June 4, 2023

The Power of the Staff Page

Today, a car dealership’s online presence is crucial for attracting and engaging potential customers. While highlighting a wide range of vehicles and offering details about services are essential, there is one often-overlooked element that can make a significant difference and that is a staff page. By creating a dedicated staff page, or Meet the Team page, you can humanize your brand, build customer trust, and improve the overall customer experience.

If your team is your most valuable asset, why wouldn’t you want to share all those smiling faces with your customers? Remember, people do business with people.

Here are 10 benefits for your dealership, your customers, and your employees.

Establishing Trust and Reliability: A staff page provides a platform for your dealerships to introduce your team members to customers. By featuring individual profiles, complete with names, titles, and photographs, you create a sense of transparency and credibility. Customers can see the faces behind the brand, furthering trust in your dealership’s expertise and professionalism. When potential buyers feel a personal connection with your staff, they are more likely to view your dealership as reliable and dependable.
Showcasing Expertise and Experience: Our industry is highly competitive, and customers are increasingly seeking out dealerships with experienced and knowledgeable staff. A staff page allows your dealership to highlight the expertise of the team members. Including brief bios or summaries of qualifications and certifications can reinforce your dealership’s commitment to providing excellent customer service. Customers who value expertise and feel confident that their needs will be met can be attracted by dealerships that display the extensive industry knowledge of their staff.
Enhancing Personal Connections: Car purchases are significant investments, and customers often appreciate a personal touch throughout the process. A staff page provides a unique opportunity for your dealership to create personal connections with potential buyers. Including personal interests or hobbies alongside professional information can help customers find common ground with your employees, leading to more meaningful interactions and a sense of rapport. Humanizing the dealership experience in this way can significantly influence a customer’s decision-making process.
Building a Supportive Community: A staff page can also contribute to creating a sense of community among both customers and employees. By featuring team members and their contributions to the dealership, customers can feel part of a larger network and engage with the brand beyond the initial purchase. The staff page can highlight events, charity initiatives, or community involvement, demonstrating the dealership’s commitment to giving back. This sense of community adds customer loyalty and encourages positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
Encouraging Communication with Accessibility: A well-designed staff page should include contact information for each team member, making it easier for customers to contact the relevant staff members directly. This direct line of communication can streamline the buying process and provide personalized assistance to customers with specific questions or concerns. Additionally, customers may feel more comfortable reaching out to someone they have already “met” online, further enhancing the dealership’s accessibility and customer service.

Employees also benefit from being featured on the staff page.

Professional Visibility and Recognition: Being featured on the staff page provides employees with increased visibility within the industry and the local community. It serves as a testament to their skills, experience, and commitment to the dealership. This visibility can open opportunities for professional growth, networking, and recognition among peers, which can be beneficial for career advancement. 
Build Their Brand: The staff page allows employees to create a personal brand within the context of the dealership. It gives them a platform to highlight their expertise, accomplishments, and unique selling points. By displaying their skills and knowledge, employees can position themselves as trusted authorities in the automotive industry. This can lead to increased credibility and new opportunities.
Sense of Belonging and Pride: Being included on the staff page instills a sense of belonging and pride among employees. It recognizes their contributions and importance to the dealership’s success. Seeing their names, photos, and profiles on the website validates their role on the team and boosts their morale. This recognition can aid a positive work environment, improve job satisfaction, and increase employee loyalty and retention. 
Increased Personal Connections: The staff page facilitates connections not only with customers but also with colleagues. Employees can get to know their teammates better by learning about their roles, backgrounds, and interests through the staff page. This shared information can spark conversations, collaborations, and a sense of camaraderie among employees. Building these personal connections strengthens the team dynamic and creates a supportive work environment. 
Expanded Professional Network: A well designed personal staff page acts as a networking tool for employees, allowing them to connect with industry professionals, customers, and potential business partners. It provides an opportunity to highlight their skills and expertise to a wider audience. Through the staff page, employees can establish valuable relationships and expand their professional network, which can lead to future career opportunities, collaborations, and industry recognition.

That is a lot of value to an employee.

When featured on the company’s “meet the team” page, it increases their professional visibility, promotes personal branding, gives them a sense of belonging, makes personal connections more accessible, and helps them grow their professional network.

Here are a couple of meet the team pages that stand out among our network:

Kristy Blackburn, LaRiche Chevrolet has individual pages for the dealerships sales people. Check them out on their meet the team page. The sales people have a “meet” button you can click on to see their individual staff page displaying a bio and ways to connect with the salesperson.

Another is Homer Skelton Ford. Brian Chapman has developed software called Build a Brand that gives their sales people a true personal marketing strategy. It is worth a look! Homer Skelton Staff Page. Just click on a Solutions Provider’s My Website button to see a beautiful personal website, like the one here for Celeste Romanoli

We believe the employee experience is directly impacts to the customer experience.

In the online world, your website is a path to engaging potential customers. Staff pages can help improve the car-buying experience. The benefits of establishing trust, showcasing expertise, building personal connections, fostering community, and enhancing communication make a staff page a valuable tool in today’s competitive market.