By Allan Maurer
ATLANTA—Buying a car or truck is a big ticket item, so consumer ratings of auto dealers makes sense and MyDealerReport.com, relaunched late in 2007, has seen a 452 percent increase in consumer ratings the last three months. Now the company is reaching out to dealers as well.
Founded in 2004 by Clear Intelligence Media Inc., the 7-employee company has been funded privately by friends and family investments. It is seeking a minimum of $1 million in additional backing. It is also hiring sales reps, says John H. Isaac, CEO.
Isaac quotes October 2007 research from Capgemini that shows that 80 percent of consumers now consult the Internet at least once during the car-buying process (versus 71 percent in 2006 and 64 percent in 2004.
It’s a trend auto dealers cannot afford to ignore, Isaac says.
Dealer product introduced
The company says in the last four months alone the
number of page views and dealer searches quadrupled and the number of auto dealer ratings posted by consumers grew by 42 percent.
So this week the company introduced a new product, a Rating Comparison Report tool aimed at allowing auto dealers easier daily access to their dealership’s performance.
The new tool, which includes an automatic monitoring, alert and reporting feature that can be set up in less than 10 minutes, allows dealers to generate customized reports to compare their performance against that of other dealers, as well as receive alert notices via email on their rating performance.
“The site is designed to enhance consumer/dealer interactions,” says Isaac.
“Service is as important to consumers as sales,” he notes, and consumers can rate both.
When the company relaunched in November last year, it changed the process so that users only have to register if they actually want to rate a dealership. They can pull the site’s reports without registering.
The company makes money by selling services to dealers, with a $149 a month package the least expensive and others going as high as $399 a month. “It helps them manage their reputations by using tools to create transparency, such as videos, photos, instant chat with consumers,” Isaac says.
More innovations on the shelf
He adds that the company continues to innovate and has “several things on the shelf we know are ahead of the curve. We try to put out some innovation about once a month, such as the dealer comparison tools just announced.”
Isaac launched a number of previous firms, but says this is his first “mature company.” One previous venture was a software company that helped bars measure and track alcohol daily to prevent possible theft and note if too much spillage may be occurring.
“I wasn’t very savvy about venture capital at that point or we would have had funding,” he says. “They were funding everything at that time.”
On the Web: www.mydealerreport.com
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