Growth

When a brand comes to Reputation with more than one goal, our goal is to meet and exceed all. The Reputation and Ken Ganley partnership did just that. Ken Ganley Automotive Group, a strategic dealer group in the automotive sector based out of Ohio, sought out for a star rating above 4.5 on Google, almost 100% review responses at all dealerships, and an increase in review volume. All have not only been achieved, but the standard has been raised for the goals themselves.

Who They Are

Ken Ganley Automotive Group began with one dealership in the 1970s, and has since then expanded into 39 dealerships and a salt-of-the-Earth corporate team. As the largest automobile retailer in the state of Ohio and ranking as number 15 in the country based on size and profits, Ken Ganley Auto’s footprint is one that’s amplifying offline and online. And the Group is unstoppable. President and CEO Ken Ganley commissioned the Director of Customer Relations, “There are a handful of world-class auto groups. The only way to get there is to focus on the customer.”

Reputation.com has helped our group tremendously by bringing increased focus and better processes to what we were already doing. We love to compete, and I’m thrilled to see us climb from #9 to #4 this year.”

Ken Ganley,
President and CEO

The Challenge

In order to ensure a streamlined approach to a customer-centric strategy, the Group knew they needed a solution to the disparate tools being used across dealerships. A few dealers were leveraging Podium, others DealerRater, and some were just overlooking reviews altogether. The teams wouldn’t turn their attention to reviews for weeks (or even months). Reputation management should never be a hit or miss in this relationship-driven sector. That’s why the first step towards this strategy became finding a platform that can unify dealerships, organize review responses, and manage what was being said online at the corporate level. Yes, all in one platform.

It’s up to our team to earn the 5 star review. Reputation helps us to get it.”

Patrick O’Connor,
Director of Customer Relations

The Solution

In 2019, Patrick was sent the Reputation Automotive Report by happenstance.

35k global dealerships analyzed annually. 5M auto dealer ratings and reviews. The main takeaway? Locations with higher Reputation Scores generate more actions and higher conversion rates. After piqued interest, learning more and more about the platform sealed the deal.

Since then, the partnership has boomed. What initially began as just monitoring and responding to reviews, in 2021 Ken Ganley Auto began sending review requests via email, leveraging a dedicated team for managed review response, SMS for on-the-spot review requests, as well as operational insights and Reputation Score. Some stores have even tapped into competitive comparison to analyze competitors in the market.

The corporate team’s favorite tool, though, lives with insights provided by the platform. Dealer diagnostics and remedies provide actionable paths to solve for any deficiencies in Reputation Scores or reviews management. “It doesn’t only tell us why one dealership is weak, but how to get better,” says Mr. O’Connor, “It has really paid off and I’ve enjoyed working with everyone at Reputation.”

If one of the stores says, ‘I don’t know why my score is so low,’ we can just point them
to Reputation and they can see their weaknesses, strengths and how to improve.”

Patrick O’Connor,
Director of Customer Relations

Reputation in Action

With all these solutions under their belt, results are a given. In fact, the Ken Ganley Auto team initially set a goal of hitting a 670 Reputation Score average. That then moved to 700. Then 750. Then 780. With every KPI hit, the bar continues to elevate. The average star rating across the group has even increased to a 4.7, above the projected goal. And in that initial report that brought Reputation into the Ken Ganley conversation, the Auto Group is now ranked number four within top private U.S. dealer groups.

Business growth is just an expected result from visibility and activity online.

But what about internal processes? From trophies to clubs, Reputation has been woven into the excitement of competitive excellence within the Group. When a dealership hits above a 900 or more Reputation Score for more than a week, they join the elite 900 Club which comes with a trophy, an extravagant lunch and all the bragging rights. There’s even a traveling trophy that belongs to the highest scoring dealership every month. And on the flip side of the coin, the lowest three dealerships based on Reputation Score receive special attention for collaboration on improvements. Nothing incentivizes more than healthy competition.

With General Managers expressing the serious value in the platform, weekly meetings with Reputation reports in hand, and departments from sales to corporate tapping into the platform, this partnership is one built for results.