A third of customer data held by dealerships is incorrect, according to analysis from Experian.

Experian analysed the databases of a range of dealerships using its data cleanse savings calculator and discovered that on average 24% of customer records held by UK dealerships could be obsolete.

The financial value of incorrect data was calculated and revealed the UK’s largest dealers could be losing up to £600,000 per year in ineffective mailings.

The smallest dealerships with approximately 5,000 customer records would arguably be amongst the hardest hit, as they are less likely to regularly cleanse databases due to the perceived cost.

Small dealers could be losing in excess of £1,000 per campaign.

For medium-size dealerships (with 100,000 records) an average of 24,000 entries could be out of date resulting in losses of up to £20,000 pounds per campaign.

For the UK’s largest dealerships with databases containing approximately one million customer records the amount lost for a single mailing could hit £200,000.

If dealerships target those customers the average of three times a year, the true cost of bad data reaches a significant level.

Andrew Ballard, principle consultant at Experian’s Automotive, said: “Customer data is invaluable to all businesses to enables them to engage directly with their customers, create sales opportunities and inspire loyalty.

“Inaccurate records not only impact the return on investment of marketing activity, it also directly affects a business’s reputation and its relationships with customers.

“The good news is that adopting a data cleansing routine will help you maintain data accuracy over time. Whether you opt for a one-off data clean, or implement a regular strategy, you can reduce expenditure on outbound communications and allow your organisation to make more intelligent decisions based on up to date customer data.”