news release

UK dealerships could save up to £600,000 a year, says Experian

A third of customer data held by dealerships is incorrect

Nottingham, 3 October 2013 — Analysis from Experian®, the global information services company shows that UK dealerships could be wasting thousands of pounds a year by holding inaccurate, out of date customer information.

Experian analysed the databases of a range¹ of dealerships using its data cleanse savings calculator and discovered that on average 24 per cent of customer records held by UK dealerships could be obsolete². The financial value of incorrect data was calculated³ and revealed the UK’s largest dealers could be losing up to £600,000 per year in ineffective mailings.

The smallest dealerships with approximately 5,000 customer records would arguably be amongst the hardest hit, as they are less likely to regularly cleanse databases due to the perceived cost.  Small dealers could be losing in excess of £1000 per campaign - money they simply can’t afford to write off. For medium-size dealerships (with 100,000 records) an average of 24,000 entries could be out of date resulting in losses of up to £20,000 pounds per campaign.

For the UK’s largest dealerships with databases containing approximately one million customer records the amount lost for a single mailing could hit a staggering £200,000.  If dealerships target those customers the average of three times a year, the true cost of bad data reaches a significant level.

Andrew Ballard, Principle Consultant at Experian’s Automotive commented; “Customer data is invaluable to all businesses to enables them to engage directly with their customers, create sales opportunities and inspire loyalty.  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. 

The good news is that adopting a data cleansing routine will help you maintain data accuracy over time. Whether you opt for a one-off data clean, or implement a regular strategy, you can reduce expenditure on outbound communications and allow your organisation to make more intelligent decisions based on up to date customer data.”

 ¹The smallest holding 5000 customer records and the largest holding 1000000 records
 ²Typical suppression rates from Experian Intact data cleansing services against a standard customer input file
 ³Estimate of mailing a database three times a year at a cost of one pound per mail

ENDS

Contact:
Natalie Fox
PR Manager
0115 992 2645/07971 709 274
natalie.fox@experian.com

About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients around the world. The Group helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2013 was US$4.7 billion. Experian employs approximately 17,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.