Aggregating & Cleaning Dealership Data: Turning Information Into Opportunity

Your dealership has no shortage of customer data. The challenge is that the information is often spread across your DMS, CRM, OEM systems, BDC platforms, recall databases, marketing vendors and other technology platforms. And those systems don't always agree.

One system may show a customer still owns a vehicle they've already traded. Another may have an old address. Your CRM may have one phone number while the DMS has another. The same customer may even appear multiple times under different customer numbers.

Before dealers can effectively use their data, they first need to bring it together, clean it and determine what information they can actually trust.

During this special Fixed Ops Roundtable event at Paragon Honda in Queens, New York, David Lampel joins Brian Benstock, Ted Ings and Sarah Vantine to discuss why aggregating and cleaning dealership data has become increasingly important to Fixed Operations.

As a former new car dealer and automotive industry veteran who today works with more than 1,000 dealerships nationwide through Dealerwing, David has seen firsthand how fragmented and inaccurate customer data can affect dealership performance.

The objective isn't simply to collect more information. It's to turn the information you already have into something you can actually use. That means:

• Identifying and removing duplicate customer records
• Validating current vehicle ownership
• Correcting inaccurate customer information
• Connecting service history to the correct customer and VIN
• Identifying customers who have moved out of market
• Validating email addresses and phone numbers
• Managing opt-outs and suppression rules
• Creating consistent customer lifecycle definitions
• Determining which system should be the source of truth
• Creating clean customer segments that can actually be marketed

When those pieces come together, dealership data becomes much more valuable. Instead of simply having millions of records scattered across multiple platforms, the dealership can begin developing a clearer picture of who the customer is, what they drive, their relationship with the dealership and where the next opportunity may exist.

That's particularly important as dealerships begin relying more heavily on artificial intelligence. AI needs accurate inputs. If the underlying customer information is duplicated, incomplete or outdated, even sophisticated technology can produce the wrong recommendation or target the wrong customer.

David's perspective is straightforward: Clean the foundation first. Then put the technology to work.