Auto

How Auto Trader builds trust throughout the automotive market

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Auto Trader is the UK and Ireland's largest digital automotive marketplace. Did you know, each year, there are over 10 million transactions in the automotive market?

Auto Trader is fully committed to driving change in how consumers shop for these cars online. To do so, the business partnered with Trustpilot to create trust and transparency throughout the auto industry, and encourage users to share their experiences.

This month, we spoke with Gabriella Johnson, Customer Experience and Insight Specialist, and Marc Thornborough, Independent Brand Director, to better understand how Auto Trader works towards its goal by leveraging customer confidence.

Building a great brand reputation with online reviews

“We chose to partner with Trustpilot because of the platform’s great reputation, brand awareness and recognition with customers. We knew that we wanted to partner with a platform which could really help us to build trust in the UK marketplace with our private sellers”, explains Marc.

The auto industry isn’t well-known for its great reputation, especially when it comes to buying a car. Auto Trader understands the challenges the market is facing, and leverages Trustpilot reviews to build trust with both consumers and customers.

Since using Trustpilot, Auto Trader has also considerably increased its conversion rate. The business has also adopted a ‘voice-of-the-customer strategy’.

“The feedback is really, really valuable. That communication and that link with consumers breeds loyalty and is a great advert to all our prospective customers", says Marc.

The brand has also found the Trustpilot platform really easy to use. Gabriella explains:

“Our ‘voice of the customer’ team uses Trustpilot every day, so it’s really important that we use a platform that is easy to pull insights from. Trustpilot offers different ways to generate reports, which we do quite regularly to monitor our reviews and TrustScore, and make sure we keep getting better and better.”

Auto Trader understand that receiving a bad review isn't bad for your business or for your reputation. The business has learnt how to handle negative feedback, and how to turn bad reviews into positive stories. Taking time to answer reviews proves that your team takes all customer experiences seriously, and wants to work towards delivering great customer service and experiences. In this day and age, there’s nothing more trustworthy than a customer-centric brand.

“If you really do focus on your reviews and the feedback that your customers are giving you, and if you work hard towards improving your service and customer experience, you really can improve your reputation", says Gabriella.

If you're looking to build trust with customers and manage your online reputation just like Auto Trader does, request a free Trutpilot demo below.