Credit reference agency and information provider Experian has claimed 24% of customer records held by the average car dealership could be "inaccurate".

By Experian’s calculations – based on dealers’ records measured against its own suppression rates – the largest dealerships, holding up to one million files, are wasting time and effort by targeting their marketing at an average 200,000 customers incorrectly three times a year.

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Smaller dealerships, holding around 5,000 records, and which Experian identified as least likely to reconfigure their data owing to cost, could be sending 1,000 incorrect e-mails every time. The agency expected an average of 24,000 data entries to be incorrect at medium-sized dealerships with an approximate 100,000 records.

Andrew Ballard, principle consultant at Experian’s Automotive division, said data was "invaluable" for dealers, allowing them to "engage directly with their customers, create sales opportunities and inspire loyalty".

Ballard added "inaccurate records not only impact the return on investment of marketing activity, it also directly affects a business’s reputation and its relationships with customers".

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Earlier this year Experian launched its Finance Alerts product which would automatically notify dealerships and finance companies when retail finance agreement details are secured or changed.

Alistair Scullion, managing director at Experian Automotive, said the product would ensure "finance data is as accurate, up-to-date and timely as it possibly can be".

Talking to Motor Finance in 2012, Paul Bennett, sales director at Chrysalis Solmotive, which supplies customer retention management (CRM) software to the finance industry, explained too often contract details are archived in an administration system "never to be touched again".

Instead, Bennett explained CRM worked better with a "smarter, tighter approach" to customers and relied on "accurate information accessible to drill into and manipulate as per market conditions today".

richard.brown@timetric.com