In the world of online car sales, customer reviews can make or break your business. Your reputation on the dealer platforms that you sell your vehicles on, whether it be eBay, Facebook or even forums such as Reddit, can have a significant impact on future success with potential buyers.
That is why this month we would like to take you through the methods that can help you maintain that oh so precious online image that you need to stay on top of your competitors and keep those offers coming in.
Monitoring Feedback
The monitoring of your reputation is crucial if you want to see how you are performing so far and if there are any areas of improvement, Facebook, for instance, has a Reviews section, so if you have a Facebook Page that you use to sell, customers can leave their feedback here. Simple touches such as liking and replying to feedback (whether good or bad) can help your image and give the impression you monitor your business page regularly. Most of the time you’ll receive a notification if you receive a review. However, that is not always the case, for example, customers maybe posting on Trust Pilot (which we discuss in more detail later on) if you don’t subscribe or Google Reviews without your knowledge.
So it could be worth making a list of all relevant platforms that your desired buyers utilise and setting yourself a weekly or monthly reminder to check your feedback on all platforms.
Most businesses aim for a 4-star rating or greater and as many reviews as possible. This should increase your adverts click through rate by providing greater buyer confidence, so asking your customers for feedback should never be forgotten when closing a deal. Depending on how and where you have transacted the business, this could be as simple as dropping them a message on Facebook to ask for feedback, or sending a business card with your social media channels listed so they can supply you with a critique at a later date.
How to Deal with Complaints or Negative Feedback
Having a dissatisfied customer’s complaint to resolve is never something you would wish for, but there is always an opportunity to help your business gain perspective and learn from whatever has occurred. In these instances, you must reply and open a correspondence with the customer to find out what happened and how it can be remedied. You may actually gain some useful insights to take away for the future.
Rightly or wrongly, one negative review due to the wrong kind of experience could paint your company in a negative light and ruin potential sales. Managing the online discussion well could demonstrate your high levels of customer service and actually turn the situation into a positive to other browsers.
Multiple Platforms
As you know multiple platforms can be used to sell vehicles and in turn, leave feedback – some of these platforms don’t even sell cars, the main examples of this would be Reddit and Trustpilot. Searching your business name or name alongside words like “car dealer” and “Reddit” in Google can return some feedback you wouldn’t normally have visibility on. It is important to realise too that customers will look – and won’t necessarily settle for the first rating they find, so for example if you are 4 stars on Facebook but 1 star on Trustpilot, it is vital you concentrate on increasing that 1-star score.
It is also worth remembering the feedback on platforms like Trustpilot can be shared on your social media platforms, giving you a prized asset when it comes to standing out against the competition.
If you have not yet created a profile on an automated feedback service such as Trustpilot or Feefo, this is something we highly recommend you consider. Although there can be charges to use these platforms (depending on how integrated you want to make the process and the volume of transactions) they will directly invite buyers to leave their feedback on your profile and help build your reputation far quicker and with less time consuming manual intervention. Also when serious buyers are Googling you, this could very well be the page they end up on when drawing their conclusion whether to buy from your company or not.
eBay Seller and Buyer Feedback
As expected eBay is seen as a major platform option when it comes to car dealing, for both selling and buying, so having a high-quality feedback score on this platform is a must-have, no ifs, no buts. But another vital angle is the feedback from yourself to the buyer, this is one click away when a user is visiting your feedback profile and can present a picture to potential buyers of how you value your previous customers. So always remember when completing a sale – leave your experience as a seller when conducting business on eBay.
Overall Integrity
When setting up your vehicle listing and communicating with your interested party you should always have full disclosure at the front of your mind, this will help alleviate any issues that may present themselves later on down the line. As we mentioned in our guide to selling vehicles on Facebook Marketplace blog, populating a description as thoroughly as possible will help you stand out when customers are browsing listings.
Find out why 96% of our customers have rated us 4 stars or higher by reading our reviews on Feefo.