Moore & Scarry Advertising is now releasing our revolutionary online reputation management process. Previously revealed only to our most highly-regarded clients, we’re now making this process available publicly.

By now, you’ve very likely heard how important online reputation management is. Here’s Moore & Scarry’s simple, step-by-step process for creating a rock-solid online reputation:

1. Manage your reputation in the store. Be nice to people and do good business.
2. At this point, people will very likely post positive things about you on the Internet.

Just imagine that – have total control over your online reputation – and never touch a keyboard!

If you’re disappointed, I’m sorry, but the fact of the matter is that real reputation management happens in the store – not online. You can’t treat people any way you’d like to in the store – and then hope to edit what they say about you on the Internet, no more than you can hope to edit what they say about you at a dinner party or their church picnic.

Just like a number of other paradigms have shifted in the auto industry – so has people’s ability to publicly and permanently voice their opinion. This is the nature of the Internet. Real reputation management happens face-to-face on the showroom floor.

Beyond accepting this paradigm shift (it is kind of buzz-wordy, but it’s appropriate), we also need to accept another – we need to stop taking our dealership assets, giving them to vendors and then allowing vendors to charge us money for our assets. Let’s take this example:

AutoTrader takes inventory from car dealers, puts it in one place and attracts consumers. Then AutoTrader charges dealers to submit their inventory because there are so many consumers there. But what if dealers stop giving AutoTrader their inventory feeds? AutoTrader would have nothing to attract consumers and nothing to sell.

The new trends in online reputation management are no different. For example, take Dealer Rater. How does Dealer Rater get their reviews? Dealers send their customers to them. How does Dealer Rater get their search optimization rankings? Once a dealer sends enough customers to them, they optimize well under the dealer’s own name. Then what happens? Dealer Rater charges dealers.

Here’s a novel idea – send your customers to Google Reviews and ask them to post honest, unedited reviews. Treat customers well and they’ll review you well. Get a bad review? Leave it alone. If you have enough positive ones, a negative review won’t hurt – it may even make your reviews look more authentic when someone sees that people have varying opinions.

Your thoughts? Please comment below.