“We can analyse their customer data and send it back – especially for smaller groups without the expertise or resources to do it themselves,” says managing director Rob Whalley. “We can check ownership in the local area, age, income, lifestyle and predict timings for the next purchase or service – for private buyers and fleets.”
He adds: “Manufacturers and dealers are failing to maintain and exploit their vast customer databases, and that’s costing their businesses thousands of pounds.”
Research has revealed a worrying statistic: around seven in 10 dealers think their customers are still driving the cars they last bought from them, but more than one-third aren’t.
The reason for this lack of knowledge is two-fold: failure to accurately input customer data into dealer management systems (wrong name, address of contact details) and a lack of database cleansing. Cleansing cuts mailing costs by removing the ‘gone aways’ and updating data. Dealers are believed to be wasting around £40m a year sending out wrongly addressed direct mail.
Experian will next month launch a product that ties together its various dealer marketing solutions.
It will help dealers become more targeted in the sales process, cutting costs and time. “Dealers will have to embrace new ways of looking after the customer and promote their business to attract more customers,” adds Whalley.
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