God gave me two ears and one mouth, I think he did it for a reason. It does remind me that I should listen twice as much as I talk. I really can’t say that I live up to that goal but I am working on it and with the huge shifts taking place online today car dealers need to start listening to their customers instead of telling them what to do. Dealers have been doing it for years before and after the sale. From the midnight madness once in a lifetime deals to buying customers input on CSI.

Todays customers are not looking for one directional contact from companies as evidenced by two of the largest online merchants, Amazon and Ebay. Not only do customers provide feedback for the world to see but they also review products and get the word out about those they do business with. Nothing will kill a merchants potential success at either venue faster than negative customer reviews.

Selling has always been about relationships and meaningful interaction is what customers want. They don’t really care if they will save a few hundred dollars on a car by doing business with you. What they care about is how they are treated before and after the sale. Your customers are talking about you at work, church, the local bar and now they are talking about you online and how you handle this can make or break your online reputation.

Online marketing is not just about generating leads it is also about branding, reputation and open dialog. Dealers now display their inventory through a multitude of venues and bomb customers with flash presentation, annoying popups and auto played audio with gee whiz websites. What has happened, dealers have sold themselves on what they think will attract the customer to send leads and have thrown the baby out with the bath. I have not seen one good instance where a dealer was flogged, put on RippOffReport.com or youtube with a negative review to at least attempt to satisfy the customer in the open.

One of the worst things I have seen was done by Planet Hyundai in Las Vegas in response to www.planethyundaisucks.com by having an attorney threaten a lawsuit because they pissed off a customer. All that did was give the disgruntled customer more traction in bringing out negative information about them. They added fuel to the fire.

While that example is extreme it happens everyday and not just to car dealers, because companies rather stick their head in the sand and hope these things just go away. What happens is the record is preserved forever in the online archives and empowers other to strike out when companies do not meet the issues head on. Not only do they lose that one customer for life but many other potential customers along the way.

Think about that before you refuse to give a customer a set of floormats because it was not on the we owe! Be rest assured it may not just be the two or three people they tell at work about it. They may tell the world and how you respond may make all the difference in the world to your online reputation.