Most people would agree, Amazon.com is a winning online retail formula. While Wall Street wishes they kept a little more from each dollar earned, they are certainly happy with the top-line growth Amazon achieves each year. For online shoppers, Amazon is a great customer experience. Huge selection, competitive prices, single click purchase all contribute in creating this great shopping experience. But you can’t talk about the success of Amazon, without mentioning their vast library of online product reviews. Long before Google began talking about ZMOT, Amazon was living it. For their shoppers, during that critical Zero Moment of Truth, when it is time to make that final purchase decision, it is the power of influential opinions that can either seal the deal, or see the cart forever abandoned.
I along with many others in the reputation management business am so glad to see dealers increasingly embracing the power of online reviews. It was only a few years ago that the majority of dealers only wanted customer reviews to go away, and certainly didn’t want them anywhere near the eyes of their current or prospective customers. Times have changed, and dealers are beginning to understand the importance of both monitoring, and influencing their online ratings. Dealers know that they can’t simply get rid of a negative review. They need to instead address the problem, and then create a process for creating dozens of positive reviews. They know that while negative reviews tend to happen without any prompting, positive reviews from happy customers involve effort. Service or sales customers who have a great buying experience need to be contacted, and urged to take a few simple steps to help share their experience with thousands of other shoppers.
So once once a dealer has conquered the problem of a two-star rating, and is now sitting pretty with a four-star rating, how can they maximize the impact? If they’ve done a good job with Google My Business reviews, their listing will display on page 1 SERPs 100% of the time a shopper searches for the business name on Google. If the dealer has done a good job with content, social and search, their dealership reviews will also display on popular category searches within their geographic area. High dealer ratings on search engines will then deliver strong benefit, typically mid to upper funnel influence. Positive reviews on search engine listings help ensure car shoppers include your store in their selection set of dealers to consider. So how can dealers increase the impact of positive reviews at the all-important Zero Moment of Truth? They must get their positive reviews on VDPs and Fixed Ops web pages.
Why will this make a difference? Amazon knows this answer, and it is not very complicated. When website visitors are viewing VDPs, they transform from visitors to shoppers, and shoppers are one step away from being buyers! Just like we all do with purchases on Amazons, when we are looking at product pages, a few positive reviews gives us the confidence to take the next step in the buying process. VDPs with online reviews will generate more leads, phone calls and chats, and it is those hand-raisers we can then get into the showroom to close. Online reviews that are sitting on Google or Yelp can only help when shoppers are on those sites. Why not leverage the power of positive reviews to help increase buyer confidence, and improve conversion? Amazon knows, and today many of their competitors also know. Do what Amazon would do! Supercharge your VDPs and Fixed Ops pages with the influence, confidence-building, and strong reputation of your best customer experiences.