What is Spam and what is Feedback?

Helping dealers move into the world of social media will in most cases be a long and hard road. One area where we can begin is to help them understand what is spam and what is truly an opportunity to recognize feedback. Step number 1 to helping our dealers is to stop hiding from or deleting neutral or negative information, but learn from it and market better tomorrow than they did yesterday.

A true challenge we run into as media companies is having the sales team that is educated enough, or passionate enough to truly become a marketing partner to their automotive clients and offer that information. An example of this opportunity arose today with a media company and a dealer. The sales person reported several spam emails that had been delivered into the dealer. One of those emails read:  “2005 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, you want $17,500 for a 5 year old truck with over 120,000 miles?” And then followed it up with a comment about having a “real” truck on their lot. Yes, it was a non-GM brand dealer with a Chevrolet in their inventory. So I ask you, is this spam? Or is this a form of feedback that gives the dealership and the media salesperson an opportunity to learn and market better tomorrow?

Here’s what I would suggest in this situation:

1. Verify that the truck is truly priced and the mileage was listed at the figures included in the email
2. Using other local inventory based sites etc. compare that truck’s price and mileage with other similar vehicles in the area
3. Verify with the client that all the features and details (including price, mileage and dealer added upgrades) are reflected in the ad—maybe it has some features that truly increase the value, but aren’t relayed in the ad
4. Use an auto portal back office tool to see how Chevrolet truck traffic is ranking compared to non-GM traffic on network sites, maybe there is a true demand issue present that the dealer could win with, by stocking a few appropriately priced GMC/Chevy truck in their inventory.
5. Contact the customer back and thank them for their input and see if there is a specific Chevrolet truck, with specific features/options that they’re interested in and the price/mileage range they are looking for.

At the very least, this would be a great chance to help this local dealer start looking at potential customer feedback as a tool, rather than a problem. As a dealer begins to prepare for stepping into social media, they must be prepared to hear neutral and negative information, and how they respond to it is key with how much better they serve their future customers and owners.