May 16th, 2012

In one of my college classes, my professor asked a student to pick five people at random. I was chosen as one of the five. We stood up in front of the class and my professor asked, “Which ethnic group isn’t represented by these students?”  One of the students raised their hand and said, “There are no Hispanics in this group.” I shook my head in annoyance and said, “No, I’m Puerto Rican!” Which was followed by, “Oh I’m sorry, you don’t look Hispanic.”

May 7th, 2012

Late last year, a 2.5 million dollar lawsuit was won against Lithia Motors Inc. for sending unwanted text messages to customers without giving them the option to opt out of the text messages. According to AutoNews.com, Lithia was hit with a class-action lawsuit for broadcasting to 57,800 consumer cell phones text messages that failed to adequately allow the recipients to opt out of future texts. A second Lithia broadcast text went to 48,000 of the previous recipients, 6,190 of whom said that they tried to opt out but were unable to.

April 26th, 2012

According to a Consumer Report Study, more and more customers are griping about their vehicle repairs. 21% of the respondents said it took longer than expected to complete the work. As you know, your service department is integral to the success of your dealership.  Yet, it is very possible that your service department’s manpower and resources are already stretched to the limit, inhibiting the amount of service leads appointments your dealership is able to generate as well as increasing the wait time for your customers.

April 9th, 2012

ActivEngage CEO Todd Smith delivered a keynote address at Digital Dealer 12 on the exciting future of inbound marketing. A veteran of the Digital Dealer speaking circuit and a pioneer of automotive social media, he is no stranger to offering his expert advice to the community. As an audience of auto dealers and marketers packed into the Sebastian Ballroom in sunny Orlando, Smith outlined ways for dealers to capitalize on web content using cutting-edge monitoring techniques and viral marketing trends.