I used to love David Letterman’s Top 10 list segment on his late night show.  I would often tune in just to see the Top 10 list and when the lists found their way online, the late night website was a regular stop for me.  

It’s been close to a decade since the show went off the air but the Top 10 List never goes out of style.  

So without further ado…

The top 10 signs that your dealership can use a Digital Presence CX Audit.

10. You just got a fancy new website that looks beautiful and you think your customers are going to love it.  

Websites get stale and obsolete pretty quickly these days so updating the look and feel is a great idea every 2 years, give or take.  Technology improves and customer expectations change so you want to make sure that your website is using the best and fastest technology as well as design elements that will give your visitors a great experience.  

While the website update or upgrade is a good move, there are so many moving pieces that can break, fall through the cracks or be missed during the move.  Lead forms could still be attached to an old domain extension, the page structure could be different and cause a lot of broken links or missing pages, and plugs like “Value Your Trade” or others could be incompatible with your new site or not set up properly.  

9. Another Quarter has passed and your website could use some cleaning up.

Dealership websites can be updated or changed on a daily basis or even multiple times per day.  Constant changing inventory, new programs and incentives and the occasional new plugin can all seem to work well at first but need some cleaning up on a quarterly basis.  

It’s good to keep tabs on your website’s changes and clean up as you go along but that could end up being a lot of work.  We’ve found that barring any major changes, quarterly audits and cleanups are the perfect frequency for car dealership web presences.  More often can take up a lot of time and less often can cause too many losses.

8. Your website leads or submissions have dropped without any reason.

There are a lot of reasons why lead and contact form submissions on your website can fluctuate but if something looks weird and you can’t figure it out, you probably should get a full CX audit.  

Things break all the time, whether it is a careless mistake, a web platform update or a change that your website vendor made.

7. If phone calls to the dealership increase

More phone calls is a good thing but you don’t want them coming because your customers can’t get an answer through your website.  Motivated consumers may call the store to get an answer when the website doesn’t work and most of the time, they won’t tell you about their frustrating experience on your website.

If your website is working and you are getting an increase in phone calls, you probably want to know why and where they are coming from.  If something is working, you want to know what it is and double down if you can.  

6. You just added a new plugin to your homepage or anywhere on your website.

Plugins are great.  By adding a simple piece of code to your website, you can add all sorts of new content and functionality.  The problem is that many times, the code is not completely compatible with your website, at least not right out of the box.  The plugin can look like it is working but cause issues with other code on your site, or slow down the speed of your website.  

5. You were forced to switch your Google Analytics from Universal to GA4

You may have played around with GA4 and loved it, hated it or been indifferent but whatever your experience, it is a change.  What you track and the way that you track it are new, and with anything new, things can slip through the cracks.

4. Your dealership was just bought by an auto group, taken over by new management, or just changed its name.

Let’s face it, when a dealership changes management or ownership, even when they claim that “nothing is going to change”, things change.  Maybe they want the dealership to use the same tools or vendors as the other dealerships in the group or maybe there is just a lot of “about us” content that needs an update or anything in between.  

3. Your in-house Marketer, otherwise known as “the guy who does Facebook” leaves.

Staff members at the dealership come and go.  Some are good, some not as good.  Each person has their own style and way of doing things.  Maybe it works for them and maybe it’s just how they know how to do their job.  

When a key employee leaves, especially the person that was responsible for your digital presence, you probably want to get a digital audit to understand where you are, where you want to go and make it easy for a new staff member to jump in.  

2. You just hired a new Marketer or someone to take over your dealership’s digital presence, advertising, SEO, social media or reputation management.  

Marketing and its many subcategories are a combination of a science and an art.  When it comes to the art side of it, each marketer has their own ideas of what should be done and what is best.  A full digital audit done by a 3rd party will help bridge the past and the future in a way that will work for everyone.

And the number one sign that your dealership can use a Digital Presence CX Audit.

1. You literally can’t remember the last time someone at your dealership tested out any of your lead forms.  

If you are still using the same lead forms that you used 2 or more years ago and have never thought about taking them for a multi-point inspection, you’re driving with the “check engine” light on.  

Customers change over time and their expectations change as well.  If you are still making them fill in their name, email, phone number, zip code, comment and other information for every lead, you could be scaring them away.  Studies show that each additional field in a lead form lowers the conversion rate for that form.  Keep your customers happy and get more leads!

Does your dealership fall into one of the above categories?  Do you have questions about a Digital Presence CX audit?  Send us a message through the form below and we’ll get in touch ASAP.  You also book some time in my calendar.