WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — Last week, J.D. Power and DealerRater announced an alliance that will integrate DealerRater’s customer ratings and reviews of car dealerships with J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction insights via the firm’s customer experience management platform. Dealers will be able to see and analyze their online reputation as reported by DealerRater with J.D. Power’s survey-based customer feedback.

“We are excited to work with DealerRater to provide automakers and dealers with fast and comprehensive insights delivered through our new online reporting platform,” said Mike Battaglia, senior director of automotive retail at J.D. Power. “Where J.D. Power provides detailed operational information to manufacturers and dealers, DealerRater represents the magnified voice of customers across the Web in this age of social media.

“Further, this relationship protects our clients by avoiding the potential intellectual property issues associated with scraping online social media content without permission.”

Customers who receive an automotive survey from J.D. Power will be able to post a rating and review of their selling or servicing dealership to the DealerRater website. These public reviews will then feed back into the J.D. Power platform for reporting at both the dealer and manufacturer levels. Through this integration, dealers will have the opportunity to respond immediately to customers’ reviews to resolve customer issues while gaining a better understanding of their online reputation.

“Our consumer-written reviews serve many purposes, which includes helping consumers find the best place to buy a car and enabling dealers to understand what their customers are looking for in the car-shopping experience,” said Chip Grueter, chief technology architect and founder of DealerRater. “This integration will help make the process of gathering feedback easier for dealers and consumers by merging survey and review collection into one seamless process. Publishing this valuable feedback on DealerRater will give car shoppers the resources they need to make a confident purchase decision, while pinpointing how dealers can meet consumer needs. In short, we can help foster better relationships between dealerships and their customers.”

J.D. Power and DealerRater officials said the two companies have already begun working together to provide customer insights to automakers and dealers.