Company Press Release

DealerRater Pioneers Next Generation of Dealer Reviews, Aims to Solve Age-Old Industry Retention Problem

"DealerRater Connections" Launches at 2017 National Automobile Dealer Association Conference & Expo.

Waltham, Mass. – January 25, 2017 – Online reviews are becoming increasingly critical to the purchase process in today’s consumer landscape, and the automotive industry is no different.  DealerRater, the world's leading car dealer review website, understands this better than most. The company is on the forefront of dealership reviews, leading the way into a new category of employee reviews with the launch of "DealerRater Connections."

The new product, which will be available to dealers at the 2017 National Automobile Dealer Association (NADA) Conference & Expo in New Orleans later this week, connects dealership salespeople to motivated, in-market shoppers before they ever walk onto the lot.

"Our mission at DealerRater is to help connect consumers with the right person at the right dealership," said Gary Tucker, CEO of DealerRater. "As we've watched car buyer behavior change over the years, we know the next frontier of reviews is all about allowing buyers to share feedback about specific salespeople within the dealership. This is also extremely valuable to our customers because it helps them retain their best staff and grow sales."

Employee retention has long been a challenge in the automotive industry.  According to NADA, employee turnover costs the industry billions of dollars. The annual turnover rate for sales employees is 71.9 percent, and a three-year retention rate of only 32.8 percent¹.

Through DealerRater's efforts to promote individual dealership salespeople, dealers are able to clearly see the level of customer service being offered by their employees.  Furthermore, employees are more engaged in their work when they know each experience may affect their overall review rating. 

"We recently measured turnover rates and found the average sales position turns over two and half times more than that of a DealerRater Certified Employee²," said Tucker.  "By providing consumers a platform to honestly review individual employees in addition to the dealership, dealers are quickly able to measure staff performance."

Consumers are finding this new type of review helpful as well. According to "Digital Word of Mouth," a recent study by VerstaResearch, approximately one third of consumers surveyed are using online reviews to seek out a specific salesperson for their car purchase. Importantly, this trend is only expected to continue. When looking at millennial consumers who were surveyed, 53 percent confirmed that information about a specific salesperson or employee at the dealership is useful in an online review³.

For more information about DealerRater Connections, speak to your sales representative or visit DealerRater in booth No. 3061 at the NADA Conference & Expo.

To read the full "Digital Word of Mouth Survey," visit here.

ABOUT DEALERRATER

Founded in 2002, DealerRater, a Cars.com Company, is the world's leading car dealer review website that connects consumers with the right person at the right dealership. The site offers more than 2.5 million sales and service reviews across 41,000 U.S. and Canadian dealerships, including a network of more than 5,600 Certified Dealers. More than 14 million consumers read DealerRater content across the web each month. By offering a product suite that allows qualified dealerships to manage their reputations and achieve higher SEO rankings, DealerRater supports new customer connections by growing online presence.

###

¹2016 National Automobile Dealers Association Dealership Workforce Study

²DealerRater Internal Data, 2016

³Digital Word of Mouth Survey, VerstaResearch, December 2016