Kruse Control Brings Car Dealers Up To Speed On Social Media

Dealership Training – Social Media

I had a great conversation with Kathi Kruse of Kruse Control Inc. today. Kathi does on-site social media training for car dealers. If there’s one thing that every dealership needs, its to give every employee this type of group training so the entire staff can become familiar with the process.

In an afternoon of training, dealers are able to get all their employees equipped with some basic social media survival skills.

Without a basic understanding of how social media works, dealers risk their reputation by ignoring customers which can lead to negative reviews and frustration.

Instead of waiting and reacting after its too late, dealers should be familiar with how people communicate on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Its not uncommon for people to send out a tweet while waiting in the service department for their car.

Dealers need to become aware of the influence their customers have, and if a situation arises, try to resolve it before the customer leaves.

Working As A Team

If the various departments in a dealership work as a team, then they are putting the customer’s interests before the dealers, resulting in faster service.

On the other hand, departments that can’t work together are more likely to delay processes that end up giving the customer excessive wait times.

Imagine a dealership that has all their employees on Twitter and the entire process is 100% transparent to the customer. That would be a great way to show customers that keeping them in the dark is not acceptable.

Recognizing Employees

After the training, give employees a goal. Maybe offer a reward to the first employee to identify a customer who’s still at the dealership and has sent a Tweet about being there. Without drawing attention try to observe their experience, and anticipate what they might need. If any employee does something beyond expectations that leads to a positive tweet, then reward that employee.

This is an exciting time, in a rapidly changing industry, and it’s encouraging to see dealers embrace social media and get results.

Its imperative that dealers provide social media training to everyone on staff, and afterwards explore the opportunities that have been revealed with this new explanation for how people are communicating today.