I am Ling.
Seanferd is correct. Hold on to your keyboard, you sloppy journalists at TechRepublic.
First, I am not "Mr" Ling. I am (unbelievably in the male-dominated car industry), female. So that just about sums up the deep and careful research put into this article by TechRepublic child journalists.
Second, if anyone at TechRepublic cared to do any research (at all), including at Companies House in the UK, they would see I am just about the (if not THE) most successful independent company in this lease-car sector in the UK, and that I manage this 100% online. That is no mean feat, considering some of the opposition are $Billion car dealer groups, manufacturers, banks and about a million smaller players.
On that basis, would it not occur to TechRepublic that my customers might just LIKE to scroll and see colourful bouncing car deals? That people might just like to enjoy a little fun and madness and excitement when choosing a new car? Instead of the thousands of dull, inaccurate, out of date and boring car sales sites that predominate (due to ineptitude and laziness and corporate boll*cks).
The demographic of my customers is so high. I have CEOs of listed companies, top policemen and senior armed forces personnel, UK MPs (I understand that's not saying much) and many celebs taking new cars from me. As well as hundreds and thousands of normal, high quality customers.
Who else can TechRepublic identify who solely makes a web-business out of such HIGH TICKET items? How easy do TechRepublic think it is to get sales and commitment for such massive items, often the second largest decision in anyone's life - a new car? Using just a website with NO offline communication. My customers are committing to spend 10,000GBP or 20,000GBP, over 2 or 3-years, purely based on my website which has a full own-built CRM behind it that gives (proven) the BEST customer experience in the UK car industry - maybe in the world. My customers are DELIGHTED. My customers take over 3 million GBP of new cars every month, just from my website, no offline infrastructure at all. No showroom. No physical contact. I order and supply over 36,000,000GBP of new cars a year, on lease contracts. All from this "horrible" website.
This should not happen as I am a non-franchised, non-manufacturer supported female Chinese immigrant. Yet it does, all from my website. Which, I admit, is colourful... BECAUSE IT BUILDS TRUST AND EMOTIONALLY ENGAGES PEOPLE. But TechRepublic journalists should hang their heads in shame at the lightweight, useless critique provided in the article above. I hate to think how accurate your serious articles are...
I have UX plaudits from people like @Zeldman and congratulations on my marketing from people like Seth Godin... so basically, TechRepublic - get new sunglasses, use adult journalists and stop making cheap shots. Maybe a lone Chinese - UK immigrant with a website is an easy target?
Idiots. Sheesh. Grrrrr. And don't tell me that THIS joke is the author's website?
http://www.ctfluhr.com/social.html hahahahaha! Oh - dear.
And by the way, your useless code strips out the UK "pound" sign,
Ling Valentine (Mrs)
@LINGsCARS
