Product category:
Telemarketing
News Release from: Navigator Customer Management
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 20 September 2007
Car sector needs joined-up customer
contact
New research from Navigator Customer Management reveals that only 20 per cent of automotive brands offer customers and prospects multichannel communications such as post, phone, web and email.
Navigator Customer Management researched the range of contact points offered on automotive brands' websites A further 20 per cent only display phone, web and SMS contacts for potential customers to respond to campaigns
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 5 Dec 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Out of the 41 marques analysed four in every five brands revealed that they have not yet implemented joined-up customer communications through the customer's channel of choice, and therefore may be unwittingly cutting out key audiences.
In contrast, the study identifies that an elite one in five automotive companies has taken account of best practice customer management, and is using direct communications to obtain full return on investment from above-the-line advertising spend, as well as building customer satisfaction with the aim of encouraging aftermarket sales and repeat purchase.
In the increasingly competitive UK automotive market, ease of contact for existing customers and for potential buyers is critical.
In this context, while only 61 per cent of UK households have a home internet connection, 23 per cent of car adverts and 18 per cent of automotive websites do not provide a telephone number for customers and prospects to ring, despite the fact that telephone remains the one universally accessible means of communication with the UK public.
Equally, the UK now has a mobile phone penetration of some 116 per cent, yet 78 per cent of automotive advertising does not offer SMS as a method of response.
Rob Denton, Managing Director, Navigator Customer Management, commented: "The findings from this study show that the automotive market is divided by attitude and experience rather than product type.
"It is possible that the command and control systems within the companies studied are in need of reorganisation.
"Contact centre activity, especially toward existing customers, is often not within the remit and budget of new customer acquisition.
"Savings through closing off a channel may seem significant in one management area, where they are relatively insignificant in another".
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