CASE STUDIES
Widewail has been helping customers increase their percentage of positive Google, Facebook, and other social reviews since 2017. When our new service designed to help get more reviews launched in mid-2020 it quickly became evident that Invite and Engage were a promising one-two punch. Nyle Maxwell’s performance increase case study is a testament to the way in which Widewail’s services can complement each other, accelerating the benefits of a comprehensive response strategy.
The Nyle Maxwell Family of Dealerships is an automotive group based in Central Texas that wanted to increase review frequency and improve customer sentiment. Already using Widewail’s review response service (Engage) at several locations, and impressed with the results, they doubled down with our new review generation tool (Invite) in October of 2020.
After several strategic conversations with our team, Nyle Maxwell’s expectation was set that Invite could outperform the vendor it was replacing and that an increased volume of reviews would likely result in additional positive sentiment. Invite was added to the same seven stores already subscribed to Engage, with a plan to review performance after 30 days.
“The results speak to your amazing technology and willingness to work through obstacles to help us both become better! Thanks again for your partnership!”
- Thomas E. Eggers, Platform Digital Director at Nyle Maxwell Family of Dealerships
A positive trend became apparent shortly after Nyle Maxwell upgraded their review management partnership with Widewail. Here’s how the improvements break down by store:
Nyle Maxwell SuperCenter
Aug (previous vendor) 42 reviews received, 20% negative (8)
Sept (previous vendor) 43 reviews received, 33% negative (14)
Oct (Widewail) 141 MTD reviews received, 8% negative (10)
Nyle Maxwell CDJR of Taylor
Aug (previous vendor) 22 reviews received, 14% negative (3)
Sept (previous vendor) 37 reviews received, 11% negative (4)
Oct (Widewail) 84 MTD reviews received, 8% negative (6)
Nyle Maxwell Castroville
Aug (previous vendor) 34 reviews received, 3% negative (1)
Sept (previous vendor) 33 reviews received, 0% negative (0)
Oct (Widewail) 71 MTD reviews received, 0% negative (0)
Nyle Maxwell Fiat Alfa Romeo
Aug (previous vendor) 11 reviews received, 0% negative (0)
Sept (previous vendor) 34 reviews received, 9% negative (3)
Oct (Widewail) 51 MTD reviews received, 6% negative (3)
The scale of the improvements (in both reviews and sentiment) cannot be explained away by simple seasonality. Furthermore, no one could have predicted the tumultuous two years that were right around the corner.
Thomas Eggers had this to say about how Nyle Maxwell’s decision to begin working with Widewail, in hopes of increasing customer review activity, was unknowingly extremely well-timed:
Nyle Maxwell saw sharp upward trends immediately after combining Invite and Engage, in spite of industry trends and a challenging 2020. Two years later after the initial adoption, the group has 3x more Google reviews than in 2020. Across all dealerships, individual Google ratings continued to improve by an additional 2%, and negative sentiment has decreased by 4% by volume.
In late 2021, Widewail added Invite Video to our Trust Marketing suite. This product captures video testimonials for our customers and complements the benefits of Engage and Invite. In the first 5 months, Nyle Maxwell was able to generate 41 customer video testimonials.
Invite Video was designed by Widewail to address an important question: If simply asked, will customers actually leave video reviews about their automotive sales and service experiences? Nyle Maxwell’s launch has made this clear: Yes, they will.
We’ve recently made it even easier to encourage video reviewers to share their stories. Incentives Engine offers further Google policy-respective "rewards" in exchange for videos. Yet, Nyle Maxwell’s launch of Invite Video preceded this new feature and they still got many new video testimonials in the first 60 days - 62% for its Service Departments and 38% for Sales teams.
It was once a challenge to get customers comfortable with recording testimonial videos, and Thomas knows this first-hand:
With Widewail’s product, a simple SMS link texted to a customer will pull up their camera to record and share a video review in a vastly decreased number of steps. A hassle-free and efficient process that still addresses any potential legal considerations in regards to likeness or opinion-sharing.
The Nyle Maxwell group is already making strategic use of their new user-generated video content, posting primarily on Facebook. To date for these videos, the number of user views far exceeds those of any other style or type they've shared previously.
This is Trust Marketing 101: your prospective customers value the past experiences of their peers 3X more than your advertising. It's practically undisputable: social proof converts, as seen by the successes of this dealership group. In the near future, Nyle Maxwell also plans to begin embedding customer video reviews on their individual dealership testimonial pages.
Nyle Maxwell saw sharp upward trends immediately after combining Invite and Engage, in spite of industry trends and a tumultuous 2020. Read through additional review management case studies or contact us today to start your own strategic conversation with a subject matter expert on our team.
Invite Video
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