If you own or manage an auto dealership, you already know how important customer service is to your bottom line. What if there was a cost-efficient strategy that your team could start implementing almost immediately to provide better service, and by doing so, both retain and acquire more customers? What if the same strategy could simultaneously boost your local ranking on Google, provide you with numerous marketing opportunities, and save your team hours of valuable time every month?
Responding to online reviews can help your dealership achieve all of these goals, especially when you partner with a review management service designed for car dealerships and auto industry marketing agencies. Read on to learn all about the benefits of managing your reviews, along with tips for writing better responses to them. This guide will also cover review management FAQs for car dealerships, including questions about old reviews, fake reviews, and more.
Responding to your reviews might seem like it’s just a courtesy, but in fact, it’s an essential pillar of customer service strategies in 2022. Data shows that virtually all consumers — a whopping 98% — “read online reviews for local businesses” to help inform their shopping decisions, with nearly half — 49% — reporting that they trust the content of online reviews “as much as personal recommendations from family and friends.”
Meanwhile, nearly nine out of 10 consumers — 89% — describe themselves as either “‘fairly’ or ‘highly’ likely to use a business that responds to all reviews, positive and negative.” At the same time, 22% of consumers report being “‘not likely at all’ to use businesses that don’t respond to any reviews.”
It’s critical for your business to leverage these trends and ensure that you’re responding to all reviews in a way that aligns with best practices, which we’ll discuss throughout this guide. That’s especially true for businesses in the automotive industry, whose bottom lines are strongly impacted by online reviews. According to a recent survey by BrightLocal, 43% of consumers answered “very important” when asked of the automotive industry, “How important a part do online reviews play in your decision to use these types of businesses?” By comparison, that percentage was lower for most other industries, including legal services (40%), the food and beverage industry (33%), the entertainment industry (16%), and the retail industry (15%).
Responding to reviews, whether positive or negative, shows customers that you value their input and appreciate their time. It also shows them that real employees — not automated chatbots — are there to listen and provide support, which is important for an industry that, let’s face it, has historically struggled with issues around earning consumers’ trust (though the shift toward online sales is starting to reverse that trend).
In addition to all of these points, there are also SEO benefits to responding to reviews, such as improving your local ranking on Google. As you can read more about here, Google support explicitly recommends that you “respond to reviews that users leave about your business” as a strategy to “improve your business visibility and increase the likelihood that a shopper will visit your location.” Plus, responding to reviews is a great way to mention or promote new initiatives at your business, such as deals or promotions you’re currently running — all while helping to build consumer trust that translates to increased revenue.
If you want satisfied customers to stay that way, you need to make sure you engage them — ideally, in a way that feels personalized to their needs. Responding to positive reviews is an easy way to build brand loyalty and capitalize on excitement and enthusiasm about your brand. Whether they’re over the moon about the customer service they received from your salespeople, they’re thrilled about the assistance you provided with financing, or your amazing selection of vehicles blew them away, it’s important to acknowledge positive feedback from your customers — not just focus on putting out fires by dealing with bad reviews.
So what are some strategies and methods for replying to positive reviews of your dealership? Here are a few quick tips our team of response scribes suggests implementing.
If you’d like to explore this topic in further detail, you might be interested in browsing some of the following articles.
Responding to negative reviews is usually more difficult than responding to positive reviews, because your business needs to walk the line between taking responsibility for the customer’s poor experience while still representing the brand in a way that conveys professionalism and an overall commitment to excellence. Whether it involves a customer service issue, dissatisfaction with your inventory, or frustration involving an unexpected fee or bill — all common complaints about dealerships and other businesses — here are some quick pointers for responding to bad reviews of your dealership.
Want to go in depth with a more detailed look at this topic, or see examples of how to respond? Here are a few articles to get you started.
For the latest insights and updates, be sure to follow our newsletter and explore the rest of our blog, which looks at topics ranging from Yelp’s stance against review manipulation to why your Google reviews might be disappearing. For now, let’s look at some frequently asked questions about best review reply practices for dealerships in 2022.
A: Yes. However, fresh reviews should be your highest priority, particularly those that were received within the past 24 hours. Learn more about strategies for responding to old reviews of your dealership or automotive business.
A: No. There are various reasons why it’s a dangerous idea to purchase fake positive reviews (or write and post them yourself). In short, all major review platforms — including Google, Yelp, and Facebook — ban review manipulation, which is seen as a ToS violation. Your business could be penalized by these platforms, resulting in diminished visibility — or worse, investigated and fined by regulatory agencies. Learn more about why you should never pay for 5-star reviews (and whether you even need them).
A: Occasionally, mix-ups occur that cause consumers to leave reviews for the wrong business. If someone leaves a positive or negative review of your dealership that seems like it could have been posted in error, the best way to respond is to thank the author for their feedback and direct them to contact your team. If the review is obviously intended for another business, you can follow the tips we shared here.
A: You should never bribe, reward, or incentivize your customers to specifically leave positive ratings and reviews. It is, however, acceptable to ask your customers for their genuine feedback — including the potential for negative comments — provided you obey the ToS on each review platform and ensure your business maintains adequate transparency. Read about how you can ask customers for reviews more successfully, or learn how a review generation service can help you amplify your brand’s online presence.
A: One strategy is to take advantage of a review response service for automotive dealerships, ensuring that all of your reviews receive custom, on-brand responses within 24 hours — without your in-house team ever having to write a sentence. Increase your efficiency further with a centralized, secure, and easy-to-navigate dashboard that enables you to monitor thousands of reviews from a single location.
Shout About Us provides the full suite of Google review management solutions for automotive dealerships, including generating, monitoring, responding to, and where appropriate, removing reviews of your business. We also provide a listings management service, all backed by 24-hour, US-based customer support.
Discover why thousands of brands trust Shout About Us to help their teams save time, increase revenue, and drive results. Book a demo today.
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