About The Customer

Large dealer of a leading car brand with a significant presence in South India. Established in 2010, it is part of a diversified group with businesses in automobile, education, construction, and warehousing. With over 50 offline touchpoints spanning sales, service, spares, used cars, and driving schools, it sells over 2000 cars and services over 25,000 vehicles every month, clocking an annual turnover of Rs. 900+ crores.

“We are an award-winning authorized dealer providing unique buying experiences for our customers across their purchase and ownership journey. We are constantly recognized for excellence in business performance and customer service” – Mr Satish Reddy, General Manager.

In August 2021, the business implemented Zceppa to streamline its feedback and review collection process and increase ratings across all locations. In two years, the average Google ratings of their locations increased from 3.7 to 4.7, and they generated 20X more customer reviews. This helped them attract 1500% more traffic and increase conversions by 3X.

Background

In today’s digital age, the consumer buying journey starts with an online search. As the market leader, Google is the starting point for such searches, and nearly 1 in 2 searches on Google are location-specific “Near Me” searches.

In other words, Google’s “Near Me” search powers local business discovery. For example, 2 in 3 car buyers find a dealership through one, and the “Dealers near me” search has grown 400% in the past 2 years.

Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly known as Google My Business (GMB), is the digital storefront for a physical business on Google. It acts as the digital front door for consumers doing “near me” searches – it is predominantly the starting point for consumer engagement with a business location.  

Ratings and reviews on Google influence consumer choice and purchase decisions. Consumers increasingly rely on them to choose a business and its products or services. In 2023, price aside, ratings and reviews are the top factors impacting purchase decisions. 

Challenges – Online Reputation

Before Zceppa, the dealer had low Google ratings (average Google rating: 3.7) across their touch points. They did not have a mechanism to collect customer reviews on Google consistently.  

Studies show that customers with negative experiences are much more likely to review a business automatically (without being asked or prompted) on Google than those with positive experiences, adversely skewing its ratings and online reputation. This, in turn, impacted organic discovery and conversions, resulting in lost customers and sales for the dealer.

Poor Google Ratings Across Locations

Google Business Profiles (GBPs) of all 50+ business locations across sales, service, used cars, spares, and driving school had low Google ratings (average rating: 3.7). 

“Google is a key channel of leads for us. However, all our touchpoints had poor ratings on Google. We wanted to improve our Google ratings to signal credibility and trust and attract more new customers searching for our products and services on Google” – Mr Satish Reddy, General Manager.

No Mechanism To Collect Customer Reviews at Scale

Before Zceppa, collecting reviews consistently across locations was difficult. On average, every location had fewer than 65 Google reviews. 

“While our customer-facing teams were capturing feedback regularly, we did not have a standard mechanism to get customer reviews on Google. Some asked customers directly while most did not, adversely impacting our ability to generate Google reviews consistently” – Mr Satish Reddy, General Manager.

Lost High-Potential Customers and Sales

Research shows that 76% of consumers doing “Near Me” searches take definitive action – call, visit, message, or schedule an appointment – within 24 hours. Businesses that collect customer reviews consistently rank higher as reviews impact local SEO. Similarly, conversions increase by 2X for businesses that are rated >4.5 on Google. 

“With most consumers finding dealerships through Google search, it was clear that not collecting reviews was affecting online discovery of our locations. Also, our low ratings were impacting conversions as well.” – Mr Satish Reddy, General Manager.

Solution – Listing & Review Management

Zceppa’s unified feedback and review product helped the business capture customer feedback, generate more new Google reviews, and improve ratings and online reputation across all locations. With Zceppa, the business was able to implement a better process to collect reviews and improve ratings.

A Scalable, Repeatable, and Personalized Review Collection Process

With Zceppa, all customer-facing team members send a review request to every customer after every interaction. This in-moment process of requesting reviews ensured higher open and conversion rates, helping collect more customer reviews across locations. 

“Sending a review request after every interaction made it easy for customers to review us on Google. Requesting reviews in-moment ensured 30X more conversions compared to the industry average.” – Mr Satish Reddy, General Manager.

Ease and Simplicity of Usage

Zceppa makes it simple and easy for business teams to request reviews and for customers to write one. Zceppa’s Android and iOS mobile app enables customer-facing teams to send review requests at the right moment. Omni-channel support ensures customers receive review requests on the channel of their choice – SMS, WhatsApp, Email or QR Code. 

“Some customers find it easy to scan the custom QR code and write a review. Many prefer a request over SMS or WhatsApp, enabling them to review us from the convenience of their smartphones.”  – Mr Satish Reddy, General Manager.

Gamification, Monitoring, and Reporting Ensures Standardization and Consistency

Zceppa’s gamification and leaderboard modules solve two of the key challenges faced by multi-location businesses in consistently getting customer reviews: Standardizing the review collection process and monitoring progress across multiple distributed teams and locations.

Gamification module enables every location and every team member to be assigned daily, weekly, or monthly goals. Progress against goals can be tracked regularly through in-app and email reports. The leaderboard module creates competition among team members and locations, allowing the business to reward the best performers. 

“With Zceppa, we were able to set monthly goals by location and customer-facing teams. Daily reports enabled us to keep a tab on progress across locations and teams, helping nudge underperforming teams. Leader board helped us establish internal benchmarks, enabling us to incentivize and reward best performers.” – Mr Satish Reddy, General Manager.

Business Outcomes

Since implementing Zceppa in 2021, the business has seen the following outcomes across all locations:

60,000+ new Google reviews generated in 2 years

Post Zceppa implementation, the business saw 20X growth in review volume. Before Zceppa, the business had less than 65 Google reviews per location. This increased to 1300 per location with Zceppa.

1500%+ increase in traffic and 3X increase in conversions

Growth in review count and improvement in Google ratings with the successful implementation of Zceppa helped the business get 154% more inbound leads from the “Near Me” search and 3X more conversions.

Average Google rating improved by 27% from 3.7 to 4.7

With more customer reviews, the average star rating on Google of all 50+ locations increased by 27%, from 3.7 to 4.7. The business now has the highest average star rating compared to all its competitors across locations. 

“In the automotive world, customers pick the best. Improving our star rating to 4.7 signals credibility and trust. Zceppa helped us get there,” – Mr Satish Reddy, General Manager.