More than a third of car dealership customer records are lacking vital contact details according to research carried out by Marketing Delivery during Q2.

Analysis of 200,000 customer records between April and June of this year revealed that 34% of key information was absent, with email addresses the most common omission, being left off documentation in 18% of all cases

Mobile phone numbers were missing from 13% of customer records, while 8% lacked an accurate service due date.

Marketing Delivery’s analysis encompassed dealerships throughout the UK representing prestige and volume brands and managing director, Jeremy Evans, said the shortcoming it uncovers would clearly hamper dealers’ business.

He said: “Without crucial contact details, dealerships are inevitably limited in their ability to interact with customers and prospects.

“With the new car market starting to lose momentum, dealers can’t let potential leads slip between the cracks.

“Comprehensive customer data underpins agile and responsive marketing, engaging with customers in the most effective ways at optimal points in the buying and ownership cycles.”

Evans added: “A lot of attention is rightly paid to levels of response from dealer marketing campaigns, but if you don’t have accurate records you aren’t even getting out of the starting blocks.

“With increasingly intense competition from independents and fast-fits, dealers can’t afford to squander opportunities.”

Marketing Delivery conducted the analysis as part of its quarterly Data Quality Report, which also identified some year-on-year trends.

Significantly, there appears to be a modest improvement in the accuracy of customer records held by most dealerships compared to Q2 2016.

For example, an average of 39% of records had absent or inaccurate details in Q2 2016 (versus 34% in Q2 2017).

The proportion of records lacking an email address was higher last year (20%, versus 18% in 2017), and a greater proportion lacked a mobile number (17%, versus 13% in 2017).