CASE STUDIES
Curtiss Ryan Honda, Connecticut’s first established Honda dealership, has been family-owned for over 50 years. Operating from a single location, it juggles a bustling showroom alongside a busy service center that handles more than 2,500 repair orders each month. That commitment to customer care has earned the dealership multiple Dealer of the Year awards from DealerRater and Carfax, most recently in March 2025.
When Chuck Dortenzio became General Manager last year, the dealership’s on-site presence was thriving; however, its digital presence wasn’t living up to the Curtiss Ryan Honda gold standard. Despite awards and loyal customers, capturing consistent online feedback had been a challenge.
“I’ve been in this business 33 years and tried all kinds of things—bonuses for service advisors, QR codes for Google reviews—but nothing really stuck. Staff didn’t consistently ask for reviews, and growth had plateaued. We had strong DealerRater and Carfax ratings, but the volume of reviews just wasn’t there, especially for service.”
—Chuck Dortenzio, General Manager
Curtiss Ryan Honda needed a way to make it easier for customers to share their experiences and for the team to capture that feedback consistently. That’s where Widewail came in, offering a solution that turned satisfied customers into a visible digital reputation while keeping the process simple for the team.
A mention on the Car Dealership Guy Podcast introduced Dortenzio to Widewail. The concept—automated review requests through Invite paired with real-time monitoring and professional responses through Engage—offered a low-lift way to get more reviews from happy customers.
“Initially, I didn’t think Widewail would work as well as promised. There was no other vendor in the picture, and I honestly didn’t believe it would deliver. But the cost was reasonable—much less than what we’d been spending on employee incentives. If we had tried spiffs for every sales and service employee, it would have cost $1,600 a month for just 80 reviews. Widewail did exactly what they said it would, and generated far more reviews without the extra effort.”
— Dortenzio
Curtiss Ryan Honda launched Invite and Engage on March 24, 2025. The team worked with Widewail to consolidate and organize the dealership’s Google Business accounts, ensuring separate profiles for sales and service. This setup improved search visibility and directed reviews to the correct pages from day one.
“The onboarding was very smooth. Widewail guided us through consolidating our accounts and setting up reviews so that sales and service feedback go to the correct pages. Everything went seamlessly—no issues at all.”
—Dortenzio
From there, the process required almost no internal management:
“It’s on autopilot. I only check in when an alert comes through.”
— Dortenzio
By combining cost efficiency, minimal lift for the team, and a seamless onboarding process, Widewail enabled Curtiss Ryan Honda to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences while experiencing measurable and immediate growth in their online reputation.
Between March 24 and June 24, Curtiss Ryan Honda saw:
820% total growth in review volume—from 70 to 644 reviews
Negative reviews down 24%, representing just 3% of all feedback
1,957% growth on Google, their most visible channel
Service GBP rating up 0.2 stars to 4.8
“Whatever Widewail does is simply a reflection of your business. It’s not going to magically get you 5.0 on Google—it reflects what’s actually happening in your organization. I love that because most of the time, we’re doing things right, we just weren’t hearing about it. The team prepared me for scores to dip initially as more people responded, but our scores actually went up.”
—Dortenzio
At Curtiss Ryan Honda, every review of three stars or lower is a signal to take action.
“Customers can leave reviews easily, whether good or bad. When we get critical feedback, we ask ourselves, ‘Do we deserve this?’ Sometimes it’s a one-off mistake, other times it points to a process we need to fix. Either way, we act on every low review. Feedback has even sparked bigger discussions—like how to balance Honda’s no-appointment oil change policy with customer expectations.”
— Dortenzio
For Dortenzio and his team, this approach reflects a broader philosophy of hospitality inspired by Danny Meyer’s Setting the Table:
“We don’t just aim to serve customers, we want them to feel comfortable and enjoy the experience. If you create a great customer experience, positive reviews naturally follow. Dilution is the solution: the more good reviews we receive, the better. Feedback isn’t just data—it’s a way to reinforce hospitality, recognize the team, and keep improving.”
— Dortenzio
Widewail’s reporting dashboard goes beyond tracking reviews—it identifies mentions of employee names and links them to the average ratings in those reviews. This makes it simple to celebrate individual contributions, track performance trends, and focus on coaching where it matters most.
Dortenzio reflected on a past role where CSI pay plans motivated his team to deliver consistently strong results:
“The team was motivated to produce good CSI scores because their pay plans depended on it. At Curtiss Ryan Honda, good CSI is driven by the culture, and what Widewail provides takes it further: it gives customers an easy way to leave feedback, and it surfaces those comments for us so we can recognize the team in real time. Click, click, five stars, thank you, done.”
—Dortenzio
Curtiss Ryan Honda had a strong reputation already. Widewail sharpened that edge, and Dortenzio jokes that he hopes his competitors don’t find out about it.
“Typically, with products I use that work well, I love to tell people about them. Your product has been so great and we’ve really enjoyed having it, but in this particular case, I haven’t told anyone because I don’t want people to have better reviews than me. It’s so good that you don’t want anyone else to have it.”
—Dortenzio
Widewail’s combination of automation, responsive support, and measurable impact has given Curtiss Ryan Honda an online reputation that now matches its in-store experience—and a head start they intend to maintain.
Learn more about the products that made this possible for Curtiss Ryan Honda:
.png)
