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ANALYSIS carried out by Marketing Delivery has highlighted an opportunity for franchised dealerships to increase workshop utilisation and aftersales retention.

The company carried out an analysis of over 56,000 customer aftersales records held by UK franchised dealers in January 2020, and found that full and accurate details were present in 63% of cases – highlighting a significant marketing opportunity with the remaining 37%.

Marketing Delivery also found that, on average, 86% of records included a suggested date for the vehicle’s next scheduled service. For cars over three years old, the MOT due date was noted in 90% of cases.

Being able to schedule deferred aftersales work is only part of the picture; dealers must also capture full and accurate customer contact details so that those opportunities can be exploited via outbound marketing.

Marketing Delivery found that 79% of dealers’ aftersales customer records included an email address, while 89% included a mobile phone number.

The latest findings highlight the significant potential upside to dealers: that they stand to increase aftersales revenue and customer retention by making small changes to a basic administrative process.

Prior research from Marketing Delivery suggests 60% of motorists are more likely to book a service or MOT with a workshop that reminds them about required maintenance at a suitable time, with email highlighted as the preferred contact method by 48.3% of customers (compared to just 19.7% of customers who prefer telephone contact).

Jeremy Evans, Managing Director at Marketing Delivery, said: “While the best-in-class workshops in January held full and accurate data for 90% of customers and their vehicles, this was as low as 40% for the worst performers.

“It’s hard to overemphasise the importance of up-to-date, accurate records, and capturing this information can turbocharge a dealer’s ability to prospect for aftersales work.

“Full and accurate customer records are the key to ensuring workshop bays remain occupied. Modern eCRM tools can automatically remind customers when their vehicle’s next service or MOT is due, and we work with our workshop customers to address any weaknesses in data collection.”

Marketing Delivery’s Aftersales eCRM system helps dealers engage their customers with mobile-responsive email, SMS and social media messages.

The system is designed to enhance aftersales retention with automated marketing messages and MOT and service reminders.

The system can also help dealers track customer responses to aftersales marketing, helping service teams to target their messages even more effectively in future.

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