“Ratings and reviews drive our business.”
“Can you leave me a 5-star rating?”
“Only excellent across the board will do.”
“Would you be willing to give me a testimonial?”
“Your feedback means the world to us.”
We have been inundated with the belief that ratings, reviews, customer testimonials, and CSI scores are the gateway to more business, higher traffic counts, and increased profits. But not all testimonials are written by customers. There are other ratings and reviews you should leverage to build a case with your clients.
Leverage Ratings and Reviews
Garnering ratings on your business or employees are just two review strategies of many. What about the product you sell? Certainly, customers aren’t all sold on your product. Why do stores turn a blind eye to seeking feedback on their vehicles? Why do they not leverage expert reviews to sing the product’s praises?
In a recent DealerRater study, consumers were asked how trustworthy different sources are when making a major purchase. Wouldn’t you know that expert reviews rank above recommendations from family and friends and customer testimonials?
While DealerKnows always recommend seeking high-quality reviews from your customer base, we believe it is equally important to leverage validating statements on your product from experts.
Selling via Positive Reviews
We have gone through the exhaustive task of finding praise-worthy quotes on each vehicle make/model and building 3rd Party Validation email templates. It is always great to sell the customer about your brand and your people, but it’s equally as great to tell them about the quality of your product. We’re salespeople. They don’t trust what comes out of our mouths. However, they do trust product ratings and reviews from the likes of …
Car and Driver
MotorTrend
Autoweek
Consumer Reports
Autoblog
Consumer Guide
Automobile Magazine
Cars.com
Road and Track
The Car Connection
Jalopnik
Kelley Blue Book
Yahoo Autos
Edmunds
AutoTrader
Popular Mechanic
CNET
The Detroit Free Press
J.D. Power and Associates
Left Lane News
And others
Why are ratings and reviews important?
We’ve performed our own hunt for the best things written about each make and model from every one of the sites above. This is a testament to the lengths DealerKnows goes to when creating the most valuable information in email template form for our dealer clients.
Finding the needle in the haystack of great blurbs and quotes seems like a thankless task, but know that this recent data from DealerRater validates the need to look beyond customer testimonials and consider using expert ratings and reviews in your marketing. Much like your customers, you should do your research, listen to the experts, and find a way to lend credible insight from experts to market your products.
