Overview

Shaheen Chevrolet is one of the largest dealers in Michigan’s choice Chevrolet dealers, serving Lansing and the surrounding areas with a huge inventory of new and pre-owned cars and trucks, and auto leasing and repair services.

For large dealerships such as Shaheen, reviews are a critical aspect of marketing outreach. J.D. Power reported 90% of auto buyers start their search for a new car online — and SalesFuel found 59% of car buyers say reputation is the most important factor when choosing which dealership to visit. Dealerships that lack reviews and high ratings rank lower in search results, and can lose showroom traffic — and business — to nearby competitors who have a stronger online presence and better reviews.

Challenge

In 2014, Dan Dowker, Business Development Manager at Shaheen, began looking for a solution to improve the dealership’s online reputation. Specifically, his goals were to increase star ratings and review volume, as well as improve the dealership’s presence and engagement across key social media sites such as Facebook. But there were challenges:

• No process for consistently requesting reviews from customers
• No one dedicated to monitoring and responding to online reviews
• No tools for posting social media content at scale

Solution

Dowker and his team uses Reputation.com to monitor and respond to online reviews, systematically request reviews and conduct customer satisfaction surveys.

Using the platform, Dowker’s team has been able to:

• Establish consistent processes for monitoring, requesting and responding to online reviews
• Create an engaging Facebook presence for the dealership
• Gather customer feedback for insight into customer experience improvements

Additionally, Dowker’s team enlisted the Managed Services team at Reputation.com to manage its presence and engagement on social media sites. Reputation.com’s social media experts published localized, approved content across key social media sites on Shaheen’s behalf, as well as targeted advertising on Facebook, to drive traffic to the dealership.

Results

Shaheen Chevrolet’s online reputation improved significantly after implementing Reputation.com:

• Total reviews increased by 765%, from 243 to 2102
• Increased Reputation Score by 28%, from 555 to 713
• Increased average star rating from 4.5 to 4.7
• Responded to 100% of reviews on Cars.com and Facebook
• Increased Facebook click-through rates by over 300%