Dominion DMS Interviews Real Time Feedback at NADA 2024

Sharon Kitzman: All right, good afternoon, NADA day 2. We’re a little less than an hour from closing time, so we’ve got the die-hards still here at this point. Right here on the Dominion DMS valued partner stage, we have Adam Alfia, and he is going to talk to us about Real Time Feedback. And it’s not just the feedback. There’s technology behind it, and it touches every part of the dealership, right?

Adam Alfia: Exactly.

Sharon Kitzman: Awesome. So, welcome Adam. Thanks for your partnership with Dominion DMS, and I’m excited to hear about Real Time Feedback.

Adam Alfia: All right, perfect. Thank you.

So yeah, we started the platform because we saw a huge decrease in customers actually reaching out to a dealership and letting them know about an issue before they went on Google or Facebook and left reviews. A lot of times, that’s how they think they’re going to get the dealer’s attention, by leaving a negative review, when it really doesn’t help either side when that happens. The dealer gets mad they have a negative review. The customer feels like they’re getting revenge on the dealer. And they usually don’t come back, especially after a 1-star rating.

So what our platform really does is, we like to say, give them help before they Yelp. We try to get in between that moment and find out whether you have a happy customer or an unhappy customer. If they’re happy, amplify that and send them to Google or wherever you want. If they’re unhappy, find out why. Our system will send that feedback to either the sales manager or the service manager, depending on what kind of customer it is, so they can handle it.

We also have a managed service solution. So for dealerships that don’t want to have their managers responding to everything in real time, we have a 24-hour call center in our office in Dallas, Texas, that responds to feedback within 10 minutes of it coming in. The customer gets a text message, and we open up a 2-way dialogue with them. Usually it starts with something simple like, “We’re sorry your car was returned dirty. Next time we’ve put a note in your account to make sure it gets washed,” and so on.

If it’s a heat case, then what we do, if we’re doing the manned services, is the dealer assigns who they want that feedback relayed to.

Sharon Kitzman: Okay.

Adam Alfia: We assign the feedback to a store manager, and the manager gets a notification through email, text message, and a push notification on their computer saying, “Hey, we have a heat case.”

So for example, somebody picks up their car from service and then suddenly has oil in their driveway. We can’t directly fix that, but we can apologize, tell them a manager is going to call, and then monitor the situation. If within an hour nobody has responded to that customer in our system, we will actually call the store and say, “Hey, we want to make sure you got the message and make sure that customer is handled.” You don’t want too much time to pass, especially for a heat case.

Sharon Kitzman: So you’re not only theoretically managing the feedback, but you can also manage the process if it needs to escalate, right?

Adam Alfia: Yeah. We make sure it gets handled, because there’s nothing worse than a customer flying off the hinge while all that time passes and they’re telling friends, “I’m stuck at the house because XYZ Toyota changed my oil, now I’ve got oil in my garage, and I can’t drive the car.” You want to contain that situation.

Sharon Kitzman: Right, absolutely.

Adam Alfia: So we help with that.

We do it in 3 ways. We like to say we give you a 360-degree view of your customer experience. The first way is in the dealership. The second way is post-checkout or post-sale, and we do that through DMS integration like we have with Dominion. The 3rd way is through online review management, because even if you ask customers to leave you a Google review, or they leave you something positive or negative online, you still want to respond. If they leave you a 5-star review, you still want to say thank you. So we do all 3 things.

The first way is in-store. We’ll put QR codes by your coffee bar, in your waiting area, on the glass overlooking the shop, anywhere that says, “Hey, if you want to communicate anything to management while you’re here, just scan this QR code.” It opens up a very simple branded page. They can type something like, “I was told 30 minutes for an oil change, and I’ve been here for 2 hours,” and that goes right to a service manager. A lot of times the front desk staff says, “Hey, it’ll only be an hour,” and then it turns into 3 hours, which is obviously frustrating. So that’s the first way. We don’t get massive interaction there, but when customers do want to relay something, it’s very useful.

Sharon Kitzman: So you’re kind of catching them there before they get on Yelp, right?

Adam Alfia: Exactly. And we have different ways to present it. We have hang tags, coffee bar signage, and a few dealerships even do a 6-foot banner that says something like, “Let us know before you go.” We can put it at the cashier desk and in other spots too.

One of my favorite places is the restroom. If they’ve been there longer than they expected to be, you never know what they might see in there, and a lot of dealerships don’t have someone checking the restroom every 30 minutes. So if something is a mess, you want someone to alert you.

Sharon Kitzman: Yeah.

Adam Alfia: The 2nd way is through integration. Whether it’s sales or service, as soon as we get that transactional data, within 10 minutes we send out a text message. That message can be customized, but it usually says something like, “Susan, this is the Fox Motor service manager. Thanks for trusting us with your vehicle service needs. On a scale of 1 to 5, please let us know how you’d rate your overall experience.” Then it includes a link.

We try not to do everything inside the text message itself. We give them a link because a web-based page is much more inviting and easier to use. It opens a very simple page with 5 stars.

If they give a 5-star rating, it automatically takes them to Google or whatever other platform you want them to use. This example goes to Google. We have an integration with Google, and they can leave a comment or just a star rating. Either way, as soon as that gets posted, it goes to your Google reviews. You can also send them to Yelp, DealerRater, or wherever you want. We even have another option where you can send 80% of your customers to Google and 20% to Yelp, however you want to split it up.

The other path is if they don’t give you a 5-star rating. If they leave 1, 2, 3, or 4 stars, then it opens a window that says, “It looks like we fell short of your expectations. Please let us know what the issue was, and we’ll correct it.” That goes to management, and management can respond. Whatever they type in that feedback platform goes straight to service or sales, depending on where it came from, and then the team can handle the situation through our platform.

We also track all kinds of data, like who the service adviser was and who the salesperson was. We actually have a page that shows all of your service advisers and all of your salespeople, along with the aggregate ratings their customers have given them. So if you have a bad apple, we find it. We call it the Bad Apple Finder.

You never know. You may be getting negative reviews, and it could all be coming from 1 service adviser who isn’t calling customers back, is rude on the phone, or has some other issue. So we track that for your Monday morning meetings. Most of your feedback is going to be positive, so it lets you say, “Hey Bill, great job, you got 15 5-stars last week,” or, “John, what’s going on over here?” And it will actually show what the customers were complaining about in relation to that adviser or salesperson.

Now you can drill down and retrain. Everything is contained inside our system. And it doesn’t show it on this page, but at the bottom of the page we still offer, “Or leave us a review on Google,” to stay compliant, because otherwise you’re gating. We still give them the option. But we find that 99% of customers, if they get a chance to communicate with the dealership and try to fix the problem, are going to do that first.

So that’s how we do it there.

The last thing we do is review management. Google typically looks at 4 things when they’re evaluating local SEO. They want to see how many reviews you’re getting. They want to see the quality of those reviews. Are you a 2.9 dealership or a 4.4 dealership? The higher your rating, the better.

Then 2 other factors are whether you are responding to your Google reviews and how long it takes you to respond. In other words, how quickly are you engaging with customers who are leaving reviews?

So we have a platform called Realtime Reviews. It aggregates your reviews from all the major platforms, Google, Yelp, DealerRater, and others, and puts them in 1 easy-to-use dashboard. You can respond directly through our platform, especially with Google. The cool thing is that we have AI built into it that automatically responds to all your 4-star and 5-star reviews. It calls the person by name and says something like, “Hey Susan, thanks for leaving us a 5-star review. We can’t wait to see you again.”

So it automatically handles the positive reviews, which means you don’t have to do anything there. The only ones you really need to look at are the 1-star, 2-star, and 3-star reviews. And even for those, we have AI that reads the negative review and writes a well-crafted apology that you can review, edit if needed, and then post. And of course, we also handle that for dealerships using the manned services.

Sharon Kitzman: So this way, they can come here and handle it all very quickly in 1 format versus logging into Google, logging into Yelp, logging into all those places. That speeds up the process, but it also positively impacts the Google rating of their business.

Adam Alfia: Exactly. So if somebody searches “auto service near me,” they can see that.

One thing we do that a lot of competitors don’t do is we support 2 different channels. A lot of dealerships will have a Google Business Profile for the main dealership and a separate Google Business Profile for service. We can make it so all of your sales reviews go to your main dealership profile and all your service reviews go to service.

A lot of dealerships forget they even have a service Google Business Profile, and they neglect it. So somebody searches “Toyota service near me,” and that service profile only has 15 reviews and maybe a 3.4-star rating. But the service department funds the entire dealership, so it’s incredibly important to make sure the service side has a very strong Google score too. We can split that up and make sure you’re getting positive reviews on both profiles.

Sharon Kitzman: Right. Now, I’m not going to ask you to tell us what it was, but I’m sure you and your team have seen all sorts of crazy stuff between consumers and dealers, right?

Adam Alfia: One of the things I always tell our dealerships is that the gold is really the 4-star review. The 4-star review is a customer who likes you but cares enough to say, “Hey, you guys are great, but there’s something small that really bothers me and I want to let you know about it so you can be better.”

People are usually very quick to either give you a 5-star or a 1-star. The 1-stars are usually people who are just really upset, and they’re not giving you constructive feedback. They’re just blasting you.

Sharon Kitzman: Yeah.

Adam Alfia: And the 5-stars are often just, “Yeah, I had a great experience. 5 stars.”

But the 4-star is somebody who says, “It wasn’t perfect, and here’s why.” That’s the nugget of information where a good dealership can become great. That’s where you can respond and say, “Hey Mr. Customer, thanks for letting us know. We’re going to take that into consideration, and next time you’re here, hopefully you’ll see a change.”

Sharon Kitzman: Absolutely. That’s a great point, because you’re right. It’s easy to just go with 5 stars and not provide much detail. The 4s are where we often see the most comments, because those are the people saying, “Hey, I want to let you know how you can be better because I love coming here.”

Now, for dealers who are here at the show, are they able to meet with you? Do you have a booth here?

Adam Alfia: Yes, we do. We’re in the North Hall, booth 6463.

Sharon Kitzman: Okay.

Adam Alfia: I think it’s a great solution, but it’s also something that I’m not sure dealers always pay enough attention to. A lot of times they’re trusting someone in the dealership to do it as part of their job, and it maybe gets done in the last half hour of the day, or somebody looks at it during lunch, and it’s just not getting the attention it should.

One thing I see dealerships do all the time is I ask, “How do you guys get Google reviews?” And they say, “Oh, we have our salespeople give customers a little QR code to scan to leave a review.” And I tell them, if it was a bad experience, they’re not going to do that right there in front of the person they had a bad experience with.

Let them leave. Then let us send them a text message. Typically, we’re generating, on average, about 200 5-star Google reviews every single month for an average dealership.

Sharon Kitzman: Wow.

Adam Alfia: We had 1 dealership in Florida that was at a 4.2 on Google. We took them to a 4.9 within 3 months. They started with about 1,000 reviews, and now they’re at 4,000. It’s been about 7 or 8 months.

Sharon Kitzman: Okay.

Adam Alfia: So it’s really, really important. Now they’re number 1 in their market. When anybody Googles for Toyota sales or service, they come up first.

Sharon Kitzman: Yeah, right there.

Now, as our partnership between your solutions and ours continues, I ask all of our partners to do this. Push us. Tell us what more information you need. My goal is to make sure you have everything you need so that our common dealer, the one using both of our systems, has the most efficient process possible.

So what do you think the next steps are for your business in the evolution of your solution?

Adam Alfia: I’m glad you asked. We actually just unveiled this at the show. I didn’t have a slide on it because we just got the patent on it.

This is a digital glove box clip that dealers using Feedback can give to their customers. It’s branded with the dealer logo, it has a QR code, and something really cool is that it has NFC chips inside. You can clip it onto your sun visor, and as soon as you put your phone near the device, it opens up a page on your phone. It’s not an app. It’s web-based. And it gives you what we call a digital glove box.

It has a link to your owner’s manual. It has a place for you to upload your insurance card and your AAA card. It has a place where you can schedule service with the dealership. So everything you need to know about your car is right there. And of course, Feedback is built into it too, so if you want to message your dealership, you can do that right there as well.

So every time they sell a car, they can just put that clip in place. And if you have kids, you know exactly how useful this would be. How many times do you get a phone call that says, “Hey Mom, I just got in an accident,” or, “I got pulled over, where’s the insurance card?” Then somebody says, “It’s in the glove box,” and the answer is, “No, this one’s expired.” Now they just tap it, and everything they need about the car is right there.

Sharon Kitzman: Wow, that’s fantastic. And you patented it?

Adam Alfia: Yeah.

Sharon Kitzman: Can I see it?

Adam Alfia: Yeah, of course. So they would brand it right here, and then it just slides onto your sun visor.

We actually did another version that you’re going to like as a shopper too. We created one for grocery carts. You put your phone up to it, and it opens a store map, coupons, specials, recipes, and everything about the store you’re in.

Sharon Kitzman: Wow, for chains like Publix or something?

Adam Alfia: Yeah. We’re doing a couple of pilot programs with a large grocery chain.

Sharon Kitzman: Nice. Really cool stuff. I’m excited.

Adam Alfia: Really cool stuff, yeah.

Sharon Kitzman: Well again, I want to thank you for spending time with us here today. Thank you for the partnership. I can’t wait to see where this goes next, and I wish you the best of luck here at the convention.

Adam Alfia: Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.