Do You Know Your BBB Score?
If you don’t… you and your shoppers will very soon.
You remember the BBB (Better Business Bureau) don’t you? Yea, it’s the auto dealers nemesis from days of old and it has been totally off Google’s radar…forever.
Those days are about to end. How do I know? Let’s take a walk, let me show you around and you tell me what you think after.
While looking into FaceBook best practices in the DealerRefresh forums, I came on to Terrance Gordon’s post of John Eagle European’s excellent FB work. I Google’d John Eagle European and GAK! to too my surprise, there it is! BBB at POSITION 7, just below the fold!
Next was to Google: John Eagle European reviews. GULP! Position #1!
WOW! I scurried around to other dealer SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) that I was familiar with and found little evidence similar to John Eagle’s SERPs. What do we have here? Is this a new day for the BBB, or, is this just noise?
I say it’s a new day for the Better Business Bureau.
Few automobile dealers know Google like we DealerRefresh’ers know Google. Google is all about improving the user’s search experience and we all know Google is ATTACKING local search results with all of the fire power Melissa Mayer can bring. We know Google is all about authority and the BBB has mountains of off-line authority, measured in decades.
The BBB has what Google wants. A Brand known everywhere, a new website makeover, a decades old dispute resolution system, a simple grading system, AND it’s reporting transparency. All the above makes the BBB website the mother of all review sites. For the Google’s search quality team, it’s got HOMERUN written all over it! Oh, did I mention it’s a non-profit organization? IMO, its indisputable that the BBB is one of those sites that Google wants in every search for a business name.
If this happens, it begins a new cycle of power for the Better Business Bureau. Shoppers see and read the BBB reports. Then, as the shopper becomes a buyer, should the new buyer have issues, they will turn to the BBB for resolution.
Most dealerships with poor scores treat the Better Business Bureau as the crazy uncle in the closet, they all know he’s there, but no one talks about him. Well.. that crazy uncle just inherited a million dollars and he wants OUT. I’ve been watching this set-up for months. Here it comes!
Are you ready?
Remember, you heard it on DealerRefresh first!
