65 per cent of dealers haven't cleansed database in more than two years

12 September 2005

 

NUMBER per cent of franchise dealers have failed to cleanse their customer database in the last two years.

 

Research by dealer management systems specialist Pinewood shows that database management is usually viewed as having a low priority and often leads to a huge amount of wasted effort.

 

Neville Briggs, managing director, explained: "As a rule of thumb, up to a third of every dealer database becomes inaccurate every 12 months. Customers move house, change jobs, get married, have children - yet their records are unlikely to be updated by many dealerships.

 

"Dealers tend to be happy to add new customers to their database, often creating duplicates as a result, but are very poor at updating old ones. The outcome is that much of the CRM activity for which the database is used becomes simply a waste or can even be potentially damaging to the dealership.

 

"For example, if a letter advertising a new model is sent to an address and the customer has moved, it is a waste; however, it is not unheard of for dealers to be sending letters to customers who died some time ago, which is obviously potentially upsetting for relatives and doesn't project the dealership in the best light."

 

Briggs explained that the most proactive dealers often updated their databases on a rolling basis, ensuring that customers were spoken to at least two or three times a year.

 

He said: "Trying to update a database containing thousands of names in one swoop is a massive task. It is much better to have a programme in place where it is someone's definite responsibility to update the oldest records on the database every month. This makes all dealer CRM activity much more effective."

 

 

For further details please contact Simon Wells at
Paperchase Public Relations on 01283 711311
or e-mail simon@paperchasepr.co.uk