King warned about turning the prospective customer into a critic: “The power is with the consumer. If they don’t like you, or you try to sell them something dodgy, they will just tell the world not to go to you. People don’t go on holiday without looking at Trip Advisor.”

He said dealers must embrace social media to build the relationship and trust with the consumer.

“Lots of dealers don’t get it. They need to understand it’s never going to sell them a car, it’s going to build their personality. It’s going to make people like them.”

Reviews posted by other consumers are an equally useful tool for building prospective new customers’ trust, said Tim Smith, group strategy director at GForces. He used the example of Reevoo, now adopted by various automotive brands including Peugeot, Volvo, Hyundai and Kia.

“From a technical perspective it enables a conversation, but it’s more than that. If someone has bought a Kia Sorento from Wessex Garages, a customer looking to buy one can submit a question and have it routed to another customer who has said they’re willing to answer questions about their car. That’s a conversation that bypasses the garage. Reevoo is a large community of people. That’s a very exciting proposition.”

Paul Philpott, Kia Motors UK chief executive, said partnering with Reevoo had worked well in raising confidence in the brand.

“We changed virtually our entire range from 2009-12. It became clear that owners had a very different impression of the brand to those who hadn’t experienced it,” he said.

“We realised advocacy was critical for 2013-14 and now have almost 15,000 reviews on our website. We have examples of people coming into showrooms, saying they have read the reviews and are now interested in Kia. Then it’s up to the dealers to deliver an experience.”

 

How dealership management systems can help build customer trust

That experience online needs to be considered when the prospective customer finally visits the showroom, which is where having a good DMS and knowing how to get the best from it is also vital in creating happy souls. Neil Packham, UK managing director of solutions provider CDK Global, called it “the beating heart of the business” which allows dealers to have a single clear view of who engages with them.

A customer may have already had a conversation with the dealership online, has identified their own needs, and even gone through an online finance calculator to check they can afford their chosen car. They’ll feel frustrated to then be forced back a stage or two by a sales executive in the showroom because the online and physical experiences have not been joined up and the DMS doesn’t recognise the steps they’ve already taken digitally.