Car dealership Caffyns has said keeping customer information ‘in the cloud’ – remote online storage – is aiding its business, particularly customer retention management (CRM).

Following findings by Experian that 24% of information held by dealerships may be ‘inaccurate’ and that, on average, 21% of customers contacted by dealerships were no longer in possession of the car over which the dealer was in touch, Caffyns has said a cloud-based system may be the best way to keep records up to date.

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The 12-site dealer has outsourced its information hosting to Cobweb Solutions and said doing so has increased appropriate continued contact with customers and saved IT costs.

Christopher Fullalove, director of IT for the Kent and Sussex network, said cloud hosting of customer information, rather than installing a record-keeping system in-house, was now "a critical part of our business" which would "motivate customer loyalty and expand our profitability and revenues".

Delicate balances

CRM has been at the forefront of the strategies of some manufacturers and particularly dealerships such as Essex Audi Group and Swansway, as finance products such as PCP have prompted the need for the forecourt to keep in touch with the consumer.

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However, with Claire Selvidge, business development manager at Anglia UK, warning last year of the pitfalls of third-party information storage, and Alphera Financial Services, MotoNovo Finance and law firm Addleshaw Goddard each urging dealers to ensure total compliance with the coming Financial Conduct Authority, other parties in the car finance industry have taken different paths to CRM.

While various brands such as Mazda have used ‘loyalty’ incentive deals tied into finance, motor finance broker Car Loan 4U has trialled a smartphone application to keep motorists notified of where they may be within a finance contract.

richard.brown@timetric.com