Garbage in, garbage out: How clean customer data contributes to the bottom line
In the age of challenging aftersales profit margins and growing costs, being data-driven can be the difference between operating a thriving customer-centric business and struggling to achieve a return. Every dealership collects and operates with large amounts of customer data, but do they use it to its full potential? Good clean data can be used for predictive marketing, monitoring customer satisfaction, or most importantly to improve the overall efficiency of the dealership’s operations.
The mystery of the missing mobile phone number
An ever-growing number of dealers use self-service technology in their aftersales departments to cater to their customers’ needs, delivering more flexibility and convenience. Customers can then choose to prepare for their service appointment by checking-in from the comfort of their home or at a kiosk at the dealership and thereby skip the morning queues just like they would at an airport. Here at Tjekvik, the no 1 self-service technology provider, we analyzed more than 1 million booking appointments for data quality and its effect on self-service usage. What were the key findings?
- Surprisingly the main blocker to self-service was not the customer preference for speaking to a human, nor a lack of interest in technology. It is, in fact, simply not possible for up to 50% of customers to use the self-service option.
- Why, you ask? Because the dealer does not hold a valid mobile phone number. Without up-to date contact details, a customer cannot get notified about an upcoming appointment, they cannot check-in at home, will not get a confirmation code for collecting their key outside of business hours and as a result they cannot skip the queues, save time at the dealership, or pick up their vehicle at their convenience.
“In some European countries we see valid phone numbers on appointments below 50% – and the reasons can be as simple as; the booking team didn’t notice it was a fixed line number, that the phone number was entered only partially, included other symbols, or it was entered in the wrong field.” Says Anders Kragelund, COO at Tjekvik. “Most of these issues will be addressed if the booking team simply confirms that the number given IS a mobile phone number and repeats it back to the customer to validate it before recording the correct field on the booking system.” he adds.
One question from the booking team boosts upsells by 300%
The best performing dealers solve a lot of the data quality challenges through 3 simple process changes:
- The booking team validate the mobile number and email during a booking call.
- The booking software validates mobile numbers and email addresses during online bookings.
- Mobile phone numbers and emails are validated through a regular review (e.g. quarterly).
As an example, Tjekvik identified that a dealer group in Central Europe only had valid customer mobile numbers for 25% of their appointments. Once they recognized this, they improved the quality to 92% by validating and mapping their mobile phone numbers in the correct field during the booking phase. With this action the right contact data was available for the customer to complete a self-service check-in and since each check-in included an upsell item, their value-added sales increased by 300%.
As dealerships aim to add value for the customer through frictionless experience, accurate and precise customer data is more important than ever before. Anders adds, “While it might still be possible to service a customer without having 100% correct data, it will become an increasingly frustrating experience for both the customer and the dealership. This is why the Tjekvik Customer Success Team works closely with our dealerships to help improve their data collection and storing practices. We organize regular webinars and share how-to guides as well as best practice examples to help them succeed.”
