A recent study – “The Impact of Social Among Car Buyers” – made by MaritzCX shows that social media channels are having an impact on car shopping in the US.
Car buying decisions are somehow contextual and hard to define, but social media platforms are giving it a better understanding, gaining more traction and credibility.
Nature of the study – Social media reviews vs car buying decisions
This study gathered opinions from more than 13,300 US car and truck buyers who purchased a vehicle between 2015 and 2017.
Interestingly, 56% of survey participants reported that they rely on social media reviews when making a car purchase decision.
Another finding explains that 2/3 of Millennials relied on social media reviews when making car buying decisions.
Millennials conformed the highest group of people using social media platforms when making car buying decisions according to the study.
The most common source of car info and reviews come from popular medias including, Edmunds (31%) and Google (21%) with Facebook and DealerRater tying (4%).
Tim Englehart, vice president, Automotive at MaritzCX commented:
Social media reviews are gaining traction and power in making or breaking purchase decisions for products or entire brands. Accessing and understanding the pulse of customer experience (CX) is the game changer to engage with customers, discover insights and deliver on expectations.
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Dealership reviews
This study also identified that social media reviews offered a reliable source of information when it comes to product qualities and overall performance.
It also helped buyers pick the most rated dealership when making a car buying decision. 38% of social media reviews influence car buyers on which dealership to go for.
Google showed major popularity when it comes to dealer reviews with 32%, followed by Edmunds at 12%. Both Facebook and DealerRater amounted to 11%.
Generally, 80% of respondents confirmed that they look at positive and negative reviews when making car buying decisions.
As 56% of people report going through the reviews, only 53% mentioned that they have written a review on a social media platform.
Yet, 40% of participants were open to write social media reviews if the study requires it.
Englehart commented on this:
A CX program can harness untapped potential to encourage reviews from both happy and unhappy consumers,” Englehart said. “Dealers and auto brands that ask for reviews and make it easy to leave reviews are the ones that are going to leave the competition in their dust.
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