Welcome to the REV. A briefing that goes deep into the Widewail Automotive Reputation Index data, surfacing the most interesting insights. Every 3 weeks we Rank, Explore & Visualize automotive reputation & sentiment data.
All data is sourced from the Widewail Automotive Reputation Index (unless noted). The Index aggregates over 1.6 million Google reviews from 16k new car dealerships in the U.S. Customize the dataset like it's your own personal spreadsheet. Try it out. It’s free.
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RANK
Um...how much longer?
Which auto brands had the fewest negative mentions of WAIT TIME in reviews last year?
The winner: INFINITI. The brand has 32% fewer negative mentions of WAIT TIME than the industry benchmark.
WAIT TIME was only mentioned in 17.38% of negative INFINITI reviews, well below the benchmark of 25.69%.
The full list of negative wait time mentions:
Any surprises in here for you?
Data from the 2024 Brand Reputation Scorecard.
EXPLORE
There is a lesson here
Last week we highlighted Toyota of Orlando’s crazy 26,000 reviews.
And a lot of people were interested, which got me thinking about Florida.
I’ve mentioned this a few times, but the recently updated benchmark for review volume in 2023 is 10.4 reviews/month for dealers.
If you’re a dealer in Florida receiving an average of 12 reviews a month, it would be easy to think you're in a good spot.
You’d be outperforming the national average, after all.
However, when we segment the data to examine only the 1,004 dealerships in Florida, the benchmark jumps to 23.
And get this - the median response rate in Florida is 96%. Not much room for error.
Herein lies the lesson.
National benchmarks provide some directional markers, but reputation is a local endeavor.
Any dealership’s ability to rank high in local search with great review content, and therefore bring in more customers, is based on how well you stack up against a narrow set of competitors in a limited radius.
Best of luck to the Orlando dealers that have to face off with Toyota of Orlando at over 26,000 reviews.
But again, of the 47 dealerships in the Greater Orlando area, only 31 are “non-luxury.”
Competing against other luxury dealers, Fields BMW of South Orlando is sitting pretty at 5,000 reviews with no reason to be distracted by the hulking Toyota shop down the street.
When reviewing your dealership’s review performance, be as specific as you can, and use the Index. You can filter by city, brand, and/or segment (luxury, non-luxury) to get to the competitive set that represents your true competition.
Tip: Scroll down to the bottom of the table window to see the benchmark data for any filtered view you create.
Trivia: Florida is not the highest volume review state in the country. It’s #2. Any guesses? Find the answer at the bottom of this article.
The best way to get state-level benchmarks in the Index is to Group by State and “collapse all” for a quick look at state-level metrics. Go to Index.
VISUALIZE
10.4 is just the beginning
Answer to the trivia question above: Nevada. At 23.32 monthly reviews per dealership, it just outpaces Florida.
Thanks for reading!
More REV in 3 weeks - Jake, Marketing @ Widewail