Your CRM Is Full of Gold. Are You Taking Care of It?
Your dealership may be sitting on one of its most valuable marketing assets, and it isn’t your website, your social media following or your latest advertising campaign.
It’s your CRM.
Think about who is sitting inside it. Customers who have purchased vehicles from you. Customers who service with you. People who have responded to past campaigns, visited your dealership or built a relationship with your team.
In other words, your CRM is your loyalty audience.
But there’s a catch. That data is only valuable if it’s accurate.
It Starts at the Desk
A customer pulls into your service drive for an oil change. Your service advisor checks them in, confirms the vehicle information, takes the keys and moves on to the next customer.
But did anyone ask,
“Is this still the best number to reach you?”
Did they confirm the customer's email address? What about their mailing address?
These may feel like small administrative details during a busy service day, but from a marketing perspective, they can be incredibly valuable.
Your customer may have moved since purchasing their vehicle. They may have changed their mobile number or stopped using the email address you have on file years ago.
If nobody asks, how will you know?
A service advisor may see routine customer information.
A marketer sees gold.
Today's Data Becomes Tomorrow's Marketing
Think about the next loyalty campaign your dealership wants to run.
Maybe you want to mail an exclusive trade-in offer to your existing customers. Perhaps you want to send an email announcing an upgrade event, deliver an SMS offer or have your team call customers who may be approaching their next buying cycle.
Every one of those campaigns starts in the same place: your data.
An incorrect mailing address means your offer may never reach the household.
An outdated email can mean another missed connection.
A disconnected mobile number means your SMS or follow-up call goes nowhere.
Suddenly, that small piece of information nobody updated at the service desk becomes a missed marketing opportunity months or even years later.
The quality of tomorrow’s marketing campaign is being determined by the quality of the data being collected today.
You Worked Hard to Get These Customers
Dealerships spend significant amounts of money trying to acquire new customers. We advertise, conquest, generate leads, run promotions and create offers designed to bring new people through the door.
So what happens after we get them?
Once someone becomes your customer, maintaining that relationship should be just as important as acquiring it in the first place.
Your CRM gives you the opportunity to stay connected throughout the ownership cycle. Service visits, dealership updates, loyalty offers, trade opportunities and future vehicle upgrade campaigns can all help keep your dealership relevant long after the original sale.
But if the contact information isn't maintained, that relationship can quietly disappear.
And when that customer is finally ready for another vehicle, will your dealership still be able to reach them?
Data Collection Is Everyone's Responsibility
Keeping your CRM healthy shouldn't only be the responsibility of your marketing department or CRM manager.
Every customer interaction is an opportunity to protect and improve your data.
When a customer calls the dealership, books a service appointment, comes through the service drive or speaks with your sales team, there is an opportunity to confirm that the information you have is still accurate.
It doesn't have to be complicated. A simple habit of confirming a customer's name, address, email and mobile number can make a significant difference over time.
The person collecting that information may never see the direct mail piece, email campaign or SMS offer that goes out six months later. But they helped make that campaign possible.
Your CRM Isn't Just a Database
Your CRM is a record of relationships your dealership has already worked hard to build.
Treat it that way.
Accurate customer data gives you the ability to communicate with the right people, through the right channels, at the right time. More importantly, it allows you to continue a relationship instead of trying to recreate one when the customer is suddenly ready to buy again.
So maybe the question isn't simply, “How many customers are in our CRM?”
A better question might be: “How many of them can we actually reach?”
Because your CRM is full of gold. The dealerships that continually collect, confirm and maintain that data are in a much better position to turn that information into future opportunities.
Protect the data. Maintain the relationship. Stay connected.
RMN Marketing can help you put your customer data to work with strategic loyalty campaigns across direct mail, email, SMS, digital marketing and BDC follow-up. Together, we can build a plan to keep your dealership connected throughout the ownership cycle, stay top-of-mind and be there when your customers are ready to buy again.
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