News

I am almost done with the final edits to the 2009 ASMA Study, which will be released at the 7th Digital Dealer Conference in Nashville.

Tonight I decided to to read what other industry professionals have said about the the 34 website providers that I am reviewing.

What I found was odd from an Automotive IRM perspective.

The IRM Buzz

Car industry consultants and software providers have been quick to claim the benefits of posting positive customer reviews online, also known as IRM.

Articles are coming out each week stating the importance of Internet Reputation Management (IRM).

When you look at www.DrivingSales.com  Vendor Reviews, one of the few places that post automotive industry vendor reviews, the numbers are telling.

The children of the shoemaker have holes in their shoes!

Let’s see why.

Automotive Website Vendor Reviews

• Dealer.com has 14,000 dealers using their software and has the most customer reviews and the best scores in this category but a measly 44 dealers posted their comments. That’s less than 1%. (36 Positive / 8 Negative)
• BZ/ADP have over 2,000 dealers using their platforms and only 15 review, less than 1%. (5 positive / 10 negative)
• Dealerskins – 11 Reviews (5 positive/ 6 negative)
• Reynolds & Reynolds – 9 Reviews (5 positive / 4 negative)
• eBizAutos has zero reviews.

www.DrivingSales.com and www.DealerRefresh.com  are two places where dealer website platforms and vendors can be reviewed. On both websites, the representation is the same, very few customers have posted positive reviews.

eBizAutos also has no reviews on DealerRefresh.com nor any I could find doing and Internet search.

As DrivingSales.com grows, I believe it will become to premier place for automotive vendors to be evaluated and scored by the automotive community.

If IRM is good for car dealers, then IRM is good for car dealer vendors and suppliers.