Automotive update: Filling the data gap

As I drive round the country seeing our automotive customers, I have taken to listening to podcasts to avoid all the negativity dominating the news.

Despite the doom and gloom, the car trade is still in a positive state and alive and kicking. None of the fundamentals of tight stock has changed, allowing dealers to keep their margins strong. If customers start holding onto their vehicles for longer this will be good for dealers from a service and retention perspective – assuming you have a suitable marketing strategy for the older parc. If not start, reviewing this immediately.

The successful dealers during adverse times will be those that double down on the quality of their data.

Last month I talked about how data is gold. From a customer retention perspective this is absolutely key. You’ll want to have the right strategy in place to ask for reviews and promote new offers, as well as marketing add-ons to your customers who are keeping hold of their existing vehicles, such as service plans, extended warranties and tyre insurance, for example.

This goes hand-in-hand with tightening up your lead management processes. Providing excellent, fast, and prompt service and response to your enquiries will make you stand out compared to other dealers. Between 50-60% of sales leads by phone do not get logged on lead management systems. By making sure your dealership is hot on those leads, you’ll have access to so much more richer data on your customers as well as your prospects, giving you a gold mine of preferences to fine tune your targeting.

Work on your leads – with rock star management – and the news will not be grim.

Enjoy plate change and, as ever, get in touch to discuss any ideas I’ve raised.

Headline Autotrader figures

• 2022 stock MoM 20.2% increase, YoY 43.1% decrease
• 2021 stock, MoM 1.2% increase, YoY 1.8% decrease
• 2020 stock MoM 1.2% increase, YoY 14.8% decrease
• Total market MoM 1.9% decrease, YoY 9.7% increase

Top 5 brands by market share of 2021 stock

• BMW 13.1%
• Audi 11.1%
• Toyota 8.6%
• Ford 8.3%
• Mercedes 6.5%