CALGARY, Alberta -

Canada-based Quorum Information Technologies has formed a partnership with the Carfolks.com auto retail marketing platform. The partnership can help dealers more effectively keep tabs on their online reputations, correct issues when needed and spread the word about favorable reviews from consumers, officials indicated.

The site contends it is the “only automotive retailer and sales professional community providing transparency and candid customer reviews unfiltered by auto dealers.”

The Carfolks program is designed to ensure that only a dealership’s actual customers post reviews about the store. It accomplishes this by automatically taking sales and service customer data from the XSellerator dealership management system.

With the reviews being made public, dealers can highlight their favorable ratings.

Additionally, similar to what Facebook provides, dealerships can utilize Carfolks to generate web pages for each person on their sales staffs and all their service advisors.

This is designed to allow them to expand their brand and better connect with new and future customers, as well. Officials contend it also aids dealers in staff retention and lowering hiring and training expenses.

“As social media channels exert more influence over where consumers shop and buy their vehicles, Quorum wants to provide our dealerships with the ability to meet the needs of managing their online reputations. After examining the landscape, we found Carfolks.com has a unique blend of a dealer centric model based on real ‘social evidence’ and objective information for consumers that presents an accurate picture of their experience,” shared Mark Allen, vice president of sales, marketing and services for Quorum.

“This alliance is an example of Quorum’s direction to help its dealers meet the needs of the modern marketplace and take worry out of their business,” he added. “It is under a program called ‘We’ve got you covered,’ which also encompasses our ground-breaking new Assurance programs as well as a number of other products and services aimed at helping dealers with predictability of expenses, security and compliance.”

Kim Clouse, Carfolks vice president, chimed in, noting: “Auto retailers haven’t always had the best reputation in the market, but we know most of them do a great job of taking care of their customers. We wanted a way to reward those dealers for doing things right every day.

“Our process is simple, non-intrusive and integrates with dealers’ websites, Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels,” Clouse continued. “And, if Carfolks identifies a customer issue, the dealer is notified immediately so they can call the customer and determine the best way to resolve the issue. The resolution can then be posted as part of the review.”