Reputation, the industry pioneer in reputation experience management, unveiled its annual report on the automotive sector after examining 5.5 million customer and service reviews to gain insights into the changing attitudes of buyers, the effectiveness of customer reviews in influencing sales, and the qualities of the world’s best dealerships.
The report discovered that customer reviews are the single most significant component for vehicle decision-making using data analysis from Reputation’s AI-powered platform and an annual poll that evaluates consumers’ purchasing preferences.
Customer Feedback Drives Business: 74% of customers insist on a minimum 4-star rating, and 84% of buyers consider dealership evaluations vital. Meanwhile, 40% of customers said they are more inclined to share their opinions in a public setting, like a review website.
Growing Number of Reviews: Review volume climbed by 11% annually, and when compared to the previous three years, 2023 saw peak review volumes across all significant sources of review locations.
EV interest: The number of EV reviews has increased by 60% over the last two years, and in the UK, 29% of EV purchasers have decided to buy after speaking with a dealership.
Gen Z: The Gen Z Factor: Gen Zers use reviews to make 93% of their purchases, and they are twice as likely (17%) than other people to let social media influence their dealership choice (8%).
The study also contains an annual ranking of brands and dealerships based on Reputation Score. This unique AI-powered metric is a leading performance indicator in the automotive sector. Reputation Score goes beyond analyzing consumer reviews to rank brands and dealerships using a measurement on a scale of 0 to 1,000 that considers a location’s sentiment, visibility, and engagement.
As dealerships strive to earn a 4-star rating by attending to and managing customer feedback locally, online reviews can influence consumer happiness at those dealerships. Furthermore, dealerships whose Reputation Score increased by 150 points from 2022 to 2023 saw a 10% sales increase.
