After finding a high percentage of outdated, incomplete, and mismatched data, the Cardinale Automotive Group launched its purification project. According to Chief Investment Officer of the Cardinale Group of Companies, Robert Powell, the project is a huge undertaking, but worth the investment. A customer relationship management (CRM) system is filled with important information about past, current, and potential customers. Dealerships use this information to monetize its customer base.
Mismatched Data Turns To Gold
Powell states, “We treat our CRM as a vault.” Maintaining an up-to-date CRM is vital in maximizing the potential of the system. “Data is useless if you can’t turn it into action. We use it to make marketing decisions. It doesn’t do any good to run an email marketing campaign when 40% of the emails are invalid,” Powell adds. The Cardinale Automotive Group went so far as to hire a verification service provider to clear the CRMs of its 22 dealerships of bad information.
“We treat our CRM as a vault,” says Powell. “All opportunities (i.e. customer visits, contacts, sales and prior-purchase information) go in there. We’ve spent years building it.”
Experts say keeping CRM content information current is vital for the system to fulfill its potential.
That’s why Cardinale hired a verification service provider to do what Powell calls a “data purification” that rid the system of thousands of pieces of bad information.
“An incorrect email address won’t get you far,” he says, referring to keeping in touch with customers in the name of repeat business. “We also found that a lot of people moved.”
Cardinale, No.53 on the 2019 WardsAuto Megadealer 100 with $406 million in total 2018 revenue, uses its CRM system to monetize its customer base, he says. “We realize there is a lot of customer lifestyle data in there,” including the number of vehicles owned, financial information, vehicle-equity status and lease expiration dates.
Powell adds: “Data is useless if you can’t turn it into action. We use it to make marketing decisions. It doesn’t do any good to run an email marketing campaign when 40% of the emails are invalid.”
