Bowker Group has turned to MediaBase Direct for a data purge to refine its customer data as part of plans to prepare for the introduction of GDPR legislation next year.

More than 115,000 records were subject to the process which has been completed three times – with 18 month intervals – in a bid to maintain a reliable database and lessen the risk of unnecessary customer contacts.

For Bowker’s prestige franchises of BMW, Mini, BMW Motorrad, Harley-Davidson and Maserati, plus car centres in Preston, Blackburn and Ribble Valley, expectations were extremely high.

MBD used its RefineMyData programme to check records against Royal Mail Postcode Address Files and DVLA records before delivering clean data ready to upload and any potential areas of concern.

Bowker Group marketing manager, Amy Lancaster, said that cleansing the business’ data had made “a massive difference” to its marketing prospects and helped to prevent wastage by allowing the delivery of different messages to owners and potential owners.

She added: “We can also target the right people and cleansed data also stops us potentially causing distress by contacting people who may have died.”

MBD director Anil Jain said that MBD’s work had not only improved marketing prospects for Bowker, but allowed the group to demonstrate the best possible customer care as well as being compliant with the latest EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) being introduced in May 2018.