DealerRater Rolls Out Enhanced Connections Products to Automate the Process and Help Dealers Sell More Cars, Faster

WALTHAM, Mass., Dec. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresh off the heels of earning its four millionth consumer-submitted review and celebrating its 15-year anniversary, DealerRater has rolled out an enhanced offering as part of its popular Connections product suite. DealerRater Connections, which was first launched in September, inspires trust in the car buying journey by creating personal connections between dealerships' top salespeople and ready-to-buy shoppers. Dealerships create dealer and employee profiles, leverage an innovative dashboard to monitor reviews and social presence, and have their reviews shared across DealerRater's strategic syndication partner sites to get in front of millions of consumers.

The new DealerRater Connections Plus goes one step further by leveraging the power of ReviewBuilder, which offers an automated, customized, and hands-off approach to earning more reviews at a faster pace. ReviewBuilder empowers dealers to solicit up to four times more reviews automatically via text or email through integrations with most DMS systems.¹

At the next level, DealerRater Connections Premier offers the addition of a more personalized approach, arming dealers with a dedicated Success Partner to jumpstart onboarding, keep employee profiles up-to-date, and help dealers get the most out of DealerRater Connections without any heavy lifting from their teams.

"Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed a growing importance around a dealership's online reputation to build more trust in the car buying process. In that time, consumers have written more than four million dealership reviews on DealerRater. In an effort to bring our dealer partners a new level of automation, convenience and personalization to their review-building program, we're thrilled to introduce DealerRater Connections Plus and DealerRater Connections Premier," said Jamie Oldershaw, general manager of DealerRater. "We know the majority of car buyers prefer to select a salesperson before arriving at the dealership, and 80 percent of DealerRater Certified Salespeople say their employee profile helps them sell more cars.² It goes without saying that we want to make it as easy as possible for dealers to reach shoppers by building their digital footprint and drive business growth."

"DealerRater reviews help me stand out in a crowd of other salespeople and lets the customer know I'm a trustworthy sales consultant who will take good care of them," said Rick "Honda Rick" Kruger, a DealerRater Certified Salesperson and a 22-year sales and leasing consultant at Don Ayres Honda in Fort Wayne, Ind. "Building strong rapport with a customer is critical to making a sale, and through my employee profile I get to build that relationship before they even walk in the showroom. Not to mention, I have more customers seeking me out – some have traveled more than 150 miles just for me!"

To learn more about DealerRater Connections, DealerRater Connections Plus and DealerRater Connections Premier, visit DealerRater.com. 

About DealerRater
Founded in 2002, DealerRater®, a Cars.com (NYSE:CARS) company, is the world's leading car dealer review website that connects consumers with the right person at the right dealership. With a reachable audience of more than 31 million consumers monthly³, the site offers 4 million sales and service reviews across 41,000 U.S. and Canadian dealerships, including a network of more than 5,600 Certified Dealers. By offering a product suite that allows qualified dealerships to manage their reputations and achieve higher SEO rankings, DealerRater supports new customer connections by growing online presence.

¹ Based on metrics of 73 DealerRater ReviewBuilder customers between January 1, 2016 - October 1, 2017
² Survey of 6,413 recent car buyers on DealerRater.com, March 2016
³ Unduplicated audience of Autotrader, KBB.com, Cars.com network, and DealerRater.com via comScore Media Metrix Multi-Platform, U.S., averaged over six months, October 2017

[SOURCE: Cars.com, Inc.] 

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SOURCE DealerRater