Having been at Trader for almost 10 years and having to represent the website platform that was sold there was… taxing to say the least. Overly expensive, second rate technology, non-category specific offerings, expensive creative options, sloooow customer service, no OEM feeds and overall lack of flexibility, all made my job difficult. More than once I told a dealer to stick with what they had.
The great thing now is that I can be completely agnostic which is awesome. When I initially set out on this path of bring my expertise to the masses, I steered some of my clients towards Dealer Spike since they were all looking for a new platform when they came on with me. My thoughts have been somewhat altered given my current experiences coupled with my continued, dedicated search for a cost-effective, feature driven website solution.
I’ve actually found one!! But more on that later as this post is meant to update you on the migrations that I went through a few months back.
Dealer 1 (Powersports):
Things started off well but then all of a sudden went to crap. Things took forever to get done and in some cases where just ignored. We were initially told that we’d be up and running in 3, maybe 4 weeks. Well 12+ weeks in, we were exasperated and I went to town on DS to get crap done. Eventually I ended up dealing with a couple directors and got stuff done. Three weeks later, we finally had a live website. Once it was live, everything worked as it should and for our troubles, they even provided part of their Reputation Management technology into the site – which is pretty cool, but at their regular price, definitely isn’t worth it (if you are looking for Reputation Management, Review handling, etc. I can steer you in a WAY better direction for WAY less).
Dealer 2: (RV):
This ended one up being extremely smooth. Maybe it was in part due to me coming on board just after all my troubles with Dealer #1 and I sort of read them the riot-act in regards to how this migration had to go. All in all though, this migration went down just like it should. Minor issues, but nothing that could be fixed within hours.
Dealer 3 (trailer):
Oh boy… where should I start? Slowness? Lack of response? Weak creative? Nightmare syndication issues with Trader/Kijiji? I could devote an entire post to all the issues here but let’s just note that this one was riddled with issues. The main problem was that the dealer was pressured into going live before it was truly ready. Unfortunately I was out of the loop on that decision but one thing for sure, whether Dealer Spike, Trader, ARI or anyone else… NEVER go live until you feel 100% comfortable. Just remember that their goal is to get onto their next project and that is their only focus – not your satisfaction.
Unsolicited Dealer Testimony (heavy truck):
When I sent out Part 1 to this post a number of months ago, within minutes I received a reply telling me of an absolutely atrocious experience one dealer had – let’s just say… not good. One of the key pieces was that he realized just how important Google rankings (SEO) were to his business and had invested a lot of money over the years to ensure his online success. Well, in the migration, he lost a good chuck of the relevancy he had built up. This is website migration 101 stuff so it was extremely disappointing to hear something like this.
Post-Sale Service:
It is all a bit hit and miss with Dealer Spike customer service. If you call, and it’s a quick issue, it will get resolved right away. If you email your issue well… it might not get answered for 2-3 (even 4) days – even if it is something that can be fixed quickly. In dealing with the dedicated rep, that is a bit of a revolving door (still probably not as bad as Trader though) and if you email a problem/question, it may not get dealt with (especially if you’re upset with their service) for a while and require multiple attempts at contact.
True Website Value IS a Reality:
As the offerings continually change I am always on the lookout for a more flexible, more cost-effective, NPV-specific website solution – and I’ve officially found it!
- Canadian owned – 25 years
- WAY cheaper
- NO contracts
- FREE marketplace access
- OEM feeds
- custom SEO vs. auto-populated
- select inventory export (allows to export unit A to X & Y, while exporting unit B to X only)
- category creation according to YOUR needs
- and WAY more
But more on that later – or you can contact me directly if you’re that curious!