Analysis of 15 dealer groups revealed a missed a total of at least £34.7 million in revenue over 18 months, says Auto Data Solutions (ADS).
Almost two million valid VIN records were audited for an ADS ‘Data Health Check’, revealing that many customers had become uncontactable due to a failure to update contact details or even record keeper changes.
Jon Sheard, Operations Director of ADS, believes a common problem for dealers is to settle for ‘good enough’ customer records when a fully up-to-date system is easier to achieve than they realise.
“We consistently find that dealers have typically lost contact with up to 20% of their customers but turn a blind eye to the scale of the revenue they are missing. They justify this by mistakenly thinking that it’s harder and more expensive to improve customer record-keeping than it really is.
“In reality, the true cost of lapsed customers is much more than the £34 million in missed workshop revenue we found in 15 dealer groups, which were due only to missed recalls. They’re missing the entire spend of those lapsed customers on service and sales, because it’s all going elsewhere.”
ADS identified one of the biggest losses of potential revenue as 112,344 safety recalls that had been missed. With historical data proving that customers booked for a recall spend an average additional £309 with the dealer.
ADS has produce a free ‘coffee break’ briefing detailing the simple steps dealers can take to maintain more accurate records, re-contact lapsed customers, complete all safety recalls and learn from the successful US model of allocating marketing equally to sales and service.
Sheard added: “Although the typical dealership falls short of revenue potential by at least £2 million, most groups can easily change this in weeks by improving data hygiene and recall follow-up.
“Our 10 minutes of free advice will be a game-changer for those who take advantage of it.”