Yesterday I was on my way to a meeting at a dealership.  I had left the home office earlier so I can be at the meeting earlier especially since it was an 80 mile ride.  I was within three miles of the dealership and thirty minutes early.  I had never been there before I relied on my GPS as I always do.  The GPS that I use comes from my iPhone and the software is less than a week old as I just updated the operating system.

The GPS was pulling in an address from Yelp.com.  I got the exact location where the GPS sent me and there was no dealership there.  In fact, it was a bus stop.  I got frustrated because I had been on that road before just not around that section.  I also took a different major highway then I would normally take to get there because of where I was coming from.  I ended up driving around town for 30 minutes circling and looking for better directions and everything that Google and other sources tell me was to be at that same spot.  I decided to just follow my judgment and continue to take that road further for another 3 miles.  I recognized the area and the dealership was down the road from an area that I have been to in the past.  I showed up ten minutes late to my meeting but the meeting went well and everything was fine.

What am I trying to get to?  Dealers, if you got people in place who are in charge of digital marketing especially social, search, and reputation management you need to make sure that your information is correct and always updated everywhere that you are listed.  In this case, the dealership uses a very expensive advertising agency that handles everything for them.  It is really sad that their ad agency has not helped them improve that part of their visibility.  However, this is perhaps the cause of no one ever considering this issue to be as serious as it really is.

Try to imagine that I am a prospect who called in to the dealership and your BDC schedules me as an appointment.  Like a modern day consumer, I tell you that I have a GPS and I will find it without any problems.  Now, I am not there in time for my appointment because my GPS is not taking me where it needs to take me because your dealership did not have the common sense to keep the right information online.  If I figure out where to go quick I will get there but if I do not I will get aggravated and just go somewhere else leaving the dealership with a lost opportunity.

Just like with anything else that you do.  Make sure that you have the correct information and that you are easy to find.  Today’s modern day shopper is looking for a hassle free experience and they do not want to feel like they are “pulling teeth” to find what they need.

I would like to make another note here.  This was not the first time that I have seen a dealer have improper information online with regards to location and address.  This is a common problem.

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