Santander Consumer Finance has launched a ‘customers for life’ programme in response to demand from car dealers.

The multi-million pound investment aimed at supporting car dealers in expanding their businesses by significantly growing customer retention rates, is part of an initial 12-month roll-out and will deliver online training and workshops focusing on the value of renewals as well as support and advice on turning leads into sales.

Santander’s sales team will also provide regular consultation reviews and management information on business performance as part of the process, it said.

Research and development of the new programme has been ongoing for around 15 months and came in response to dealer demand.

Santander Consumer Finance’s director of marketing and innovation Andy Green said: “Our customers for life programme has been developed specifically to help dealers increase renewals and improve their sales performance as a partnership.

“We believe there is an enormous opportunity to help our dealers prosper and deliver mutual sales growth their customers by focusing on the commercial value of retaining customers.

“Customers for Life is a major investment for us and testament to our long-term commitment to creating a sustainable and prosperous future for our dealer partners.”

The six online training modules will be available to customer-facing staff at dealer partners and available through the SCUK Online Academy.