They Really Really Love You!

I was admiring my new pink “Mod About You” toes and waiting for them to dry when the ongoing conversation in the room turned to service advisors.

I know!

If I had come in and surveyed people about service advisors, I wouldn’t have extracted this kind of conversation.

Anyway, she was lamenting that she’d just had her car serviced and learned that her advisor was retiring. She supposed that she could get used to somebody else there, but not confident.

Doubly surprising was that 2 other women began bragging on “their advisors” and how they wouldn’t switch unless forced to by retirement either.

That’s what I’m talking about… incessantly. But I want you to know that it is possible. That is does happen. That people love and trust their service advisors.

Unless, of course, they haven’t found one to love and trust.

Your job, every day at the dealership, is REMOVE FEAR AND CREATE TRUST!

Now get out there and do it. Court us, love us, earn our trust.

The Desktop Seems Sooo 20th Century

Within 2 years, more of your online visitors will be via mobile device than via a desktop computer. How can that be a surprise to us knowing that nearly 90% of Americans have access to a mobile phone? I doubt it will take that long to move the number.
Whether it is 2 years or 2 days, our very best presence online has to fit on a 2" X 3" screen. The things that people want to do most must be possible quickly and easily.
So here's what you do:
Access your website with your smartphone.
Shop.
Do what you would do when you are a customer.
Ask your daughter to recommend a great mobile site and find out why it's great.
Compare to yours (customers don't just compare you to other car dealers, they compare you to every other commercial web site).
Here's a good example of an automotive mobile site (ya gotta access it from your mobile device to see it) that works.
Then make a list of the things that your webmaster has got to change/improve on your site to make it work for real people.
Here's my list to get you started:

• Don't redirect me to your regular website - you'll know this if you have to tweak the screen in and out to see it
• The things people do most should be front and center, no searching required (call specific departments, make appointments, address/location)
• Very little typing required - make forms with drop downs or selectors, only require the miminum amount of input (do you REALLY need the VIN to make an appointment?)
• Make sure your chat box, if you have one, does NOT pop up for mobile devices

Caveat that needs to have some space in your marketing brain: don't assume that what you do here in the mobile space is the rule for your regular site (or every other marketing that you do). 
Mobile users don't read. They scan and do. So that site must accommodate that or be abandoned. Your regular site is totally different. There, the visitors are looking at descriptions, reading reviews, looking for content that supports their decision making, so it can and should contain more depth. Here's a good example of content on your big site that customers value.