Lexus enhances online customer experiences with Widewail's Engage

Widewail has teamed up with Lexus to ensure the luxury automaker’s customers enjoy engaging online experiences.

Widewail's Engage solution, which provides online customer review monitoring and response management for businesses, will launch on August 1. Lexus is expected to cover the monthly subscription fee for participating dealers for one year.

As automakers and car dealerships face the impact of the coronavirus, Lexus is gearing up to improve its dealerships’ online operations across the US. For dealers using Widewail's Engage solution, that means effortless reputation monitoring and real-time responses to customer reviews.

Widewail’s Engage solution also aims to optimize positive reviews for search, recognizing that 57% of consumers will only consider businesses with 4-star or higher ratings.

"Online customer engagement through reviews and social media has a large impact on search rankings today and can easily – and immediately – influence a customer's decision to buy, recommend, or make contact with that business," said Matt Murray, founder and CEO of Widewail.

"All too often, a business suffers at the hands of a negative, unanswered review or social comment, a positive review that goes unappreciated, or worse, individuals who don't represent the company injecting their opinion. We are proud to introduce our solution to Lexus dealers and ensure they never miss an opportunity to deliver a positive customer experience."

David Telfer, national manager of digital marketing at Lexus, added: "At Lexus we have always held guest experience as our top priority. Now, more than ever, our customers are interacting with our dealerships online. With thousands of customer interactions happening each day, we need a solution for our dealerships that is of the highest quality, personal, and cost-effective.”

Telfer continued, citing Widewail’s “thoughtful approach to engagement management and unique focus on conversational SEO” as the reason why the automaker tasked the Burlington, Vermont-based company with improving its customers’ online experiences.

For Amy Nail, marketing director at Jim Koons Automotive Companies, Widewail’s products have already provided the Jim Koons family of dealerships with true peace of mind as it relates to both their customers and their overall reputation.

"When customer issues do arise, the Widewail process is quick and seamless, and we immediately put the customer at ease and take any issues offline. Having the expertise of the Widewail team in our corner has allowed us to focus on other aspects of our digital strategies with the peace of mind that our online reputation is being guarded," Nai said of Widewail’s services.

Lexus isn’t the first automaker to use Widewail’s Engage solution, as the company already works with Subaru, BMW and MINI.