my opinion, a best practice.


In fact, many would argue that the best way to turn yourself around in business success would be to distance yourself from these people.


How many sales managers advise new salespeople not to hang out with the negative slackers on the Salesforce (not that they should be there in the first place)?


There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to better yourself whether that’s professionally or personally, but don’t fall into the trap believing that your failure to succeed has anything whatsoever to do with anything other than being anybody’s fault but your own. Don’t blame society. Don’t blame your teachers. Don’t blame your parents. Blame yourself. Most importantly, if you have this “problem,”,please don’t go hang out and collectively whine to a roomful of other people who share it.


Being unsuccessful is not a disease. It’s a culmination of poor decisions. If you want to change and don’t know how, there’s an unlimited amount of material and programs you can use to do so. If you need some personal help, find someone who is successful and ask them to help you. Don’t ask other unsuccessful people for their help.


If you’re in the middle of your career and you’re still a procrastinator, afraid of change with the need to prove yourself, are unwilling to let go, overwork yourself to the point of burnout, who volunteers their time rather than gets paid for it (and I’m not talking about charitable volunteering), who undervalues yourself, isn’t a team player, is not assertive, doesn’t follow up and creates conflict then you are probably, and rightfully so, unemployed. 


Stop blaming the world, take ownership of your situation and change your life.

How To Be (And Make Others) Successful Selling Cars

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The other day, I started thinking about all the friends I’ve made that I met because they bought a car from me. I’m not talking about acquaintance-type friends, I’m talking about people that are involved in my life, and have been for a long time.


I’ve been out of retail for about 2 years now. When I was in retail, I made a lot of money. As a commissioned salesperson, to make a lot of money you have to make profit on cars. Many people think that “making a profit” and “giving a good deal” can’t co-exist. There were times that I even felt guilty getting a hefty commission voucher. I was averaging 30 cars per month while maintaining a CSI score of 98% (and I had a high return rate on surveys).


So what was I doing right?


I always treated everyone like they had 800 credit scores. I made sure that all of my customers were happy and, if they weren’t, did everything within my power to make them so. I helped solve problems for any customer at my dealership, whether they were mine or not. I made sure that I respected all the parties involved and thanked them for their business sincerely. I followed up with them religiously to insure that they were satisfied and to recognize important occasions in their lives. I made sure my customers got not only the car they needed, but one they wanted, not necessarily the one I wanted to sell them. I truly cared about my customers and treated them all like they were my personal friends… and, guess what, many of them became just that.


While I enjoy money as much as the next person, I was never really “money-motivated.” A “good job” and recognition went farther for me. It wasn’t until I went to work for a particular manager that many of these ideals were instilled in me. He truly cares about his employees and took me under his wing. His leadership and personal attention truly made me want to work harder, sell more, and make the dealership successful. By doing that, not only did I care more about my job, the dealership and its customers, but I made more money. He inspired me to want to do a good job for him, not just for the money. Don’t get me wrong, he held you accountable. He just didn’t do it through fear as I see many retail managers do. He empowered his employees and trusted them to do their jobs. His favorite saying is “I’ll give you all the rope you need and you can either hang yourself with it or make a basket to carry all of your money.” I attribute my success in this industry to him. Without the culture and leadership he provided, I wouldn’t have achieved what I have.


Leaders can motivate in many ways. Sadly, many think the only way to motivate is through either fear, money or a combination of the two. By choosing the leadership style that he did and helping mentor me into the sales style and ideals that I adopted as a salesperson, I became successful, not only professionally, but personally. Too many salespeople (and managers) are looking for the next big voucher and not paying attention to their customers’ needs. Take care of your customers and do business right and the money will come.


So, thinking back on my retail career, as I recognized how many people I have in my life that are my friends simply because fate brought them into my dealership and I happened to assist them with their vehicle purchase, I realized that this provided me far more of an indication that I did things right than any “good job” could have and it was all possible because I had a great leader.