Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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ON THE P OINT ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/LOUOATES Comprehensive legal audits by qualifed experts are expensive, but not as expensive as the fnes — and prison sentences — some dealers are facing for powerbooking and other offenses that were once regarded as acceptable business practices. YELPING BACK AT YELP Hurray! In a recent court deci- 12 AUTO DE ALE R MONTHLY • FE BRUARY 2014 Dealers, let me ask you this question: Do you ever get the feeling that your positive reviews seem to disappear when you fail to advertise on these sites? In November, I spoke at an Internet sales conference in Los Angeles. One of the other speakers was in the midst of a presentation on reputation management when an audience member spoke up. He said he felt Yelp reviews can't be trusted and that only dealers who paid for their services were made to look good. He said he had seen good reviews diminished or deleted for nonpayment. He's not alone. Many dealers have told me that positive, legitimate reviews from actual, propriate description. Same for "Ripof Report." Te URL for TrashARespectableBusiness.com must have already been taken. Still not buying it? How about the fact that a cottage industry has sprung up around the notion that third-party companies can supposedly remove negative reports from these sites if you can prove them to be fraudulent? Do you ever get the feeling you're caught in the middle of an extortion racket? Well, that's my take on it. Bear in mind, these opinions are my own. I'm just exercising my right to free speech. Tink of these writings as my negative review of Yelp. I'm playing by their ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/JAKUBZAK income and time on the job and at residence for customers. In years past, if one of your employees got caught falsifying a credit application, you simply paid the car of, apologized to the lender and moved on. Times have changed. In case you haven't heard, powerbooking has been a federal crime since 2010. As I write this, the FTC is investigating dealerships nationwide for false advertising and noncompliance. Tey have leveled charges against nine dealerships and there are surely more to come. From the smallest infraction of failing to post a newly mandated window sticker on a used car ($11,000 per occurrence!) to more serious violations of consumer credit and protection regulations. It's a safe bet that, without a comprehensive audit, no dealer can be 100% up on everything they need to do to protect their businesses. sion that is going to dramatically alter the retail landscape, the Virginia Court of Appeals has ruled that Yelp Inc. must divulge the names of seven reviewers who anonymously trashed the reputation of a carpet-cleaning business on Yelp.com. Tat opens the door for the business owners to sue their detractors. Te court upheld a lower court ruling which found that, if the commenters were not actually customers, they were making false claims, which are not protected by the First Amendment. Tis is huge! Now, bear in my mind that what I am writing here is strongly infuenced by my intense dislike for Yelp and their practices. In my opinion, Yelp is out of control. I believe their business model is not social media but social blackmail. I applaud the courts for making Yelp and, by extension, Ripof Report and other so-called review sites, to identify the dealership reputation assassins and professional haters they cover for. It's time for these characters to come out from behind their screen names and accept responsibility. I think we'll start to fnd that the negative reviews ofen come from competitors and other people with hidden agendas. Tey should be fair game for defamation lawsuits … right? Apparently, not everyone agrees. As Te Washington Times frst reported, every journalistic whiner in the world has issued a statement or fled an amicus brief in support of Yelp and their courageous campaign to preserve free speech. Te Washington Post is among them, as well as Gannett Company Inc., the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the American Society of News Editors … and, yes, even Te Washington Times themselves. Your customers have every right to post reviews, both positive and negative, about their experience at your dealership. The same is true of anonymous posters, but that may soon change. A state court has ordered Yelp to reveal the identities of seven people who posted negative reviews about a Virginia carpet-cleaning business, noting that false claims are not protected speech under the First Amendment. happy customers have simply disappeared from review sites. One told me he now only solicits reviews from active Yelpers, because those reviews tend to stick. If he's right, that means your customer has to be active on the site for their review to carry any weight. If I'm right, review sites are lightning rods for negative reviews from dissatisfed customers. If we're both right, a dealership's reputation can suffer unduly if its happy customers don't have time to build up equity on review sites. "Yelp" is starting to sound like an ap- rules, so I'm sure they would have no complaints about me saying whatever I think, especially since I did what they require none of their alleged reviewers to do: I put my name on it. Well, that's it for another month. As always, I am always pleased and excited to hear from you. Please share this article and comment on the blogs. You can fnd me on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and even Google+. Please call me, write me, or comment here. Always glad to hear from you whether you agree with me or not.