Russ Darrow Auto Group has been serving the people of Wisconsin for more than 50 years. It currently operates 22 dealerships, five of which are JD Byrider franchises. Up until recently, the business had struggled with its Google star rating.
Customer Story
Russ Darrow Auto Group finds the keys to a 5-star presence.
Prior to implementing Podium, the dealerships averaged just 3.1 stars on Google. Jimmy Lee, Director of Reviews and Director of JD Byrider for the Russ Darrow Group, knew that if given the choice between a business with a 3 star rating and one in the fours, the business with the higher rating will typically get the business.
“If I Google Honda and see that the Russ Darrow Honda Store has 3.3 stars and another Honda dealership has 4.5 stars and driving distance wasn’t a big deal, 4.5 stars is always going to win the sale,” said Lee.
Already Familiar
Lee was familiar with Podium through JD Byrider. Podium is the preferred online reputation vendor for JD Byrider franchises, so Lee had seen how a tool like Podium could help improve a business’ Google rating.
With the success that their JD Byrider dealerships were having improving their online reputation, it was a no brainer for Lee to implement Podium at the remaining 18 Russ Darrow dealerships. “Before using Podium, we used another outside vendor to help us collect reviews,” related Lee. “We weren’t really paying attention to the process and our online reputation showed it, but that all changed after we implemented Podium.”