WALTHAM, Mass. -

DealerRater has introduced additional enhanced offerings as part of its new Connections product suite that is designed to create personal connections between dealerships’ top salespeople and ready-to-buy shoppers.

First launched in September, DealerRater Connections allows dealerships to create dealer and employee profiles linked to their reviews shared across DealerRater’s strategic syndication partner sites.

The new DealerRater Connections Plus leverages ReviewBuilder, which offers users an automated and customized way to earn more reviews. And the new Connections Premier offering provides dealerships with a dedicated Success Partner whose role is to jumpstart onboarding and keep employee profiles up-to-date.

“Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed a growing importance around a dealership’s online reputation to build more trust in the car buying process. In that time, consumers have written more than four million dealership reviews on DealerRater,” company general manager Jamie Oldershaw said in a news release. “In an effort to bring our dealer partners a new level of automation, convenience and personalization to their review-building program, we’re thrilled to introduce DealerRater Connections Plus and DealerRater Connections Premier.

“We know the majority of car buyers prefer to select a salesperson before arriving at the dealership, and 80 percent of DealerRater Certified Salespeople say their employee profile helps them sell more cars,” he said. “It goes without saying that we want to make it as easy as possible for dealers to reach shoppers by building their digital footprint and drive business growth.”

Additionally, using ReviewBuilder, dealers can solicit up to four times more reviews automatically via text or email through integrations with most DMS systems, according to DealerRater.

“DealerRater reviews help me stand out in a crowd of other salespeople and lets the customer know I’m a trustworthy sales consultant who will take good care of them,” said Rick Kruger, DealerRater certified salesperson and sales and leasing consultant at Don Ayres Honda in Fort Wayne, Ind.

“Building strong rapport with a customer is critical to making a sale, and through my employee profile I get to build that relationship before they even walk in the showroom. Not to mention, I have more customers seeking me out – some have traveled more than 150 miles just for me,” Kruger continued.