News release
Contact:
Serj Heera
Press Relations Executive, Automotive & Insurance
+44 (0) 115 976 8945 Tel
serjeet.heera@uk.experian.com Email
Ford Retail dealers don’t miss a trick thanks to Experian
Nottingham, UK, 18 January 2008 - Ford Retail’s dealers in the north of England have signed up to ResponseTrack from Experian®, the global information services company, to enable them to deliver bottom line improvements by focusing their spending on activities that work and catching every single sales lead.
Developed specifically for motor dealers, Experian’s ResponseTrack is one of the most sophisticated services of its kind in the automotive industry. By enabling them to measure and improve their marketing return on investment, Ford Retail’s northern dealers have gained a deeper insight into their marketing activities. They have been able to assess which promotions are actually working and pulling in most of their sales leads, and also identify where savings can be made.
Mike Osborne, Head of Purchasing for Ford Retail Group, said: “As a group, our marketing spend is substantial, so being able to measure exactly which campaigns are working and focusing our marketing spend on those that do has proven to be valuable. ResponseTrack is a more advanced measurement tool than we have used before and it has already paid for itself.
“The most valuable aspect of the service for us has been the missed call e-mail alert, which is instant and not only gives us the caller’s full telephone number, but also the campaign they were calling in response to. We have been able to call customers back before they even think about picking the phone up to another dealer.
“When customers call a dealership, they’ve already carried out research into what they want and have therefore moved half way towards actually buying the car, so the ability to track and follow up upon missed calls is a key beneficial feature of this product.”
Using intelligent telephony, ResponseTrack allows dealers to apply dedicated numbers to every marketing campaign and capture every resulting call into their businesses, in order to measure how effective it is. It includes two key features.
An e-mail alert with the customer’s full telephone number and details of the campaign the call is related to is sent within minutes of a call being missed, enabling them to respond to every campaign response call, even those callers who got an engaged tone, improving conversion rates and increasing sales.
Dealers have the opportunity to use dedicated local telephone numbers – a feature that appeals to a wider range of customers and increases the chances of a telephone enquiry.
Kirk Fletcher, Managing Director of Experian’s Automotive division, said: “The feedback we have had from Ford Retail has been extremely positive and highlights how much dealers can benefit from tracking their activities and incoming calls.
“The average dealer misses around 20 per cent of all its incoming customer calls every month and, with each call costing them around £12 to generate in the first place, it can become a costly loss.[1] There are more cars than there are people to buy them, so the marketplace is very competitive. Customers have more choice and can go to elsewhere - a constant challenge for dealers.
“ResponseTrack plays a role in the experience a customer has at a dealership, which could ultimately be the factor that helps them make the decision to buy a car.”
ResponseTrack is an exclusive partnership between Experian and Location Based Telecom Ltd (LBT), an advanced telecoms systems company.
ENDS
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About Experian’s Automotive division
Experian’s Automotive division offers intelligent solutions, which enable its customers to optimise the potential of the vehicle, the consumer and the market. Working with organisations operating throughout the vehicle life cycle from manufacturers through to retailers, finance houses, insurers and aftermarket service providers, solutions are delivered through two business streams. Automotive Data and Decisioning enables customers to interrogate in real-time the history, identity and risk associated with any given vehicle and Automotive Marketing Solutions helps the automotive market target, acquire and manage customer relationships more effectively and efficiently both on and offline.