Welcome to the REV. A briefing that goes deep into the Widewail Automotive Reputation Index data, surfacing the most interesting insights. Every 3 weeks we Rank, Explore & Visualize automotive reputation & sentiment data.
All data is sourced from the Widewail Automotive Reputation Index or related Reports. The Index aggregates over 1.6 million Google reviews from 16k new car dealerships in the U.S. Customize the dataset like it's your own personal spreadsheet. Try it out. It’s free.
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RANK
Customer Service is (Still) King
Before the holidays, we published the Voice of the Customer report. In it, we studied 800,000 dealership Google reviews and analyzed the 27 topics that come up most frequently in reviews, which you see listed above.
We wanted to know which topics are skewed negatively and which trend positively. To do this, we found the frequency of mentions in positive and negative reviews and calculated the spread.
Here’s what I mean by “spread.”
Personnel is mentioned in 57% of positive reviews but 17% of negative reviews. That’s a 39% spread, favoring positive reviews. +39% is charted in the visual.
We identified staff-related topics; personnel, helpfulness, professionalism and knowledge account for most positive topics. Customer service is still king.
Take note of how positive the sentiment is related to the sales department. Sales stand out dramatically from service, which resides in no man’s land - in the middle. The topics in the middle are not serious influencers of positivity or negativity, averaging mentions in 1.75% of reviews. They have a negligible impact. The only exception is service, which shows up in approximately 40% of both negative and positive reviews.
On the right is the who’s who of bad actors: communication, maintenance, wait times, price. These topics have a significant role in negative reviews but a limited role in positive reviews.
Go deeper with the 2023 Voice of the Customer Report.
EXPLORE
High Alert
Nobody will praise me for reporting that an $800 brake service generates more price mentions than a $50 oil change, but hear me out.
What I can tell you is that the moment a customer shows up on the lot for a brake repair, your team is immediately 47% more likely to receive a 1-star review that mentions the price of the service compared to all negative reviews that mention price.
Not all service appointments should be treated equally.
Pricing is mentioned 20% more often in reviews that mention brakes compared to oil change reviews.
This isn’t surprising considering new brakes cost an estimated 16x more than an oil change. But your team needs to be ready and work to make the customer experience highly positive to mitigate the risk of a 1-star review that mentions pricing. The same goes for transmission work, in which pricing mentions come up 45% more often. Your team must be on its A-game with strong communication and effective repair work.
We cover a whole chapter on how consumers think about price, starting on page 27.
VISUALIZE
Monthly Review Volume Heatmap
Above, we mapped review volume leaders for each state. View this as the gold standard in your region. In California, Longo Toyota stands out at 466 Google reviews/month. In Maine? Rowe Ford Westbrook dominates with 61 monthly reviews.
While high volume makes sense in California and Florida, North Carolina stands out. Hendrick Toyota Apex leads the way at 370 reviews/month on average.
Curious about benchmarks in your state? Go to the Index.
I know it's early, but we'll be at NADA. I'll be there, come say hi. Look for the Widewail hanging banner in the North Hall.
Also, Widewail CEO Matt Murray and I were on DealerRefresh Refresh Friday to discuss what we learned is most influential for car buyers based on 800,000 reviews. Watch it here.
More REV in 3 weeks - Jake, Marketing @Widewail
