Reviews

Not Responding to Reviews Is Costing You Money

Picture this: You’ve just finished dinner at a new restaurant with your friends. The food was delicious, service impeccable. As you’re walking out, you pass by the owner of the restaurant and share an enthusiastic “Thank you!”. But instead of smiling warmly and thanking you in return for your business, the owner just stares blankly […]

Three Ways Dealers Can Close the Year Strong

It’s make-or-break time for automotive retailers. U.S. automakers reported that the average selling price of a new car is increasing based on August auto sales, but the demand for passenger cars is dropping, and as the industry approaches the fourth quarter, clouds are on the horizon in the form of expected higher interest rates and […]

The Untapped Source for Attribution Learnings: Customer Reviews

Understanding the factors that influence a customer’s purchase decision is such a thorny issue that our industry devotes an entire conference focused solely on analytics and attribution. Dealerships continue to invest in tools that provide only a partial view of how and why a customer purchased a vehicle. To get a more complete picture of […]

How to Put Google and Apple Maps to Work for Your Dealership

How findable is your automotive dealership on Google Maps and Apple Maps? And what do shoppers find when they locate you on these popular apps? These are important questions for your team to address. More than 154 million people use Google Maps, and another 23 million use Apple Maps each month to find destinations and […]

How and Why You Should Build Brand Ambassadors

Salespeople sell cars. But brand ambassadors make your customers so happy that they tell other people about you and return to do business with you time and again. It’s obvious which type of person a dealership would prefer to have on staff. And more than ever, dealerships possess the tools required to cultivate brand ambassadors. […]

Why Your Customers Love or Loathe You

What motivates your customers to write absolutely glowing reviews – those five-star shout-outs that attract more customers to your lot? On the other hand, why do customers write blistering criticisms that cost you sales and create permanent heartburn? At a time when eight out of 10 shoppers use online car reviews and car dealership reviews […]

Automotive Thought Leaders Predict: Darren Haygood

How will the 4Ps of Automotive Marketing™ affect the way dealers operate in 2018? Our advantage as an industry is our people. What’s unique about the automotive industry is that virtually all consumers shop online, but the vast majority of transactions happen offline between the shopper and the dealer. Consumers today want the shopping experience […]

From Leads to Growth: A Conversation with Alex Vetter and Darren Haygood

Recently Cars.com CEO Alex Vetter and Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy Darren Haygood talked with CBT News about how Cars.com is becoming a stronger growth partner to dealerships by applying technology and launching new products. The dialogue shed insight into how Cars.com is evolving from “purely a lead provider to a marketing partner” to […]

The 4Ps of Automotive Marketing: Person

Why Should Shoppers Choose Your Dealership? I read a recent Wards Auto column, “Sell the Dealership and the Vehicle,” which suggested salespeople treat each customer interaction like a job interview. The gist of the column is this: at a time when there are nearly 20,000 franchised dealerships in the United States and Canada, salespeople need […]

Cars.com Provides Price Transparency and Convenience for the Win

I am a mobile shopper from the Xennial age – that microgeneration born between 1977 and 1983. I use my mobile phone to shop for everything from coffee to cars. You win my business with transparent pricing, great photos of your product, and an app that makes purchasing from you a convenient experience. So […]

Honda, Toyota, and Ford Are the Most Reviewed Vehicles on Cars.com

Consumers love to review the cars they purchase – especially Hondas, Toyotas, and Fords, according to new data released by Cars.com. With seven out of 10 car shoppers finding customer reviews to be extremely trustworthy,¹ Cars.com wanted to know which vehicles get the most customer attention. To find the answer, we examined the millions […]

Reviews Influence Car Shopping Decisions: Infographic

Understanding when and how online reviews are used can help to make sense of a complicated topic: do reviews influence car shopping decisions? The answer is yes! But, what are car shoppers doing with reviews? What review types are they looking up? We gathered this information and published it in our latest white paper “Car […]

Next