Experian Automotive Brings New Capabilities in Understanding Customer Loyalty to OEMs

As manufacturers focus more on customer retention, Experian Automotive launches new offering to help identify the most loyal automotive customers

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Aug. 14 -- Experian Automotive, a part of global information services company Experian(R), today announced a new client loyalty study designed to help Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and their agencies keep more customers by better understanding the unique factors that drive loyalty to their brands and services. This allows them to act on customized definitions of loyalty specific to their customers with marketing campaigns that will align those customers with their brands and services.

According to recent research from Experian Automotive, keeping customers is one of the greatest challenges facing OEMs, with the majority of them retaining less than four out of 10 of their current customers. This is largely due to a lack of actionable information to help them understand what makes their specific customers loyal. Experian Automotive's new client loyalty study brings together Experian's breadth of data assets with OEM data to create a custom definition of loyalty specific to make, brand, model and even body-style based on the behaviors and preferences of their customers.

"We have gained valuable insight into loyalty at both the brand and dealer levels," said Sebastian Mackensen, general manager, Customer Relations for Porsche Cars North America, after conducting a test of the new loyalty study and evaluating its findings. "As a result, we have several ideas on how this study would work nationally, and plan to continue to work with Experian Automotive in this direction."

Experian Automotive's loyalty study brings together Experian's consumer behavioral and demographic, vehicle registration and summarized credit information with OEM transactional and service data. This helps OEMs and their agencies gain a more complete understanding of who their most loyal customers are and who is most likely to defect based on factors that customers value most in a vehicle, where they go when leaving a make or brand, and all the vehicles in a customer's garage, not just the last vehicle bought. This creates a definition of loyalty unique to the OEM and its customers, enabling the creation of relevant marketing messages and strategies to reach those loyal customers and keep them.

"To be effective in reaching and retaining customers, it is critical for manufacturers to understand the definition of loyalty that best represents their customers, brands and services," said Scott Waldron, president of Experian Automotive. "Experian Automotive's new client loyalty study brings new capabilities in understanding and defining loyalty that drives from the corporate level down to the dealer and service level to reach and retain loyal customers across the entire vehicle sales cycle."