Bob Pieterse

What does answering reviews cost per dealership (and when is software cheaper)?

Answering reviews never shows up on an invoice, but it costs hours. This cost model shows what it costs per dealership and at what volume software becomes cheaper.

Audit-proof review management: what you need to be able to show the manufacturer

Manufacturers increasingly audit dealerships on their reviews. What you need to be able to show, where the evidence lives, and how dealer groups organise it per dealership.

Can a customer change their review, and can you ask them to?

The complaint is fixed, but the three stars are still there. Can the customer change their review, and can you ask? What Google allows and how dealer groups handle it.

Chasing a 4.7: what manufacturer KPIs do to your reviews (and can you ask for five stars?)

Manufacturers often set a 4.7 target, so it is tempting to ask customers for five stars. What Google does and does not allow, and what dealer groups steer on instead.

Why branch managers don't reply to reviews (and what works instead)

Branch managers have no time for reviews, let alone another password. How dealer groups run reviews centrally, so the dealership only gets the complaints.

A 9.0 in your customer survey and a 4.2 on Google: how is that possible, and what do you do about it?

Two scores for the same workshop: 9.0 in the customer survey and 4.2 on Google. Where the gap comes from, which score the outside world sees, and what to do about it.

How many positive reviews does it take to offset one negative review? The maths behind your star rating

How many five-star reviews does it take to cancel out one one-star? We do the maths for every average, and show what dealer groups do instead of trying to compensate.

What contact details belong in a reply to a negative review? Manager's mobile, email or customer service

Under a negative review you want to move the customer to another channel. But which one? The three choices dealer groups make, their trade-offs, and what not to promise.

Six signs your review reply was written by AI (and the setting that fixes each one)

Customers spot an AI reply by six recurring signs. For each sign, the setting that fixes it, from dealer groups that reply with AI every day.

800 unanswered reviews: how to clear the backlog without it looking fake

Many dealer groups start with hundreds of unanswered reviews. Here is how to clear them in three layers, at a pace that stays believable.

Which reviews should you answer automatically, and which need a human first?

Automatic review replies are not all or nothing. Three options from dealer groups in practice, with the delay and the safety nets that go with them.

Who replies to which review in a dealer group? Three models that work

In a dealer group, AI is rarely the bottleneck. The real question is who replies. Three models from practice, their pitfalls, and how to set them up in Repmanager.

Trust and transparency: what car owners expect from the workshop

Car owners trust their service dealer more than the manufacturer. What they expect from the workshop and how reviews make that trust visible.

How manufacturers hold dealers to account on reviews: the three KPIs, the audit and the cost of replying late

Manufacturers judge dealers on response time, response rate and rating per dealership. The three KPIs, what late replies cost, what an audit asks for and how dealer groups hit them.

Methodology and accountability: three sources, 600,000+ data points

Three data sources, over 600,000 data points, all definitions and all limitations. Every figure in the study is counted, not estimated, and traceable to its source.

Reviews and AI visibility: the AI also reads your silence

We asked ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini the question a car buyer asks, 540 times. 65 percent of the answers contained review information. The AI also reads your silence.

The aftersales leak: the showroom wins the customer, the workshop loses them

Workshop reviews score 0.4 stars lower than sales reviews. The showroom wins the customer, the workshop loses them. The gap did not exist in 2019.

The response-time gap: praise gets answered faster than criticism

Dealers respond at a median of 26 hours to praise and 48 hours to criticism. The angry customer waits longest. Those who manage the process sit at 9 hours.

The farewell gap: the public resignation letter nobody answers

In 2,105 reviews a customer literally announces their departure. Almost half never get an answer. What the farewell gap costs and why it is the most expensive signal to ignore.

The premium paradox: the pricier the brand, the bigger the complaint gap

The pricier the brand, the bigger the complaint gap. Premium dealers answer 29 percent of their reviews, mainstream 62. BMW leaves 66 percent of complaints behind, Dacia 14.

What is the complaint gap?

The complaint gap is the share of negative reviews that gets no answer. At the 30 largest Dutch dealer groups: 53.1 percent, with 12,147 complaints open.

Automotive reviews: how review management works in a dealer group

Review management in a dealer group comes down to five questions: who replies, what runs automatically, what goes under a complaint, what the manufacturer measures and how to start.

Who owns your Google Business Profiles? Finding out, getting them back and connecting them

A regional Gmail that is only a manager, a manufacturer or importer that owns the profile, the address of a colleague who left. How to find out who owns your Google profiles and get them back.

How to Add Your Business to Google

Open Google and search for nearby options. If you're a business owner, this behavior offers an opportunity to connect with potential customers right when they're ready to...

How to Claim Your Business on Google

As an entrepreneur, of course, you don't want your company to remain invisible among the thousands of others that Google presents every day. By claiming your business on Google, you're putting a...

How to Verify Your Google Business Profile by Phone

Verifying your Google Business Profile is a critical step in establishing your company's online authority and managing how your information appears in Google Search and on...

The best way to respond to Google reviews: a style guide per star rating (tone, length, name and sign-off)

A style guide for Google review replies per star rating: how long a reply is, how formal it sounds, when to use the reviewer's name and who signs off. With examples from dealer groups.