Toyota Success Story
​+77% higher visibility in Google organic search in 1 year
Toyota step up into customer review management at local level with Welocal and achieved outstanding results.
Maintaining a constant line of communication with customers allowed Toyota dealers to resolve issues promptly and turn frustrating experiences into positive ones. Higher customer satisfaction let all dealerships collect positive testimonials on sites prospective customers care about most.
Now, Toyota is doing more than just selling cars: it’s acquiring lifetime customers.
1.553.204 more views of dealers locations after 1 year
"Our dealers digital reputation directly affects overall brand reputation.
With Welocal, we’ve seen 27% increase in our overall reputation score through out our dealers while we're effectively measuring customer experience on site.
Welocal enabled us to rank higher on Google Maps with consistent information, higher review reply rate and better ratings.
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we’ve rolled out it across the all dealers in country."
Burak Kartal,
Digital Experience Unit Supervisor
10.219
new reviews
in 12 months
+85%
increase of local interactions
11.735
feedback
collected
Executive Summary & Challenge
In the highly competitive automotive market, retaining customers is as difficult as acquiring them -- and neither are exactly a piece of cake. Toyota needed a deep understanding of their customers in order to keep them, as well as a strong online reputation to stand out to prospects in local search.
Car sales are just a small fraction of Toyota Dealer's customer interactions. Every month, thousands of customers service their cars at one of their service departments. Understanding these customers’ experiences is critical to improving customer retention. If they could reach out to customers who had a less-than-great experience, who potentially could leave and never return, Toyota dealers could increase retention and improve their processes. It was therefore cruical for Toyota dealers to find a way to get this information.
“Automotive right now is hyper focused on service, service retention, and preventing service conquest from non OEM service providers,” said Kartal. “If you can retain a customer, they are 3x more likely to buy another car from you or refer you to somebody else.”
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What was wanted to do was find a way to ask every customer for feedback & reviews, including service customers. There was a need to find the easiest, most streamlined solution for soliciting a high volume of online reviews without disrupting the company’s normal workflow.
Feedback collection +
Review generation, monitoring, and management in one dashboard
To avoid adding any extra work to their hectic schedule, Welocal set up a custom integration with Toyota’s existing CRM system that allowed Toyota to send review requests to every customer automatically after a transaction or service. In the automotive market, Google, Facebook and Instagram are the most crucial review sites, so these are the sites Toyota prioritizes. Welocal also sends Toyota dealers and regional managers automatic email alerts the instant a new review is posted for one of their locations on a third-party site. The team can monitor all reviews from all sites in one place. “We have reviews come in every morning and the first thing our social media person does is check to all of those reviews,” said Kartal.
Boosting satisfaction with the customer feedback loop
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In just one year, Toyota received 3x more reviews on both Google, doubled their overall their online customer interactions at local level and due to their diligent efforts to address customer issues promptly, the company increased their average star rating across all sites and locations by 27%. Ratings drive revenue: a 1-star improvement in ratings can lead to a 5-9% increase in revenue, according to Harvard Business Review.
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Star ratings from all these reviews are displayed prominently in organic search results, helping Toyota’s dealerships stand out, increasing both click-through rates and foot traffic.
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Although Toyota is focused on review generation, Kartal knows that this is just the first step of a comprehensive online reputation management strategy. “One part that we’re really finding valuable is the negative feedback loop, and learning from customers who aren’t 100% happy or times when things could have gone better.”
Auto reply of reviews with AI
Responding to reviews consistently within AI not only helps strengthen customer relationship. It also helps with search ranking. Sites like Google reward businesses with active review profiles; this includes both new reviews and new business responses posted. Now we respond to everything,” said Kartal. We deliver personalized “thank you’s” for every positive review, and reply and sends off every negative one to appropriate management, along with a call-to-action and a timeframe to respond. This way no issue slips through the cracks.
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Moreover, repyling customer reviews with Welocal's AI gives us extra time to focus on more complex customer issues. Thus, we improve overall customer satisfaction.
Empower your
local teams.
Maintain corporate control while empowering your dealer managers to showcase what makes their services unique at local level. Welocal’s flexible, scalable workflows and approvals enable you to manage editing rights at the global, regional, and single location level.
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You can make every dealer stand out just by responding – and the community around your dealer will respond in return.
View all key local ranking signals
in one place
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100s of dealers analyzed in a single report
See your business as your customers see you
Get data on the most important Google My Business signals. Prioritize tasks that will boost rankings. View categories and citations alongside links and Track important online reputation metrics. Know exactly where you rank across local search from any location.
Manage customer reviews with ease
Manage, and respond customer reviews - all in one place. Welocal's AI powered smart response tool replies all customer reviews automatically and save you time. Welocal will help you monitor and respond to each of your online reviews – without adding new team members. We can help you stand out from the competition, turn bad ratings into good reviews and boost your visibility in mobile searches, driving more sales for your dealerships.
Get feedback in negative situations, avoid negative reviews
Direct only happy customers to the review process with Welocal's smart customer referral system. In adverse situations, proactively learn the cause of the problem by getting their feedback. Avoid negative reviews.
