NEWSFLASH: Consumers are tired of wasting 3-5 hours of their lives buying a car. The average prospect today has done more than 19 hours of research before they ever set foot on your lot; so they know what they want to buy, they just don’t want to spend an entire day buying it from […]
Although presented as a sort of a “secondary first class” or a “first class lite,” Delta’s Comfort+ (nee Economy Comfort) is not as much of an upgrade as their marketing would have you believe: Sky Priority® Boarding? Okay, you might get on board quicker; that is, if you’re not already a frequent flier. Dedicated […]
I had a fun exchange with Walmart on Twitter last month that I believe deserves sharing here – especially given that the exchange can (I’m hopeful) remind corporations to separate my duties as a customer and their duties as an employer when it comes to training their managers. First, a little background: I was […]
Before diving into this topic, I want the readers to understand why dealerships are so near and dear to my heart. While it’s true that I run a small company that provides technology and advertising services to lots of industries; I actually enjoy being in and working with car dealerships. You read that right: I […]
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the next down market in automotive retail is coming. No one knows precisely when – and none of us is certain what will trigger it – but, it is coming. Moreover, given the current market realities, it might be coming a little faster […]
At PLADOOGLE, we just published a white paper detailing our extensive mystery shop study that looked at how well dealerships responded to our internet inquiries over the first 30 days. We read and graded every email and listened to and graded every voicemail. Here are Seven Fast Facts from 425 Car Dealer Mystery Shops: We […]
My kids get it. They don’t think about it; they don’t hire gurus to guide them through it; they don’t contrive anything about it; and… they can sniff out anything contrived in an instant. It’s social media, and it’s not mystical or complicated; and it especially doesn’t require any real expertise. Of course, if […]
It was about 6:30 last evening when I found myself at the Delta Sky Club in Tampa, Florida. I was booked on Delta’s 7:45 flight to Atlanta (where I am speaking to a group of Ford dealership managers about Internet processes this morning). I had a yearning for a cup of coffee, but I […]
The 10 Douchiest Job Titles of 2012 For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to keep my business cards free of my title. I feel this way for a couple of reasons: primarily, I don’t want those outside of my company getting hung up on my title; also, I really don’t give a […]
A little bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing… especially in business. With Facebook recently passing the 700 million worldwide user mark and basically two-thirds of all US online consumers counted as a part of this hoard, most business leaders have been scrambling for a couple of years to leverage this incredible base for […]
Q. I’m the office manager at a large Midwestern distribution company. We sell a variety of products to retailers across the US, and have a sophisticated computer system that can show the status of orders with just a few clicks. My problem is that the operations managers like to work the orders on legal pads […]