5 Tips for Remarkable Dealership Video Testimonials

A recommendation from someone else still remains the most-trusted source of information to help buyers when deciding to purchase a vehicle. They reach out to their network on Social Media, they visit Yelp and other review sites and they eventually land on your dealership’s website. They come to your site to peruse your inventory and maybe even chat online to negotiate a deal. It’s pretty powerful to see and hear your loyal happy customers’ video testimonials right there on your homepage. It may be the ultimate factor that makes your deal.

Now for the real-time practical application. In order to obtain the ideal raw testimonial, your dealership sales and service staff need to be developed and trained to ask for and film those testimonials. If you don’t have one already, buy a Flip Cam, it’s the easiest to use with only one button to worry about and the downloads are effortless. I find that when I talk about video testimonials in sales meetings everyone is in favor of it. But when it comes down to actually doing it, some are reluctant. Of course they are–who has much experience talking and filming people? Especially when it’s for the boss, right?

The goal then is to help your staff overcome their apprehensions and this takes a little finesse from management. Here a some tips on how to get your sales and service people to develop the mindset of seeking and asking for customer testimonials. All it takes is a few to buy-in first. As time goes on, and they see other employees doing it, everyone will be on the program.

1. Not all customers will be enthusiastic about being filmed so it takes good communication and guidance from management to help the staff spot the right customer. Manage this like you would a green pea on his first day of work. Invest your time and it will pay off.

2. Sales Department: Give a spiff to the salesperson that’s able to obtain the first video of the day, weekend or week. Motivation and recognition are powerful tools in garnering testimonials.

3. Service Department: Give a spiff to the Service Advisor or Cashier who’s able to obtain the first video of the day or week.

4. Monthly: Have a contest to award the best video of the month. Management chooses the winner. The prize? Visa Gift Card, cash or how about a day off?

5. Here are the scripts we provide to our clients for testimonials. The video lasts 1-2 minutes and it inspires the customer so they don’t have to think about what to say on their own.

Sales Testimonial Intro: Tell us about yourself (First name, city of residence)

1) Is this your first car? If not, ask them if they’ve ever owned a _____________? If they switched brands, ask why?

2) Why did you decide to buy your car at ______________?

3) What did you like best about your experience?

4) What is one thing you would tell your family/friends about us?

Service Testimonial Intro: Tell us about yourself (First name, city of residence)

1) Is this your first time here at _____________?

2) Why did you decide to service your car here at __________?

3) What did you like best about your experience?

4) What is the one thing you would tell you family/friends about us?

I’d love to hear what your dealership is doing to win customer loyalty. If you use video testimonials on your website, what has been the response from your customers?

Kathi Kruse

www.krusecontrolinc.com

email: kathi@krusecontrolinc.com

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Comment by Kathi Kruse on April 11, 2011 at 3:08pm: Thank you Jim, Cheril and Gina for your comments!

Cheril: I agree that it's not cool to make customers "say nice things about us" and that's not what the script is for. Most customers have never been filmed before. Something happens to them, to all of us, when we know we are being taped. If you don't guide them then most just fumble and get tongue-tied in front of the camera (It's human nature).

Regarding your Service dept question: I've managed dealerships most of my life and there are Service stories to be told everyday. So many people hold their car and their transportation dear to their hearts, it's their lifeblood. A walk into the waiting lounge can bring many ideas, asking customers what brought them to the store that day. Also, every good Service Advisor I know has at least a dozen Raving Fans. If management can focus their marketing strategy and let the Advisors know to alert them when one comes in for service, they can capture the love right there.

Comment by Gina Carr on April 11, 2011 at 2:52pm: Terrific Post Kathi. Every dealership can benefit from more happy customer videos - especially when they are distributed via social media - twitter, facebook, youtube, linkedin. There are lots of tools that can be used to get more mileage out of videos - posterous, tubemogul, etc. Did you know that you can post a video right on your Linkedin profile? Loved your article. Shared it on my Facebook biz page wall.

Comment by James A. Ziegler on April 11, 2011 at 12:48pm: Exceptional article Kathi...as you know, I am a huge believer in Video testimonials from customers, sales and service... Jim - The Alpha Dawg

Comment by Cheril Hendry on April 6, 2011 at 9:33pm: Kathi, great topic. I'd like to add comments from my own perspective. Consumers are cynical. Especially about car dealers. That's why, until the recent transparency forced on retailers and brands with the online world, most consumers never gave much credit to dealer ads that showed customer testimonials. They had the "of course that's what they're going to show me" mentality. Now, however, consumers are posting their testimonials for the world to see, asked for or not. This is making the "real thing" stand out even more.

That being said, I wouldn't put so many "please say nice things about us" questions in a consumers face when video taping them. I think it's better to let them show their excitement about the new or used vehicle they're taking delivery of (aka the very best time for the salesperson to pull out his Flip), and just let them talk. Anything less than fully transparent will defeat the beautiful possibilities (and obvious risks) in this new transparent world of sharing.

I'm not so sure how to get this same experience on video in the service department, so maybe others can add to my post? (And feel free to tell me I'm full of you-know-what too, if you disagree). Either way, thanks Kathi. Good post!

Comment by Kathi Kruse on April 6, 2011 at 3:39pm: Thanks for the comment Gregg! If you have some success stores to share, email me at kathi@krusecontrolinc.com I'm always looking for good content for my blog.

Comment by Gregg Morris on April 6, 2011 at 3:29pm: I have been teaching my students in every class at every dealership how to do this and it sells cars!!! Great Post.

Comment by Kathi Kruse on April 6, 2011 at 10:41am: That's good news Joe! Thanks for your comment. I'd love to hear how it goes. Maybe I could write a blog post about your experience with it?

Have a fantastic day!

Comment by Joe Clementi on April 6, 2011 at 10:02am: Great post Kathi! The script idea is fantastic! The idea has floated around for quite some time now but I wasn't quite sure where to start so thank you for providing a simple gameplan for me to follow. I'm going to buy a flip video today!

Thanks again for the insight.

Comment by Kathi Kruse on April 5, 2011 at 5:32pm: Thanks for your comment Brian!

The testimonials that get the most impact are 1-2 minutes long. Using the script it should take you just about that amount of time. Not sure about your upload speed, could be your bandwidth or ISP?

I have many clients who post the video on their home page because that where your potential customer is most-likely going to view it. Statistics show that people are more likely to buy if the dealer is recommended by someone. If you have the budget, also add a page to your website for Testimonials and use some SEO to promote it...videos are great "Google Juice".

Then of course, you can share it on Social Media (Videos amp up your presence there big time). If you have a YouTube channel, post them there as well.

If you'd like to get some stats and ideas on how to sell this to your GM, email me at kathi@krusecontrolinc.com and I'm happy to help.

Comment by Brian J Walter on April 5, 2011 at 5:13pm: Kathi, How long are your testimonials? I find that if they go lnger than 14 seconds they are difficult to upload. Do you post them on your Dealer Web site and or use them in an "Evidence Manual"? I have been trying to get the video testimonial going at my dealership for over a year. Thanks for the spiff idea. Now I just have to get my GM on board.