Sys2K’s Infinity complete dealer management software now offers U.S. customers integrated PCI compliant payment processing through a new integration with Novera Payment Solutions, LLC.

Sys2K™, a leading provider of Windows®‐based dealer management software that features real‐time integration across all dealership departments, is pleased to announce a partnership with Novera Payment Solutions, LLC. The Novera integration allows US customers to securely process credit card payments directly through the Sys2K. Infinity software suite.

As part of this partnership, Novera provides its integrated payment processing solution to Sys2K customers utilizing a cost‐effective, transparent monthly fee structure; all additional fees normally associated with payment processing integration such as gateway fees, interface setup, and maintenance fees have been absorbed into one bundled package.

“The partnership between Novera and Sys2K is exactly the type of relationship we look for with Integrated Software Vendors or (ISV’s)… The collaborative effort between Sys2K and Novera has produced a great offering for Sys2K clients, and we are extremely pleased to be partnered with them,” said John Wisniewski, Director of Business Development for Novera Payment Solutions, LLC.

“With Novera, we are excited to offer our clients a straightforward, secure and robust integrated credit card processing solution that will save them time and money,” said Carl Sconnely, President of Sys2K.

About Novera

Novera specializes in partnerships with Integrated Software Vendors or (ISV’s) for payment acceptance.

These partnership programs include the initial design plan, including optimization for maximum adoption of uses and the ongoing management of the program. Novera is one of the largest registered Member Service Providers (MSP’s) for WorldPay and delivers flexibility in accepting credit card payments, debit card payments, and virtual terminal solutions through PCI‐compliant payment processing plans.

About Sys2K

Sys2K™ (Systems 2000, Inc.) is a premier provider of Powersports, Bus, Marine, Automotive, and Class 8/Heavy Duty, and RV dealership software. Sys2K’s Infinity software is a fully integrated, indows®‐based DMS that features modules including CRM, F&I, Parts and Service, Payroll, Accounting, Rental, Advanced Reporting, Premium Websites, Cloud Hosting, and Mobile Apps. Founded in 1984, Sys2K prides itself in developing the highest‐quality software solutions for the dealership environment. For more information, visit http://www.sys2k.com.

For more information, visit: www.noverapaymentsolutions.com/sys2k

Sys2K has teamed up with Novera Payment Solutions, LLC (Novera). Novera is a partner for integrated credit card payment processing services and debit card payment processing to Sys2K clients. Novera was selected to help guide you through the complicated world of credit & debit card acceptance. Novera delivers a unique combination of value, integrity and price transparency to Sys2K clients that is unparalleled throughout the payment processing industry.

Who is Novera Payment Solutions?

Novera Payment Solutions is well known as a leader in the credit card payments industry and is committed to helping auto dealerships and other businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative and transparent pricing models.

Contact Novera to learn more about how we work with small businesses, auto dealers and auto dealer associations to provide the most fair and transparent pricing structure available on the market today for credit card processing.

It's no secret that B2B (business to business) marketing and B2C (business to consumer) marketing has changed significantly in the past five years. One of the primary reasons for this is the growth of social media.  Successful businesses are becoming resources for their customers, regularly creating valuable content of interest and sharing it freely across the social sphere.

If your auto dealership (or any business for that matter) has yet to dive in to social media, it's time to get on the bandwagon. You're already behind, so there's no time to waste! One of the big mistakes made by companies, however, is jumping in without a plan.

Here are six tips to prepare your auto dealership for social media marketing so you do it right from the start.

1. Set clear goals for the social media efforts of your auto dealership.
   Like anything else, without goals you cannot measure whether anything has been acheived. Good goals are measurable and have a timeframe associated with them.
   
   
2. Ensure that you have enough personel resources dedicated to the effort.
   If you don't have the personel in house, then consider hiring an agency to assist you. The key to an effective social media presence is great content, consistency, engagement, and monitoring. This does not happen by logging in to Facebook just once per week and making a sales post.
   
   
3. Commit to building great content and giving it away.
   This is the age of the customer. Customers have access to more information, reviews, testimonials, and studies than ever before. If you want to position yourself as the expert in your field and have your auto dealership dominate in your area, you need to make helpful information available to your client-base freely and regularly, across multiple channels.
   
   
4. Identify what social channels your customers are using and how they are using them.
   There are only so many hours in the day. Ideally, you would be publishing across all the major social channels, but if your time is limited then you need to find out where your customers are hanging out and make those channels your priority. Are they on Facebook? Twitter? Google+?  Are they using Pinterest?  Find out the answer and make sure your auto dealership has an active presence there.
   
   
5. Clean up your website.
   One of the by-products of effective social media campaigns is increased traffic to your website. What does your website do for your auto dealership today? Does it have effective calls to action and lead capturing capabilities? If not, take the time to fix this. When you are driving new traffic to your site, you want to make sure you have the ability to capture information and get the prospective customer to do what you want them to while they are there!
   
   
6. Measure your results regularly.
   Remember tip number one? If you've set measurable goals, make sure you actually stop after the time period you specified and review what you've done and the results that you've achieved. Review what did and did not work. Tweak your process, set a new goal, and repeat!

Just like anything else in business, if you start with a plan, your chances of success are amplified!  With these simple steps, your auto dealership (and again, ANY business) will be off and running building great social media presence.

Who is Novera Payment Solutions?

Novera Payment Solutions is well known as a leader in the credit card payments industry and is committed to helping auto dealerships and other businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative flat fee pricing model.

Contact Novera to learn more about how we work with small businesses, auto dealers and auto dealer associations to provide the most fair and transparent pricing structure available on the market today for credit card processing.

In previous posts, we've discussed the fact that there are few things more frustrating to auto dealerships than losing precious recurring service business to the aftermarket. Fortunately, several strategies are available to help auto dealers to build service retention programs and to profit from them. Our recent post, "Keep Service Business at Your Autodealership", discussed using pre-paid maintenance plans, and well as service rewards and customer loyalty programs. Just as with pre-paid maintenance plans, customer loyalty card programs keep car owners coming back to your dealership through the life of the vehicle, allowing you to cultivate long term relationships with your customers and ultimately create repeat purchasers and referrers.

You can also use social media as a very powerful tool to draw service business back to your dealership!

There are many reasons you should be using Twitter to help market your auto dealership and build your brand, but did you know that Twitter also has a free SMS (text messaging) service? The best part is your customers do not have to have Twitter accounts. They can simply subscribe to receive your Twitter updates via text message, which are then received directly on their smart phones. What a great way to alert customers of service specials, remind them seasonal of service checkups, as well as promote other specials throughout the dealership.

Here's how it works:

1. Create a Twitter account for your dealership. Once you have setup your account, you will have a Twitter handle.  For example, @NJCarDealer.
2. Market your text alert service with signage at the dealership, in your ads, and in your other promotional materials.
3. Your customers use their smart phones and send a text message to shortcode 40404 that reads FOLLOW NJCarDealer (replace NJCarDealer with your actual handle). Notice there is no mention of Twitter here ... your customer does not have to have a Twitter account. This service is called Fast Follow.
4. Once your customer subscribes by sending this text message, they will receive anything you post to your Twitter account as an actual live text message on their smart phone. 

Why is this so powerful?

Besides the fact that Twitter makes this available to you free of charge, consider some of these stats from Anchor Mobile and LogMyCalls:

1. 98% of text messages are read vs. 29% of Tweets vs. 12% of Facebook posts vs. 20% of emails.
2. 90% of text messages are read within three minutes of receipt.
3. SMS coupons are 10x more likely to be redeemed than mail or newspaper coupons
4. 70% of all people in the U.S. said they would like to receive offers on their mobile phones.
5. The average person looks at their phone 150 times each day.

You already know that ngoing interaction with satisfied customers through the life of the vehicle builds relationships and customer loyalty. Considering giving Twitter a try!

About Novera Payment Solutions

Learn more about Loyalty Cards and Service Rewards Programs for your dealership:

• Get started with Novera's Loyalty & Service Rewards Program for Auto Dealers and increase your customer service visits

• Use the Loyalty & Service Rewards Program to bring customers back to repurchase

• See dramatic savings on your credit card processing fees with Novera's flat fee, transparent processing rates for auto dealers

According to a study by Cone Communications, 80% of consumers say they have changed their mind about a purchase based solely on negative information they found online. It's no surprise that having negative reviews about your business online can significantly impact your bottom line.

So, what should you do if you find a negative online review about your auto dealership?

There 6 key steps you should considering taking when responsing, but before you attempt to respond be sure you've claimed your social media profiles. This enables you to respond to reviews directly as the owner of the business. "Claiming" your profiles varies by service, but generally it involves creating the account and verifying your ownership. Start with Google+, but also include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, and FourSquare, at a minimum. Be sure to check out our recent blog post featuring "7 Sites to Monitor to Protect Your Auto Dealership Online Reputation" for others.

Once you have an account that allows you to respond as the owner of the business, considering taking these 6 steps when responding to a negative review.

1. Thank them for taking the time to provide feedback. The person writing the review has done business with you and presumably has spent some money. You should also understand your reviewer is likely vocal and opinionated (otherwise they would not be writing the review). They are taking their time to let you (and their friends) know about the experience. Right or wrong on their end, it's important to acknowledge and thank them. Remember, this doesn't mean you necessarily agree with the feedback ... you are simply thanking them taking the time to provide it.
2. Acknowledge their frustration. We've all been there as a consumer. Acknowledging the customer's feelings (again, right or wrong) shows empathy and can help diffuse those feelings. It can be a simple statement like, "I am sure this made you incredibly frustrated."
3. Apologize, if the review is true. If in fact the negative review is warranted based on an actual experience at your business, a simple apology can go a long way. A sincere "I am truly sorry you had this experience at our dealership," let's the reviewer know you acknowledge the problem actually occurred and that it matters to you.
   
4. Address any adjustments you've made as a result of the feedback. For example, if someone writes a negative review because they waited too long in the service area, perhaps you've added another mechanic during peak hours, or added free WiFi or beverages to your waiting area to help pass the time. Or maybe you've implemented a stronger communcation process so customers are better informed of the time it will take for the service.
5. Offer to discuss the issue further. You've thanked them for the feedback, you've ackowledged their frustrations, you've apologized, and you've let them know that a change has been made as a result of the feedback. Now, if they have any questions or concerns let them know that you would personally like to assist them offline and provide a good way to contact you (or you can contact them if you have their information).
6. Close with your commitment to excellence. Close the response with your committment to excellent customer service and thank them again for providing information to help your business improve.

Always, always, always take the high road.

Remember, many times when someone writes a negative review, they are doing so because they are at their wits end and don't think they will get satisfaction any other way. They may also be angry when they are writing it. No matter how inappropriate the commentary or the language, as the business owner, you should take the high road of complete professionalism. This will prevent things from spiraling into further online commentary.

Many businesses get negative reviews, some warranted and others not. People do read them. They also read the responses from the business owners, when they are available. It is your response to that negative review that they will judge. Refrain from attacking the reviewer or being condescending to the reviewer, no matter how tempting it may be. If you work through the sevensteps above, you have a great opportunity to turn the negative into a positive for your auto dealership.

For tips on generating more positive online reviews, see "4 Tips to Get Your Customers to Write Great Reviews."

Who is Novera Payment Solutions?

Novera Payment Solutions is well known as a leader in the credit card payments industry and is committed to helping auto dealerships and other businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative flat fee pricing model.

Contact Novera to learn more about how we work with small businesses, auto dealers and auto dealer associations to provide the most fair and transparent pricing structure available on the market today for credit card processing.

According to a Bazaarvoice survery, 76% of consumers regularly or occasionally use online reviews to determine which local business to use. The same study found that a desire to help others was the reason 90 percent of consumers write reviews. This is great news for your auto dealership (as well as other business owners).

The question is, how can you capitalize on this and generate more positive reviews for your business?

1. Build your social presence.
   In order to get positive online reviews, your auto dealership needs to have a presence in the social landscape. Setup your Google+ page, create a Yelp account, make sure you have business Facebook page, as well as a business LinkedIn page. These accounts are essential, at a minimum. Other platforms are also important in different industries (FourSquare, Trip Advisor, etc).
    
2. Promote your social presence.
   Make your customers aware of your social presence and encourage regular engagement with your brand. Interact with your customers online. The more enagement you have, the more likely you are to receive unsolicited positive reviews and feedback.
   
   To promote your social presence consider using:
    

• Email signature block
• Signage in your auto dealership and service area
• Social icons in any marketing collateral
• Social icons in any print ads and billboard ads
• Social icons and widgets on your website
• Social media addresses on the back of your business cards
   

Nearly 80 percent of new-vehicle buyers use the Internet during their shopping process, and nearly one-third consult online ratings/review sites when selecting a dealer, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study.

To protect your online reputation, it's important to be aware of what's being said about your auto dealership across the web.  In a previous article, we discussed 4 Free Software Tools to Monitor Your Auto Dealership Reputation, but it's also important that you are aware of the various websites where consumers are writing reviews about auto dealerships.

7 Sites You Should Monitor to Protect Your Auto Dealership's Online Reputation

1. Google.com/+

Go to Google and search for your business name.

According to Google's Help/Support Area:

"Currently, you may see two types of pages on Google for a single business. These pages will either be business listings with scores and reviews, or they will be local Google+ pages with social features. You can distinguish the pages by the features available.

If below the cover photo you only see the tabs for About and Photos, along with scores and reviews, then it’s a business listing.  When business listings appear on Google Maps or in Google Search, clicking on more info or on Google reviews will take you to this type of page. Business owners can verify these pages from the Places for Business dashboard.

Some businesses may have also created pages in Google+. You can identify these pages if there are tabs for Posts, About, Photos, and Videos. If there isn’t the option to leave a review, the business owner hasn't verified this local Google+ page.

When a business owner verifies a local Google+ page, any existing listing for the business is merged with the local Google+ page to create a single page with a verified checkmark. Verified local Google+ pages have features of both pages described above–scores and reviews as well as posts from the business owner."

The important piece is that you claim your business listing by verifying your local Google+ page.  Once you have done this, you will have the ability to respond to any reviews that have been submitted, as well as flag inappropriate reviews.

 2. Yelp.com

Over 102 million people visited Yelp in Q1 2013 to make spending decisions. To help businesses get the most out of their online presence, Yelp Business Accounts offer a suite of FREE tools for businesses.

• Communicate with your customers-- privately and publicly

• Track how many people view your business page

• Add photos, a detailed business description, up-to-date information, history, and specialties

• Recommend other businesses

Go to Yelp.com and search for your business name to view reviews. You can create a free account with Yelp, which will then enable you to respond to reviews.

3. DealerRater.com

DealerRater established the first car dealer review website worldwide to help consumers find the right automotive dealer online when purchasing or servicing their cars. They enable consumers to search for car dealerships, read and write reviews, and find car deals through the site’s classified ads. The service is free for consumers. Dealers can create 4 levels of accounts with DealerRater. The cost varies.

4. Edmunds.com

Edmunds.com has a section for Auto Dealer Ratings & Reviews. Consumers can review a dealership in two areas: sales and service. Each review contains an area for the consumer to: write about their experiences, list the pros and cons, state whether they would recommend the dealership to other, and then score the dealership’s sales or service department in five areas on a scale of 1-5, or “not applicable”. Edmunds recommend that dealers become personally involved in their community. They allow you to comment on reviews and provide additional information. Dealer Ratings & Reviews

5. MyDealerReport.com

MyDealerReport.com allows consumers to write reviews on auto dealerships and rate how them for: Buying Process, Sales Associate, Vehicle Selection, Finance Dept., Trade-In Process, Service Dept. and Sales Press Level. As a dealer, you can request an account here:

http://www.mydealerreport.com/dealers/index.php

6. CarDealerCheck.com

Car Dealer Check  informs consumers which car dealers honor their promises, their online price quotes, treat their customers with respect and dignity and generally provide a quality service. Users must register to write a review or to respond to a review.

7. DealershipRatings.com

Much like the other sites listed here, DealershipRatings.com enables consumers to review auto dealerships across a variety of areas. DealershipRatings.com does not require the user to register before posting a review, however. There is no specific area for a dealer to create an account to respond to specific reviews as the dealer. Instead, you simply go to your listing (as the consumer would) and click on "Rate this Dealer".

Know What Consumers are Saying About Your Auto Dealership

It's important to take the time to monitor what people are saying about your auto dealership online. Be sure to check the sites above regularly for new reviews and use the 4 Free Software Tools to Monitor Your Auto Dealership Reputation discussed in our previous blog post to help protect your online reputation. Being an informed business owner is being an empowered business owner, and enables you to address reviews (good and bad) in a timely manner. In coming articles, we'll discuss how to respond to negative reviews and how to solicit positive reviews.

About Novera Payment Solutions

Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the credit card payments industry and is committed to helping auto dealerships and other businesses improve the bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative flat fee pricing model.

The Novera Advantange

• Novera’s consultative approach allows us to thoroughly educate our clients, equipping them to better understand this complicated industry.

• We take the mystery out of the credit card processing business.

• We work with all types of businesses across the country, and one our specialties is auto dealership credit card processing.

Contact Novera to learn more about how we work with small businesses, auto dealers and auto dealer associations to provide the most fair and transparent pricing structure available on the market today for credit card processing.

It's more important than ever to be aware of what consumers are saying about your auto dealership. Negative online reviews can cause tremendous damage to your dealership’s reputation and sales.

Consumer reviews may include both positive and negative commentary regarding price, customer service, as well as overall quality of their vehicle and their experience with your dealership or service department. Positive reviews are fantastic and we'll write a blog post in the near future about how to acquire more written positive reviews online. It's the negative reviews that you need to know about quickly, however, so you can properly address them before they do harm to your dealership's reputation.

Fortunately, there are some great free software tools available online to help you monitor your auto dealership's reputation. Here, we highlight four of our favorites.

• Google Alerts

Google Alerts are free email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries. You consider setting up Google alerts for your business name, the names of key team members, and your website address, at a minimum. Simply enter your query string, then select the result type(s) that you would like to receive, how often you would like to receive alerts, and how many alerts you'd like to receive. Google will then send you emails alerting you to any mentions concerning your business, as well as any other alerts you setup.

http://www.Google.com/alerts

• Social Mention

  Social Mention allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.

STRENGTH is the liklihood that your brand is being discussed in social media. A simple calculation is used for this: phrase mentions within the last 24 hours divided total possible mentions.

SENTIMENT is the ration of generally positive commentary to generally negative commentary.

PASSION is the measure of likelihood that people who are talking about your brand will do so repeatedly.

REACH is a measure of your range of influence. It is the number of unique authors referencing your brand divided by the total number of mentions.

You simply go to the website, enter your business name (or other query) and Social Mention will return the results (with links) to all the mentions across the social platforms. It also returns (with greater detail) the data outlined above.

http://www.socialmention.com

• Mention

Mention is similar to SocialMention.com in that it queries the social media channels for your brand mentions. Create alerts on your name, your brand, your industry and your competitors and be informed of any mention on the web and social networks. The nicest feature of Mention is that it is accessible across all devices (desktop, laptop, tablet, and smart phone). It also provides real time alerts. This can be invaluable when it comes to negative mentions of your brand, because you are alerted immediately.

http://www.metion.com

• NetVibes

NetVibes is a pretty powerful dashboard, allowing you to monitor your brand across Google, the blogosphere, and the social platforms. The free version (somewhat limited) allows you to enter your business name and view real time results. NetVibes does have an option to upgrade which includes some pretty powerful analytics.

http://www.NetVibes.com

Consider This

A Consumer Survey (2012) indicated a positive shift in consumer trust of online reviews. 72% of consumers surveyed reported they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. 52% indicated positive online reviews make them more likely to use a local business. Additionally, the survey revealed 65% of consumers read between 2-10 reviews before they felt they could trust a local business.

Clearly, regardless of the tool that you select, it's critically important to be proactive and monitor your auto dealership's reputation online. In upcoming posts, we'll share ideas for  soliciting positive reviews online, as well as how to proactively and effectively deal with negative reviews.

About Novera Payment Solutions

Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the credit card payments industry and is committed to helping auto dealerships and other businesses improve the bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative flat fee pricing model.

The Novera Advantange

• Novera’s consultative approach allows us to thoroughly educate our clients, equipping them to better understand this complicated industry.

• We take the mystery out of the credit card processing business.

• We work with all types of businesses across the country, and one our specialties is auto dealership credit card processing.

Contact Novera to learn more about how we work with small businesses, auto dealers and auto dealer associations to provide the most fair and transparent pricing structure available on the market today for credit card processing.

There are several misconceptions in our industry that lead to confusion about credit card processing rates and fees.

Here we highlight the reality of the top 3.

1. One Low Rate

Misconception: More often than not when a payment processing account executive presents their services they may only quote one rate that sounds something like 1.29% and 15 cents. This can lead the business owner to assume that this is the only rate that will ever be charged for all payment acceptance.

Reality: In most cases there are many different rates applied. These rates are applied depending upon the type of card and how that card is accepted for payment. For example, a corporate credit card has a higher cost than a personal debit card and a swiped  transaction generally is less than a non swpied transaction.

2. Free Equipment

Misconception - Account executives for payment services may tell business owners that they will give them card swiping equipment for “free” when they switch to their processing services. They may make this equipment appear to be worth much more than it actually is so it appears like they are giving the business owner a great deal.

Reality - Most things in this world are seldom free. That pricey piece of card swiping equipment most likely can be purchased elsewhere for significantly less than what most Account Executives will lead you to believe it is worth.  Usually the higher processing rates, and other fees, cause many small businesses to end up paying for their equipment many times over throughout the term of their contract.

3. Fees

Misconception - Fees such as statement fees, data security fees, batch header fees, monthly minimum fees, and a host of other fees are necessary administrative costs to keep payment processing services operating.

Reality - There are costs to maintain processing services. However, many fees are there to create additional margin and further cutting into the businessowners profit.

There's no doubt the credit card payment processing industry has become increasingly confusing, and many auto dealerships (and small business everywhere) are being unknowingly taken advantage of in this complexity. As a result, many business owners are paying more than necessary for this critical service by thousands of dollars per year. Novera’s transparent and innovative flat fee pricing is changing all of that

The Novera Advantange

• Novera’s consultative approach allows us to thoroughly educate our clients, equipping them to better understand this complicated industry.
• We take the mystery out of the credit card processing business.
• We work with all types of businesses across the country, and one our specialties is auto dealership credit card processing.