What is worse than having someone complain about your dealership on social media? Having a competing brand answering their complaint with an invitation to drive their brand.
How does this happen?
It starts by not having anyone monitoring the social media platforms in your dealership or by spreading your Community Manager's time too thin.
You can quickly take control over your social networks by implementing a Feedback Loop and dedicating your CM to managing the communities.
There are four parts to the Feedback Loop:
Step 1 - Listening to your community members. The CM monitors all of the activity and discussions on every one of your social media platforms while looking for ways to engage with the members, answering questions and directing concerns to the proper party.
Do not confuse a legitimate concern with someone looking to disrupt the flow of your community. These posts do not address a concern, so you can safely remove the posts and the poster if they continue. Someone who says their seat belt light will not go out even after two service department visits is legitimate. Someone stating that your service department is the worst is not.
Step 2 - Respond in a timely manner to concerns. Never forget that social media time is accelerated as compared to time on a clock. A post that is not responded to within 12 hours can become a crisis shortly thereafter, so make an effort to respond quickly. This is much easier to achieve when you CM is dedicated to the monitoring of your channels.
Here is where your CM determines the best way to resolve a true concern. If someone is complaining about the service driveway being icy, your CM can assure them that the problem will be addressed, and then take the next step to solve the problem.
Step 3 - Identify the problem and direct it to the proper person. In the icy service drive instance, your CM may tell the Service Manager about the complaint. The key is to address the concerns as soon as possible by acknowledging the customer's complaint. Your CM can ask them for additional information as needed in order to address the problem.
Another thing the CM might discover while monitoring social media accounts is suggestions on how to improve the content, dealership or even your relationship with the community. For instance, your Social Media Manager may have posted a video of a test drive that someone thought would be better with more vehicle information in the video. The CM tells the member that it is a great idea that will be passed on. The CM then goes to your SMM and suggests that they do more with the video.
Your community might be the first ones to tell you of broken website links and other online issues. You may have a forgotten page of incorrect phone numbers on it or a typo in the email address on your contact page.
Step 4 - The CM completes the loop upon solution. Once the proper person has addressed the issue, the CM goes back to the original poster and informs them of the solution. This lets the customer know that they were taken seriously and there is a resolution to the issue.
When you monitor your social networks, you help protect your reputation by addressing conflicts quickly, and you display your willingness to solve problems in a timely manner. The worst thing you can do is to do nothing to monitor your community.
The Feedback Loop is nothing new; it is another form of customer service that enhances your dealership and builds good will. It keeps customers happy, which results in more referrals and more cars sold.
If you would like to know more about implementing a successful feedback loop in your car dealership don’t hesitate to give the Automotive Marketing specialists at Turbo Marketing Solutions a call with your CM and SMM and we will gladly assist you.
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Sean Cassy is co-owner and the automotive digital marketing strategist at Turbo Marketing. You can contact him here by email or reach him from 8am-6pm every weekday at Turbo Marketing Solutions.