Engagement supercharged: How data helps dealers understand customers in three dimensions

It’s the year 2023, and while the holiday shopping season has now come to an end, its memory is surely fresh in the minds (and bank accounts) of most people reading this.

No doubt you’ve recently had the experience of making a purchase online, then almost immediately receiving suggestions for similar products, either from the seller or from your social media channels. This is something we’re all used to in the internet age. It may once have seemed intrusive, but today, not only do most consumers accept this “mind-reading” approach to the relationship between buyer and seller, analytics show they also act on it. A recent Zendesk report found the majority of customers today expect all experiences to be personalized and actually expect a company to share information, so they don’t have to repeat themselves.

Nearly all retailers who sell their products and services online have embraced the possibilities of technology to enhance their knowledge of customer preferences and habits. But not all purchases are made online. For certain purchases – especially those of major life significance and/or expense, like a home or an automobile – both buyers and sellers understand the importance of in-person discussion, education and analysis.

Because in-person sales engagement has always existed for automotive purchases, it’s easy for dealers to assume the tactics that worked in the past need no refinement. After all, it’s still the way most vehicle purchases are made, right? But by making this assumption, dealers can overlook how using new tools can equip them to enhance and humanize their customers’ engagement.

Although it’s not always viewed this way, a dealer’s database is a gold mine of opportunity. Dealerships are sitting on data that represents an enormous opportunity to listen, predict and engage, around the clock. For many dealers, personalized engagement of this type is the missing ingredient that can bring about additional sales and profitability.

We are a data and technology company whose  automotive customer data and engagement platform (CDEP) listens, predicts and engages with customers at scale, delivering measurable improvements in sales, profitability, and customer loyalty. By utilizing Outsell’s CDEP, a dealer can demonstrate to a customer that they’re known, remembered and understood. Best of all, it’s all automated.

Outsell’s CDEP also features the ability to identify dealers’ High Customer Value. Those likely to represent the most sales and service gross profit over the next three years. For the first time in the automotive industry, you can now identify High Customer Value. This represents the top 20% that bring over 65% of your gross profit. For dealers, it means the difference between a customer who’s merely satisfied and a loyal buyer who is likely to return and repurchase. No one else has been able to crack this code – Outsell’s is the first and only CDEP with the power to analyze this deeply.

Our research has found 31 percent more service visits, 23 percent higher repurchase rates and an increase of $427 in greater value per customer for dealers using Outsell’s CDEP.

Outsell’s CDEP is transforming the automotive industry, through an automated solution that when turned on will immediately go to work for your business. By cultivating relationships between shoppers and dealers, targeting high-value customers, and bringing about increased loyalty, sales, and profits. We provide the human factor. Our CDEP turns relevant data into real people, and allows you to prove that you know, remember, and understand your customers by innovating new ways forward that equal results – guaranteed.

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