If you’re running a car dealership, contact with your customers shouldn’t end when they drive off the forecourt in their shiny new motor. It should be the start of a long and profitable relationship.
The problem is that the longevity and profitability of that relationship depends on the data you hold about those customers. You can’t contact them with exciting offers and updates on new models if you don’t have their contact details, service history, and a good idea of the kind of vehicle they drive. That critical data needs to be accessible to keep the customer coming back to you. This is particularly pertinent given that there is often more profit to be made from aftermarket sales than there is from the initial sale of the car.
Typically, automotive customer data is stored in disparate dealer management systems that are often not connected, are in different locations, and require different methods to extract the data. That’s where efficient, ongoing data consolidation and analysis can help customer retention.
Collating data from multiple systems, as we do using our DataHub software, can boost sales and profitability. It also helps save time by automating tasks which are currently performed manually. Here are just a few ways in which consolidated data can boost an automotive business.
Business analysis
Centralised data can be used for a myriad of tasks focused internally on the business. These include:
- Monitoring sales performance and identifying weak areas of the business
- Forecasting future sales and managing your sales pipeline
- Market research and customer satisfaction surveys
- Automatically reordering parts on a regular basis to maintain optimum availability.
Customer retention
Get the most from your existing customers with an active stream of relevant, timely communication. After integration, data can be analysed for:
- Customer profiling
- Reminder conversion
- Servicing penetration
- Customer loyalty.
This enables you to plan marketing campaigns. In particular, detailed customer data can be segmented according to customer type, vehicle type or the service originally provided. This helps create a more targeted campaign and also can be used to monitor specific KPIs for the sales team.
Integrated records for the customer, vehicle and workshop can be used to efficiently identify which customers are due for a service or MOT. The data should include bookings data, to exclude customers who already have their next appointment scheduled.
Data quality improvements
Our clients often use our data quality service to optimise their data. Marketing data can inevitably be incorrect because elements are missing or recorded incorrectly at the time of the customer visit. Accurate details help ensure that activities such as reminders when the next service or MOT is due are issued at the right time. You can save money by having the correct customer contact information and data ready to use for mailings.
Data that has been integrated in this way becomes a valuable and practical asset. It promotes the business and keeps every customer in your dealership, optimising the profit that can be made from each one. Click here to read a case study on how we integrate data for Honda.
