Would You Sell A Car Then Ship It 300 Miles Away?

A dealership in Athens, Georgia has decided to reach out to their customers even if they are 300 miles away. Bulldog Kia is now known for working with potential car buyers via phone and email to craft sales. After that the dealership is willing to deliver cars to customers up to 300 miles away. Stephen White, the General Sales Manager at Bulldog told Edmunds that, “We have sold cars completely online. We are here to do business however a customer wants us to, whether that’s over the phone, online, or in person. If they don’t want to come to us we can go to them.”

This outreach occurs in an era when many consumers are often unhappy with their car buying experience in a dealership. To see proof of this, one simply has to search “dealership” on twitter to see a slew of complaints. Many of them are often related to waiting for hours in a dealership and not understanding why during the purchasing process. Bulldog Kia, it appears is content to let the entire sales process occur without a car lot. That process includes trade-in vehicles.

Bulldog’s trade-in value estimates are given when customers exchanges photos and the vehicle VIN with dealership employees. A questionnaire is also given to potential customers to assess the condition of their car. This strategy is helping Bulldog Kia find customers who otherwise wouldn’t consider a dealership so far away. The concept may sound promising, but is it working?

To find out how this type of long distance customer relationship has been received one only needs to take a gander at the Google reviews for Bulldog Kia. They have a 4.6 out of 5 star rating with 111 reviews. On a positive review, Elizabeth Elliot writes, “The entire staff made me feel welcome with smiles and handshakes all around. I do not like high pressure sales and felt very at ease during my experience.” Not everyone agreed they had a great experience as others left negative more specific reviews. With the ability to work a deal long distance as one of their potential strongpoints, one would expect to see customer reviews on that subject. However, looking into all Facebook and Google reviews for Bulldog Kia revealed only one reviewer who mentioned they are willing to travel 25 miles to that location. There are a slew of reasons why this is the case, however, nearly all of their reviews are powerfully positive.

What do you think of long-distance car deals? Do you already have this service at your store? How do you makeup for shipping costs? Have you seen this type of service work? Whether you have or have not, it’s easy to see what customers want and think. Thanks to the popularity of online reviews, extremes in positive or negative experiences are quickly made available to the public via the Internet. In 2014 customers are used to having the chance to air their grievances or express their gratitude to a worldwide web audience. The question for dealerships is: What are you doing to make one of your clients a positive experience worth writing about?