Company Press Release

DealerRater Celebrates 10 Years as Largest Third-party Review Web Site

DealerRater is celebrating today its first decade in business. Founded in Waltham, Massachusetts by its current President Chip Grueter, the company has grown into the largest third-party review web site dedicated solely to automotive dealerships.

Waltham, Mass. – DealerRater, the world’s premier car dealer review web site, is celebrating today its first decade in business. Founded in Waltham, Massachusetts by its current President Chip Grueter, the company has grown into the largest third-party review web site dedicated solely to automotive dealerships.  Whether it’s the DealerRater logo, Certified Dealer seal or its rich consumer review content, the DealerRater brand is now visible to more than 4 million consumers every month and growing.    And with more than 30 million impressions of the DealerRater brand served up to consumers every month, the strong influence of consumer reviews on purchasing decisions – and DealerRater’s central role in the online research process – is difficult to ignore.  In fact, over the past year nearly 7 million unique in-market car shoppers visited DealerRater to research car dealerships before purchasing or servicing an automobile.    

“DealerRater was launched in 2002 as a way for consumers to share their sales and service experiences at automotive dealerships with other website users.  The fact that we’re celebrating a decade in business is a wonderful accomplishment and I’m extremely grateful to our dealer clients, consumer users, partners and employees for the tremendous success we continue to experience. ” said Chip Grueter, DealerRater president.  “Our growth represents a strong validation of the importance of online third-party reviews in the automotive industry and the effectiveness of the online reputation management tools that we’ve developed exclusively for our Certified Dealers.  Ten years in and we’re still at the forefront of the consumer revolution and leading the way for car dealerships,” Grueter added.   

Just this past month, the company announced the launch of its mobile optimized web site, making it easier than ever for automotive consumers to research dealer reviews, rate their own car dealership experiences, and browse cars for sale using mobile browsers on iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices.   Currently more than 20% of DealerRater’s site traffic comes from a mobile device. 

The DealerRater site receives an average of 870 new reviews per day, and on weekdays records a new review every 55 seconds.  With its unparalleled volume of dealer reviews now approaching 900,000, 25% of all franchised dealers in the U.S. have embraced DealerRater and its popular Certified Dealer Program as a critical component to their online reputation efforts.  By taking full advantage of the full suite of review-gathering and leveraging tools included in the Certified Dealer Program, Certified Dealers on average boast nearly 9 times the review count as non-certified dealers and also see a full 1-Star average overall rating lift compared to non-certified dealers.  

Since introducing the Certified Dealer Program in 2008, DealerRater has continued to advance its online reputation management solutions for the dealer community.  Most recently, the company expanded its product set with the launch of 360Certified™ - the premium level of the Certified Dealer Program, which offers dealers a comprehensive online reputation management and social monitoring platform, including a proprietary 360 dashboard. 

“DealerRater remains committed to offering the dealer community the most innovative products and services in the reputation management and social media arenas.   We are truly enthusiastic for the future and have a number of exciting initiatives planned, including the unveiling of the next generation of the DealerRater.com web site later this year, which will offer a refreshed design as well as many new features for both our dealer clients and consumer users,” Grueter added.  

For more information, visit www.DealerRater.com or call 800-266-9455. 

Tags: certified dealer, dealer reviews, 360certified