The online presence of the RV industry may have looked a lot different a few years ago, but today it’s tough to find a successful RV dealership that doesn’t have a website. Most RV dealers are also active on social media, with a Facebook business page at least and accounts on all major platforms at best. The most digitally-savvy RV dealers also employ strategies like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, and marketing automation. But one aspect of digital marketing that many seem to neglect is online reputation management.
Most local business owners would agree that reputation is everything – it can make or break a business. While you do your best to make customers happy and hope they spread the word about your dealership in the community, that’s only part of the task at hand. Online reputation is something that RV dealerships must be aware of, because just like consumers are checking your website before they visit your store in person, they are also checking your online reviews and ratings before they decide to buy from you.
Google, Facebook, Yelp, and YellowPages.com are among the largest and most important review sites. Anyone who uses a search engine to find your dealership website will immediately see your rating and reviews on Google, which makes it an especially crucial platform to monitor. Links to your dealership’s accounts on social media and other sites will closely follow your business listing in search engine results.
The idea of monitoring or trying to improve online reputation may be new for some RV dealers. If that’s the case, here are three steps to get started in reputation management:
1. Check your accounts on all websites and platforms that have ratings or reviews enabled. Knowledge is power, and you need to know what your current status is before you can do anything about it.
2. Respond to all reviews, good or bad. Positive feedback deserves acknowledgement, while negative reviews require recognition and an attempt to solve the issue. Trying to fix the problem won’t always work, and it may not make the bad review go away (only the person who wrote it can delete it) but it shows that your business cares about its customers and that you did your best to make things right.
3. Encourage customers to rate or review your dealership online. It’s likely that there are plenty of people who would be happy to promote your dealership, but they simply haven’t thought to do so on their own.
While there is much more to cover in managing your online reputation beyond the three steps listed above, they’ll give you a good start. A negative review or low rating on a major review site can cause a lot of damage, so your dealership’s online reputation is not something to take lightly. Word-of-mouth advertising is as important as ever, but now there is the digital world to consider as well.