What's New at FordDirect

Valerie Fuller appointed COO of FordDirect

FordDirect has announced the appointment of Valerie Fuller as chief operating officer. Valerie previously served as executive vice president of operations for FordDirect and has been a member of the FordDirect management team for the past six years.

"Valerie has been a key driver in aligning FordDirect with the products and services our dealers need," said Stacey Coopes, CEO of FordDirect. "FordDirect is well-positioned for continued growth with innovative digital solutions that connect Ford Motor Company, its dealers and their customers."

Fuller has been responsible for FordDirect’s strategy and operations for its dealer products, including the development of mobile marketing, personalized database marketing, dealer website, lead management, search engine marketing, video solutions, and more. She has also developed and managed regional digital marketing services, delivering solutions for all of Ford’s dealer advertising groups. In addition, Fuller oversees FordDirect’s customer service initiatives.

"Valerie’s accomplishments and strong track record are assets that have helped FordDirect in our continued growth, and I look forward to continuing our strong working relationship," said Bill Keith, chairman of the FordDirect Board of Directors and dealer principal of Freehold Ford and Steamboat Motors.

Prior to joining FordDirect Valerie was a Senior Manager with Deloitte Consulting and a Director with Trilogy. At Deloitte, she led several large scale technology and process transformations in the automotive industry. At Trilogy, she drove the strategy, development, and delivery of several digital marketing solutions for Ford and Chrysler.

Valerie earned her B.S.E. degree from the University of Michigan, an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management, and an M.E.M. degree from Northwestern University.

DealerConnection Elite websites coming this Fall

You asked for them and FordDirect will be delivering. Coming this Fall, our DealerConnection Elite websites will give you all-new website selections that feature individual custom design pages, cutting-edge functionality, best-in-class customer service, and more – all the features many dealers pay thousands more for from third party website providers.

Dealers who would like to be the first to find out about the DealerConnection Elite Service can register to receive notice of the availability of the service by going to the FordDirect DealerCenter at: www.forddirect.com/dealercenter and then going to DealerConnection Elite under the Products & Services heading.

Dealer Spotlight

How do you manage your online reputation – GooglePlaces, DealerRater, Yelp, etc.?

We’ve just signed up with a local company to help us manage our online reputation. We’re very excited partnering with them because they’re going to help us give our online reputation more attention than we have been able to give it in the past. They will be able to notify us if at any time a review goes online whether it’s on GooglePlaces, Yelp, Yellow Pages or any of those sites that are out there now. It will give us a chance to be able to respond to customers, thanking them for their praises, or with not-so-satisfied customers, give us a chance to respond and address the concerns that they have. It’s a pretty big job managing your online reputation and this will let us devote the time to this area that it deserves.

— Sybil Turner, Internet Director
Mike Davidson Ford, Jacksonville, FL

We have a connection with Google which tells us any time our name is typed into the Internet. We get a copy of it. That way I can shortcut any issues that may come up. It helps us make sure that everything that’s out there with our name on it is in a positive light. When there’s something that needs attention we find out where that posting was made and then we contact that individual and post a rebuttal. So far, believe it or not, we have not had to do this. I think we do things the right way and haven’t generated any negative reviews since we have been monitoring them.

— Daryle Nelson, New Vehicle Internet Manager
Gullo Ford, Conroe, TX

We’ve just hired an outside service for reputation management but right now it doesn’t seem to be doing much so we’re probably going to be looking at another service. Basically they just seem to be giving us notifications when something is posted on the Internet about us but other than that there’s no plan on how to improve or move forward. We try to correct what we can on Facebook but on some sites it’s harder to get things corrected because you get a name but it may not be the customer’s real name, or the comments are real old and again you can’t identify the person. As I see it if you get more and more new favorable comments it pushes the unfavorable ones further down the list.

— Robert Ehrbar, Internet Manager
Beasley Ford Lincoln, York, PA

We’re currently using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to market and manage our online reputation. We also have a Google account where people can write reviews. We’re currently thinking of going to DealerRater as well. If we see something that is unfavorable we’d rather respond than delete it like some dealers. Nobody’s perfect in every aspect of life so if someone does write a bad review, it helps us because we can contact the customer to resolve the issue and then post how we made a resolution so everyone knows we will fix the problem.

— Brandon Small, Internet/BDC Manager
George Coleman Ford, Travelers Rest, SC

I think the most important thing about managing your reputation online is doing the right thing the first time. That way you don’t have to worry about your reputation. And we seem to be doing a pretty good job of doing that because we seem to have a pretty good reputation in the area. We really don’t do anything special other than just take really good care of our customers at all times – especially a customer that has a complaint. We just take care of it. When you do things like that you get the goodwill that you want and you get the customer taken care of and they say nothing but good things about you.

— Roger Rudin, Internet Manager
Willowbrook Ford, Willowbrook, TX

Comment on Success

Santa Margarita Ford, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA

The team at Santa Margarita Ford takes pride in growing their service business by reputation – counting on customer recommendations to friends and family. Since enrolling in FordDirect’s Targeted Marketing in June 2010, it has become easier to execute this philosophy. "Our reliance on Targeted Marketing began almost instantly. This technology helps keep communication lines open with customers," says Gina Allen, Service Director at Santa Margarita Ford.
Santa Margarita Ford uses Targeted Marketing’s voice and email to communicate with customers, plus they offer service customer a Personalized Web Page to track service history, upcoming maintenance and recalls.

Like others in the automotive industry, Santa Margarita Ford was impacted by the economy and had to reduce staff. Allen explains, "We didn’t have enough people to make follow-up communications, so we turned to FordDirect’s Targeted Marketing program for help."

Since enrolling in Targeted Marketing, Santa Margarita Ford engages customers on a more regular basis. Customers receive a follow-up communication three days after service. Allen explains, "Service CSI calls had always been done as a live call, so we were nervous about sending out Voice of Authority messages and emails." To date, Santa Margarita Ford has sent out 14,342 Targeted Marketing Service Thank You communications. "We are very happy with the response and have achieved a follow-up process that would have been impossible without Targeted Marketing," says Allen.

As part of a Targeted Marketing subscription, monthly Best Practice campaigns are shared to support Ford national campaigns. "The monthly campaigns are fantastic - all we do is customize the offers we feature that month, and the Targeted Marketing support team does the rest," states Allen.

For example, in December 2010, Santa Margarita Ford sent Explorer Preview Party email invitations to all customers, coinciding with Ford’s national push. They returned 560 ROs for $203K in service revenue and 12 vehicle sales. "The Explorer Preview Party was a big hit! We sent the invitations through Targeted Marketing’s email and not expensive traditional mail," Allen said.

Manufacturer recalls can be a revenue-producing opportunity – one that Santa Margarita Ford utilizes. Targeted Marketing voice and email can alert customers of a recall on their vehicle. Santa Margarita Ford has sent 1,292 recall communications, resulting in 89 ROs for $26K in service revenue and one vehicle sale.

While the Santa Margarita Ford team is enjoying great success with Targeted Marketing, they monitor customer response. "We’re very conscious not to over-communicate with customers, so our general rule is no more than two event communications a month," says Allen. By delivering relevant and timely communications, Santa Margarita Ford hopes to continue its trend of satisfied and loyal repeat customers.

In closing Allen states, "Targeted Marketing is a one-stop shop for all our customer relationship marketing needs. It provides digital channels, which are the new way of marketing to customers and prospects. This is the way that consumers are accustomed to receiving communications from other retailers and they expect the same from us."

Ryan's Blog...

In last month’s blog, Ryan talked about the fact that many Dealers start a Facebook page then lose interest when they don’t see quick results. This month he presents seven tips that can help dealerships build a solid Facebook presence that will benefit the dealership and its fans. You can check out his comments at: http://www.dealer-magazine.com/digital-dealer/blogs/all-in-with-digital-with-ryan-soffa/blog/seven-steps-to-a-successful-facebook-page/bade3839e4.html

Industry Update

Borrell Associates reports that research of ad spending by the National Association of Automobile Dealers, Manheim Auctions and Scarborough Research finds that auto advertising is the second largest ad category at $22.6 billion this year. General merchandise stores ranked number one. Interactive leads the way with almost $7.5 million, up just over 11% so far in 2011. Newspapers were second, followed by all other print, broadcast TV, radio, cable, direct mail, outdoor, telemarketing, cinema, and directories.

eMarketer is out with a number of reports that show positive things are happening with social media – like the fact that consumers are embracing social media for brand feedback; that social media marketing brings new revenues and customers; and shoppers are willing to connect with retailers on Facebook. However, a fourth report says many executives fail to focus on a social media marketing strategy.

Again, eMarketer reports affluent buyers, and that includes luxury car buyers, use mobile and online tools to support their purchase decisions more frequently than the general public.

MediaPost News reports that some 5.3 billion video ads were viewed during the month of June. That’s a 15% increase over May and means commercials reached 49.2% of the U.S. population. MediaPost’s Online Video Insider reports that now is the time to shift TV ad dollars to online video.

eMarketer reports that search and display ads pushed online ad spending past $31 billion through June of 2011. Search was the leading category, nearly double the second closest; banner ads. eMarketer predicts that U.S. online ad spending will approach $50 billion by 2015. eMarketer also reports that local advertising is shifting online as the customers for small- and medium-sized local businesses are abandoning newspapers and yellow pages.