The Google reviews your car dealership receives much adhere to a specific set of rules, making them the most trusted for other online users.
Google reaches its hands into another aspect of the online world to offer users reviews about various companies. The Review Policies put out by Google can help you improve your own practices and are made to help your dealership have an honest reputation online.
Looking at the Google Policies for Reviews
You Do Need to Review the Google Reviews
Specific language and content are not allowed by Google on any pages including reviews. Your reviews need to be honest, come from the original customer, and contain content that can’t be offensive or aren’t illegal in any way. You must review the content you receive and understand how to report a review that should not be shown on your review page.
Dealers Can Request Reviews
Google does allow car dealers, and other companies, to request reviews. Very few review sites allow this to be done, but Google does and you should take advantage of it. Learn how these reviews can be requested and make it easy for your customers to fill them out.
Employees Cannot Fill Out Reviews for You
Don’t ask your employees to fill out customer reviews, even if they purchase a vehicle at your dealership. This goes against the Google reviews policy and could be flagged by the FTC which doesn’t approve of this practice either.
You Can Not Practice Review Gating
No company wants to have negative reviews in the mix, but Google doesn’t allow you to selectively request the reviews that can be viewed. This gives your future customers a more honest look at what your company has to offer. When you receive negative reviews, you can act on those reviews and post the conversation that shows your company tried to make things better for that customer.
Don’t Offer Incentives for Reviews
It is against the Google reviews policy to offer incentives for a review to be completed. This could get your dealership red-flagged by the Federal Trade Commission which can penalize you for paying for the reviews. Don’t offer rewards or incentives for shoppers to fill out reviews for your dealership.
What Can You Do to Gather More Positive Google Reviews?
Be Responsive
It’s important that you respond to all of the reviews you receive. Whether these reviews are good or bad, you’ll want to respond to them and give feedback to your customers. Sometimes you can’t do much more about a bad review other than to apologize, but this can go a long way for some customers.
Request the Feedback from Your Customers
Be consistent in asking your customers to fill out and submit Google reviews for you. If you know a customer was happy with the shopping experience at your dealership, you can send an email to them with links to your pages where they can submit reviews for you.
Highlight Some of the Positive Reviews on Social Media
Do you want to encourage future customers to submit reviews? Attach their names to the reviews you receive, if they allow you to, and read them in a social media video that your entire audience can see. If the same customer allowed you to take photos with them when they purchased their vehicle, you can add that photo to your video during the reading of the review.
Use Google Reviews to Improve Your Dealership
One of the most important aspects of the reviews you receive through Google is the fact they are often an honest appraisal of the experience your customers have had with your dealership. Every review should be taken seriously. Positive reviews offer an opportunity for you to reward your team and showcase individuals named and what a great job they are doing. Negative reviews give you the chance to take corrective action and dig deeper into what went wrong to learn how to create more positive experiences for your customers.
Your Reviews Tell a Story
The reviews you receive from all review sites can tell a story. If you encourage customers to fill out reviews when they have had a great experience with your customer, there’s a good chance your Google reviews score is going to be high and help to bring more customers to your dealership. Keep track of your scores, review your reviews, and make sure you adhere to the policies that Google has put in place.
