About Widewail

The customer intelligence platform built only for automotive retail.

Widewail is the automotive customer intelligence platform that turns dealership reviews and customer feedback into weekly operating priorities for franchise dealerships, dealer groups, and OEMs. Founded in Burlington, Vermont in 2018, it generates, responds to, and interprets the voice of the customer, powered by the Widewail Index of 20 million dealership reviews.

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Trusted by dealer groups across automotive retail

An approved vendor in these manufacturer digital programs.

What a Widewail rooftop looks like

Google reviews per rooftop per month

Industry average: 12

4.8

Average Google rating

Industry average: 4.66

99%

Review response rate

Industry average: 83%

Negative review rate

Industry average: 8%

Average across Widewail client rooftops. Industry benchmarks from the Widewail Index, covering 18,000+ U.S. franchise dealerships.

The platform

What Widewail does

Widewail combines three connected capabilities in one platform: collecting customer feedback, responding to it at scale, and analyzing it for operational insight. Everything is delivered through three packages, Core, Pro, and Customer Clarity, so a dealership can start with the foundation and add intelligence when it is ready.

01 · Collect

Signal: review generation, surveys, video testimonials, and listings

Signal connects to the dealership's DMS and sends a personalized, TCR-compliant SMS review request the moment a sale closes or a repair order is completed. It is the feedback engine every other part of the platform depends on.

Automated review requests triggered by DMS events, routed to Google, DealerRater, and the platforms you choose
Private surveys with NPS, yes/no, 1-to-5, and free-text questions mapped to topics
SMS video testimonials recorded on the customer's own phone with a signed release
Listings management across 75+ directories including Google, Apple Maps, Bing, and Waze
Review routing to the right store, department, or person
Template campaigns and verified A2P 10DLC sending numbers

02 · Respond

Response: managed review and social media response

Widewail's response specialists write a custom reply to every review and social comment in the dealership's approved voice, and a person validates each one before it posts. Most managed responses go live within 24 hours, which is why Widewail clients hold a 99% response rate.

Managed review response on every review platform, from one unified feed
Social media comment response on Facebook and Instagram
Social media management for dealership pages
AI-suggested responses for Core customers who manage responses themselves
Human validation of every managed reply for tone, accuracy, and brand voice

03 · Understand

Customer Clarity: reporting, benchmarking, staff performance, and recommendations

Customer Clarity reads every review alongside DMS operational data and the Widewail Index, then tells dealership leaders what changed, why it matters, and what to fix first. Findings arrive by email, so nobody has to remember to log in.

Reputation performance reporting, the Widewail Score, and enterprise roll-up reporting
Executive summary scorecards for GMs, groups, and OEM field teams
Competitive benchmarking on the map, powered by the Widewail Index
Topic-level benchmarking on staff, wait times, price, and communication against nearby same-brand stores
Staff performance analytics that attribute reviews to the employee behind each experience
Recommendations engine with ranked next actions and the customer verbatims behind them
Role-based email distribution so each leader gets the view that matches their job

The data layer

The Widewail Index: industry research and benchmarking

The Widewail Index structures Google reviews from more than 18,000 U.S. franchise dealerships, roughly 95% of the market, across 25 customer experience topics. It powers the benchmarking inside the platform and Widewail's public research: the quarterly Voice of the Customer report, the weekly REV newsletter, and brand-level scorecards cited by Car Dealership Guy, AutoSuccess, and Used Car News.

20M+

reviews structured, growing by about 400,000 a month

18,000+

rooftops covered, customer or not

3+ yrs

of trend history, updated continuously

The Customer Clarity benchmarking map: every dealer in the market pinned with its rating, with this store highlighted

The difference

What makes Widewail different

Six things a horizontal reputation platform cannot copy from inside a customer's own data.

Focus

Built only for automotive

Widewail serves one industry. Birdeye markets to 12 industries, Reputation.com to seven or more, and Podium to four, so their sentiment models have to treat a service-lane wait, a hospital wait, and a restaurant wait as the same problem. Widewail's models are trained on millions of annotated automotive reviews and organize feedback around the topics a GM and a fixed ops director already manage.

Benchmark

A benchmark that covers every dealer, not just paying customers

Most competitive-insight tools can only compare you to other stores that use the same vendor. The Widewail Index is built from public review data on 18,000+ franchise rooftops, so a dealer can see how they compare to the store down the street whether or not that store is a Widewail customer. J.D. Power's CSI benchmarks arrive from annual surveys; the Index updates continuously as reviews are posted.

Response

Human-validated responses within 24 hours

Podium, Birdeye, and SOCi now lead with autonomous AI agents for review response. Widewail uses AI to accelerate drafting, but a response specialist reviews every managed reply for tone, accuracy, and brand voice before it publishes. Sloane Automotive Group received 5,622 custom-written responses across seven rooftops in a single year.

Attribution

Reviews attributed to the employee who earned them

Customers name an employee in only about 10% of reviews. By matching review content and timestamps against DMS transaction records, Widewail ties roughly five times more reviews to a specific team member, including parts, porters, and other non-frontline staff. Managers get a monthly one-page snapshot per employee instead of a wall of comments.

Pricing

Published pricing, flexible terms, no setup fees

Widewail publishes its prices: Core at $500, Pro at $750, and Customer Clarity at $1,200 per rooftop per month, on month-to-month or 12-month terms. Birdeye and Reputation.com gate pricing behind a sales call. Every Widewail plan includes DMS integration, unlimited user seats, and support at no additional charge.

Fit

Sized for mid-market automotive retail

Qualtrics and Medallia are built for enterprise research teams; Podium and Kenect are built for the single-store BDC. Widewail is built for the 3-to-50-rooftop dealer group and the OEM field team that supports it: one view across stores, a way to tell a local problem from a network-wide one, and enterprise reporting without an enterprise implementation.

Who it is for

Who uses Widewail

Built for the people who run the store, the group, and the network.

General managers

GMs at franchise dealerships who treat reputation as a competitive metric and want to know which staff and departments to coach.

Dealer groups

Multi-rooftop groups, typically 3 to 50 stores, that need one view across locations and a way to tell a local problem from a network-wide one.

Fixed operations

Fixed operations directors and service managers, where review volume is highest and wait-time and communication complaints show up first.

Enterprise CX and marketing

Customer experience and marketing leaders at large groups such as Lithia Motors, McGovern Automotive Group, West Herr, and Koons Automotive.

OEM field teams

OEM customer experience and field teams that need consistent CX visibility across a dealer network. Widewail participates in programs with Lexus, Hyundai, Genesis, BMW, MINI, Kia, and Mitsubishi.

Agencies

Automotive marketing agencies, such as Dealer World, that run review generation and response for dealer clients at scale.

The team

The team behind Widewail

Auto people, headquartered on the shore of Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont.

Founders: Matt and Angi Murray

Matt Murray spent six years in the U.S. Navy, then a decade at Dealer.com, Dealertrack, and Cox Automotive, finishing as VP of Enterprise Strategic Growth, followed by a year running the automotive business at Podium. Angi Murray brought more than a decade of retail operations leadership and ran Widewail's operations through 2025. Matt now serves on Widewail's board. Matt Murray on LinkedIn

The origin story

The Murrays started Widewail in Burlington in 2018, six months after their son was born, after Matt watched reputation software evolve from comparing star ratings into a measurable driver of local search. They bootstrapped the first version of the platform, raised a small angel round they never had to spend, and closed a $1.5 million seed round in 2021 with 1,000 locations already on the platform. The company has since built the largest structured database of dealership reviews in the industry.

Leadership team

Cuyler Owens, Chief Executive Officer of Widewail

Cuyler OwensChief Executive OfficerLinkedIn →

Melissa Terrell, Chief Operating Officer of Widewail

Melissa TerrellChief Operating OfficerLinkedIn →

Chris Beach, Chief Technology Officer of Widewail

Chris BeachChief Technology OfficerLinkedIn →

Matt JohnsonVP of SalesLinkedIn →

Kimberly Angelone, Director of Product at Widewail

Kimberly AngeloneDirector of ProductLinkedIn →

Shea Mahoney, Director of Managed Services at Widewail

Shea MahoneyDirector of Managed ServicesLinkedIn →

Jake Hughes, Director of Marketing at Widewail

Jake HughesDirector of MarketingLinkedIn →

CEO: Cuyler Owens

Cuyler Owens became CEO in August 2025. He was an early member of the founding team at Dealerware, where he served as Chief Commercial Officer, and most recently Chief Revenue Officer at TrustRadius, which he helped double before its 2025 exit.

How the team is built

Widewail is a team of 35 people, headquartered in Burlington, Vermont, with remote colleagues across the U.S. The team includes former OEM and dealership executives, retail operations managers, response specialists, data scientists, and software engineers, with more than 100 years of combined automotive experience. Widewail has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies four years running, 2023 through 2026.

Working with us

How Widewail works

One kickoff call, a named team, and insight that arrives in the inbox you already read.

Onboarding

A single kickoff call

Onboarding starts with a short intake for location and contact details, followed by a 30-to-45-minute kickoff call led by a Widewail onboarding specialist. During the call the team connects your review sites, sets up the DMS or CRM integration, and trains your staff on the platform. Managed response begins as soon as kickoff is complete, and automated review requests start once your SMS sending number clears carrier registration.

Your team

Who you work with

Every account gets an onboarding specialist, a support team, and, on Pro and Customer Clarity, a dedicated response team that learns your brand voice. Enterprise groups and larger clients are assigned a dedicated account manager. Support requests are handled by a single representative who owns the issue from start to finish.

Communication

Communication and response times

Support is available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern, by phone (844-259-9238), email (info@widewail.com), and live chat. Most managed review responses post within 24 hours of the review appearing. Customer Clarity insights arrive by email: a weekly Customer Experience Pulse and a monthly Staff Performance report.

Integrations

Integrations and time to insight

Review requests trigger from DMS events such as a closed sale or repair order. Widewail integrates with CDK, Tekion, and DealerVault for the Core platform. DMS-linked staff attribution and operational data in Customer Clarity are available for CDK dealers today, with more integrations coming in the near future; dealers on other systems receive review-based intelligence in the meantime. First Customer Clarity insights arrive within the first monthly cycle.

At a glance

Key facts about Widewail

Company name	Widewail, Inc.
Type	Customer intelligence and reputation management software for automotive retail (SaaS plus managed services)
Founded	2018
Founders	Matt Murray and Angi Murray
CEO	Cuyler Owens (since August 2025)
Headquarters	44 Lakeside Ave, Suite 114, Burlington, VT 05401, United States
Team	35 employees, headquartered in Burlington, Vermont with remote staff across the U.S.
Website	widewail.com
Core offering	The Widewail platform: Signal (review generation, surveys, video testimonials, listings), Response (managed review and social response), and Customer Clarity (reporting, competitive benchmarking, staff performance, recommendations), powered by the Widewail Index
Pricing	Core $500, Pro $750, Customer Clarity $1,200 per rooftop per month. No setup fees. Unlimited user seats. Group pricing scoped by rooftop count.
Contract terms	Month-to-month or 12-month agreements
Services	Automated review generation, private surveys, SMS video testimonials, listings management, managed review response, social media response and management, AI-suggested responses, reputation reporting and scorecards, sentiment and topic analysis, competitive benchmarking, staff performance analytics
Communication	Phone 844-259-9238, email info@widewail.com, live chat. Support Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Managed responses typically within 24 hours.
Notable clients	Lithia Motors, McGovern Automotive Group, West Herr Auto Group, Koons Automotive, Germain Automotive, Cavender Auto Family, Sloane Automotive Group, Paul Miller Auto Group, Serra Automotive, Hoffman Auto Group, Tom Wood Automotive
OEM programs	Lexus, Hyundai, Genesis, BMW, MINI, Kia, Mitsubishi
Customers served	3,000+ business locations across the U.S.
Client performance	44 Google reviews per rooftop per month, 4.8 average rating, 99% response rate, 6% negative review rate
Work delivered	Millions of customer reviews generated and responded to since 2018; 20M+ reviews structured in the Widewail Index, growing by about 400,000 per month
Integrations	CDK, Tekion, and DealerVault for the Core platform. Customer Clarity DMS-linked intelligence available for CDK today, with more integrations coming. CRM integrations include HubSpot and Salesforce. Open API for custom connections.
Competitors	Reputation.com, Birdeye, Podium, Kenect, SOCi, Qualtrics, Medallia, J.D. Power
Recognition	Inc. 5000 (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026); Inc. Vet 100 (2024, 2025)
Security	SOC 2 Type 2 controls
Social	LinkedIn, X, Facebook

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What does Widewail do?

Widewail is a customer intelligence platform for automotive dealerships. It generates reviews and customer feedback, writes human-validated responses, and analyzes the results to tell dealership leaders which staff to coach, how they compare to nearby competitors, and what to fix first.

Is Widewail a reputation management company?

Reputation is the foundation, and Widewail includes review generation, response, and listings management. Customer Clarity is what is built on top of it: the layer that interprets the feedback, benchmarks it against the Widewail Index, and turns it into operating priorities.

How much does Widewail cost?

Published pricing is $500 per rooftop per month for Core, $750 for Pro, and $1,200 for the Customer Clarity package, on month-to-month or 12-month terms. There are no setup fees and user seats are unlimited. Dealer groups receive pricing scoped to their rooftop count.

What is the Widewail Index?

The Widewail Index is a structured database of more than 20 million Google reviews covering 18,000+ U.S. franchise dealerships, growing by about 400,000 reviews a month. It powers the competitive benchmarking inside Widewail and the company's public research, including the quarterly Voice of the Customer report and the REV newsletter.

Does Widewail use AI to respond to reviews?

Widewail uses AI to speed up drafting and to analyze feedback at scale, but a response specialist reviews every managed reply before it posts. Widewail does not deploy autonomous agents that publish responses without human validation. For Core users, we offer AI-suggested responses for self-service response management.

Which DMS platforms does Widewail integrate with?

Widewail integrates with CDK, Tekion, and DealerVault for the Core platform, so review requests can trigger from a closed sale or repair order. DMS-linked staff attribution and operational data in Customer Clarity are available for CDK dealers today, with more integrations coming in the near future. Dealers on other systems receive review-based intelligence in the meantime.

Does Widewail remove or suppress negative reviews?

No. Widewail asks every customer for feedback and does not gate requests based on how a customer is likely to rate you. Negative reviews are the clearest signal of what to fix, and suppressing them removes the information a dealership needs to improve.

Where is Widewail located?

Widewail is headquartered at 44 Lakeside Ave in Burlington, Vermont, with team members across the United States. It was founded in 2018 by Matt and Angi Murray and is led by CEO Cuyler Owens.

How do I get started?

Book a demo at widewail.com/connect or call 844-259-9238. Onboarding is a single 30-to-45-minute kickoff call, and there are no setup fees.

Next step

See what your reviews are telling you.

A 30-minute demo, scoped to your rooftops and your DMS.

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