Reg Vardy
Reg Vardy is the third largest motor dealership group in the UK. Their aim is not to be the biggest, but the most profitable. To do this they must acquire and retain customers as efficiently as possible. Acquisition will come from targeting and locating accurately within their prospect universe, retention will come from delivering exemplary service to an individual customer’s needs.
Vardy realised that data about people was key whether data about customers or potential customers. The problem was, as all car retailers know, that Keridge, the UK’s leading car management system is based on cars not people. (You’ll know this from when you call your garage to book a service as the first question they ask is “can I have your car registration number please?”) In other words they are product centric and not customer centric.
Hence the customer’s details are locked away in an array of data fields within their core systems. As the first step to understanding their customers Vardy made the bold move to create a CRM database structured around the customer and not the car hence Vardy Central.
Vardy Central is a database containing every single customer, to which all transactional history is tagged. The car they bought, the service history, the payment details, the parts bought, the accessories fitted everything about individual customers.
From this Vardy can model their customer’s transition from prospect to buyer, to service customer, to parts, to seller back to prospect and continuing again. Vardy can then identify patterns in customer’s behaviour and target then when they are likely to make a purchasing decision. So if you always buy a new car at the end of your finance period, then Vardy will target you 4 months before the end of your current agreement offering you a test drive of their new model.
However, throughout our lives, our needs change. As a result we don’t buy what we have always bought in the way we always bought them. I may have bought a two seat sports car three years ago, but now I have two children and I need a five door estate. So Vardy needed to know how people changed to augment their modelling process.
Vardy bought Data Discoveries Enhance application to help them learn more about their customers by appending demographic, lifestyle and lifestage data (such as child birth). By doing this they can identify change in people. When they move, when they have children, when they become directors, when they start working from home, when their children leave home or when their children become 17, everything that relates to a change in need from their car.
The results have been impressive. The response rates from all campaigns have improved whilst the cost per mailing has increased. Customer satisfaction has increased. Stock levels are lower. Wastage is falling and productivity is increasing.
Vardy realised that data about people was key whether data about customers or potential customers. The problem was, as all car retailers know, that Keridge, the UK’s leading car management system is based on cars not people. (You’ll know this from when you call your garage to book a service as the first question they ask is “can I have your car registration number please?”) In other words they are product centric and not customer centric.
Hence the customer’s details are locked away in an array of data fields within their core systems. As the first step to understanding their customers Vardy made the bold move to create a CRM database structured around the customer and not the car hence Vardy Central.
Vardy Central is a database containing every single customer, to which all transactional history is tagged. The car they bought, the service history, the payment details, the parts bought, the accessories fitted everything about individual customers.
From this Vardy can model their customer’s transition from prospect to buyer, to service customer, to parts, to seller back to prospect and continuing again. Vardy can then identify patterns in customer’s behaviour and target then when they are likely to make a purchasing decision. So if you always buy a new car at the end of your finance period, then Vardy will target you 4 months before the end of your current agreement offering you a test drive of their new model.
However, throughout our lives, our needs change. As a result we don’t buy what we have always bought in the way we always bought them. I may have bought a two seat sports car three years ago, but now I have two children and I need a five door estate. So Vardy needed to know how people changed to augment their modelling process.
Vardy bought Data Discoveries Enhance application to help them learn more about their customers by appending demographic, lifestyle and lifestage data (such as child birth). By doing this they can identify change in people. When they move, when they have children, when they become directors, when they start working from home, when their children leave home or when their children become 17, everything that relates to a change in need from their car.
The results have been impressive. The response rates from all campaigns have improved whilst the cost per mailing has increased. Customer satisfaction has increased. Stock levels are lower. Wastage is falling and productivity is increasing.
