A recent trend in the automotive industry has seen dealers using social platforms in order to garner positive feedback from consumers. Some of the popular locations where a business can develop a presence are Facebook business pages, Yelp and Google+ Local. A recent report highlights growing concern over using Google+ Local after many dealerships lost hundreds of reviews.
Automotive sales professionals are frustrated by Google capriciously deleting reviews of dealerships from Google+ Local pages, according to Automotive News. The news source describes the experience of Scott Pitman, a Suzuki dealer who had 400 customer reviews deleted over two days, leaving only nine reviews that were all negative. eMarketer, a company that provides research and analysis on digital marketing and media, reports that seven out of 10 consumers research a dealership online before deciding where to go. The data loss may have turned away potential customers.
Auto dealerships expressed concern over the marketing power and pitfalls of Google, according to Automotive News. The Internet giant is able to connect businesses and companies, but dealers have very little control over the interactive features. Because of this, some have seen their reputation ratings drop tremendously through data dumps.
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