Manufacturers look to dealers to gather more customer information

24 September 2007

 

Motor manufacturers are increasingly looking to dealers to help gather information about existing and potential customers.

 

Dealer management systems specialist Pinewood says that manufacturer customer relationship management is becoming ever more sophisticated - and that as the main contact point between manufacturer and customer, it is the dealer who is being asked to gather much of the information needed.

 

Managing director Neville Briggs explained: "There has really been a revolution in the way manufacturers view customers in recent years. In the past, they would talk about customers generally, using catchall terms such as fleet and retail.

 

"However, there has been a real change. Now, manufacturers want to market to much smaller and closely focused groups of buyers, and manage relationships down to an individual buyer segment level."

 

Briggs explained that Pinewood was acutely aware of this trend because DMS systems were the tool used by dealers to collect and record the information needed by manufacturers.

 

He said: "The CRM element of DMS systems has been gradually growing in sophistication for many years and the best, such as our own Pinnacle, are now extremely capable marketing tools. This evolution has come about as a direct result of dealer and manufacturer demands.

 

"Dealers are now systematically recording and sharing with manufacturers all kinds of information about customers and using that data to develop better marketing approaches and, ultimately, better products and services."

 

Briggs added that the most recent trends in data collection tended towards customer buying habits segmented to vehicle purchasing types, after sales trends and workshop throughput.

 

He explained: "Manufacturers increasingly require this information in a standardised format and we have been working closely with dealers and manufacturers to enable them to configure their systems to meet the standards being set."

 

 

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