Sconda

Sconda Photo Booth, Ready for its Close-up

The dried ink of an occupancy permit is about the only thing standing between Scott Honda and the nicest photographs of vehicles on the internet.  The used car prep department got the first chance to test out their newest toy last Friday and like kids on Christmas morning they loved what they saw, or didn't see for that matter.

"The photo booth is a great addition," says Assistant Used Car Manager, Andre Revnell.  "It allows the vehicles to take center stage where they should be, not blend into the abyss of other vehicles and people that used to clutter the previous images. Now the photos taken by the superb photographers you have here (he says pointing to himself) will really shine."

Nothing draws in a potential car buyer like a crisp, clean image and it is something Scott Honda has been striving for for months.  Finding the location of the photo booth was the first hurdle.  We pondered an empty garage bay, but the ceiling would have been too low and they weren't deep enough to fit some larger trucks.  We looked at a corner of our delivery pad, but that spot was too busy.  We ended up restoring an old 3 car service garage that was on a nearby property and dedicating one huge bay to this photo booth and the results speak for themselves.

You should see some great new photos popping up on scotthonda.com and scottselect.net in the very near future.

Scott Gets Certified by DealerRater.com

Scott Honda took a big step this week in the emerging world of online reviews.  DealerRater.com has established itself as the leader in online reviews for new car dealers across the country and after careful research Scott Honda decided now was the time to activate our certification.

With certification come a host of great features.  For example, when a review is written by a customer Scott is able to respond to them, to either thank them for their patronage or try to resolve an issue they may have had while at our dealership.  That is a function that is not allowed by review sites like Edmunds.com, which means the dealer never gets a chance to correct a problem.

"When you're talking about online reviews the key is, are you able to turn an unhappy customer into a happy customer?" says Vice President Duke Scott.  "We know you can't make all the people happy all the time, but you can try and if current and potential customers who read these reviews can see that we have made a concerted effort to correct any mistakes and prove that we truly do care, that goes a long way in my mind."

Scott Honda is also now able to post inventory on their Facebook Fan page, a great new addition that will allow the casual Facebook followers to browse our new and used vehicles without logging out of one of the most popular social networking sites to ever hit the internet.

"I'm very excited about this upgrade to our Fan page," says Jason Reitelbach, Internet Sales Manager. "It opens a window to millions of new potential leads from people that we may never have reached before."

Currently the 4th dealer to be certified in Pennsylvania, Scott Honda has long way to go to catch up to some of our competitors who are as many as 88 reviews ahead of us.  But with Scott's commitment to customer service and it's loyal customer base, in a couple months Scott Honda believes they can become the head of the pack.

Duke Scott believes that "If we as an organiziation embrace this product and use it to it's full potential we could make our online reputation as good as our real world reputiation."

If you'd like to leave Scott Honda some feedback on your experience at our delaership, we would greatly appreciate it, it will only take a couple minutes, just follow this link to dealerrater.com.

Sconda's Social Media Study: Part 2 - The Facebook

Of the three social media outlets I will critique, Facebook was the only one I had any familiarity with beforehand.  I have my own Facebook page and have enjoyed the benefits of easier communication with friends and family and it seemed a logical and free place to exercise my marketing abilities with little risk and a large potential reward.

I began by creating a Scott Honda Group Page and was very enthusiastic, recruited a bunch of folks to join, uploaded some photos...and then I hit a wall.  I would discourage car dealers and other business owners from spending too much energy on the group page because it is very limited in form and function.  You cannot import pictures or video as easily and most of all the page is nothing like a normal Facebook page, which means visitors are confused and most likely will not spend much time there.

So after a little research I decided a Fan Page would fit us just fine and 121 fans later I still agree.  This type of page is more editable and has a nice wall for promoting the blog and the dealership, which are essentially one in the same.  In addition to better visibility, the Fan Page provides "Insights" into page hits, clicks, posts etc., which are great for understanding your fan base.  Though they are not broken down to an average per day basis like the Typepad based Sconda Blog numbers, I can still estimate about 15-20 page views a day.

People always ask, "have you had any success stories?".  I would say we have had three. 

In the first example I took advantage of the sites inter-connectivity to promote our "After Prom Accord Winner" Shelby Weber.  Through Facebook I was able to contact Shelby, acquire pictures and promote the giveaway in a way we were never able to do before.

The second success story involved a skeptical young lady who asked on our "wall" whether or not becoming a fan could save her money, as I purported.  So I immediately sent her an E-coupon for a free oil change, to which she replied with a huge thank you and let me know her lease was up in a couple months and she will be coming to us for her next Honda.

The final success story involves a positive interaction with a young lady while she was in the process of buying her new Scott Honda.  She wrote on our Wall, "I am so excited! I just got my new civic today and I am picking it up tomorrow!! Thanks everyone at Scott!"  We had a nice back and forth and I gave her a free Scott Honda hoodie and hat, just for being a good customer and she loved it.

Moving forward I am planning on creating Facebook specific coupons to further add real value in being a fan.  I also see the possibility for contests to be based out of Facebook as well, although I have seen other dealers try to little success.  There are also advertising opportunities within FB that I would like to pursue to increase our fan base as well.

In short Facebook is a free, convenient way to communicate to and interact with our ever growing customer base and according to their numbers, if Facebook were a country it would be the 4th largest in the world, why not take advantage of such a resource.

Let's be tweet-friends...join us on Facebook and Twitter

In an effort to grow our online community and unify our separate efforts, we are inviting you to join us on Facebook at Scott Honda of West Chester, Pa and on Twitter at ScondaBlog.

Our use of these sites is an organic process and we would love any ideas that you have seen work by other people/organizations or anything that you personally would like to see that would encourage you to keep in touch with us via these multimedia outlets.