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RANK: Half of Dealers in the 25 Largest Metros Are Losing Share of Voice
Share of voice answers it: your share of the reviews in your market. The Widewail Index tracks it for every rooftop, so we can see who is gaining it and who is giving it up.
We looked at 3,200 mass-market rooftops in the 25 largest U.S. metros. For each, we compared its share of the reviews its market collects each month with its share of every review that market has ever collected.
Meaning: a store at its historical share is holding. Above it, gaining. Below it, losing.
52% are losing share. 35% are gaining.
Those gaining share are combining volume of customer activity with the ability to activate customer voice in public forums, where it can drive AEO and SEO rankings, and thus more traffic.
But among stores the same size, some gain and some lose. What separates them?
Request your share of voice report. Pick any competitor in your market you want to beat, and we will craft a plan for how to get you there.
EXPLORE: At the Same Size, Stores With Better Service Reviews Lose Share Less Often
This is classic "correlation not causation," but nonetheless I think it's interesting.
Poor service performance is related to losing share of voice, and it's consistent at every review volume band.
For example, 85% of dealers are losing share of voice if the following two datapoints are true about their store.
1. Generating 5-17 reviews per month
2. Have service department sentiment in the bottom 25% compared with nearby stores
As you can see, dealers with low review volume and high service department sentiment are also still losing market share of voice 68% of the time.
But it's less.
The difference is more striking at the top. If you generate over 74 reviews and have high service sentiment, you are gaining share 89% of the time, and only 3% are losing.
What this tells us: Among stores of similar size, in similar markets, the ones whose service customers describe them worse than nearby stores are more often taking a smaller share of their market’s new reviews than they historically have.
VISUALIZE: Share of Dealers Losing Share of Voice, by Service and Communication Sentiment
Request your share-of-voice report. I can make one on demand for any franchise dealership. The industry is loving this view on reviews. It's a whole new way of looking at performance that only Widewail can show you.
This week Tim McGaha, GM at Fred Anderson Acura in Greenville, SC joins What's Working in Auto. I caught Tim just 24 days into his first GM role, which offers an amazing perspective. Plus, he's simply very likable. Listen Here.
Source: Widewail Index, scorecard as of Oct 4, 2026. 3,287 mass-market rooftops in the 25 largest U.S. metros. Losing share of voice = monthly share of the market's reviews at least 10% below lifetime share. These show what moves together, not what causes what.
See you next week - Jake
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