Digital Dealer
Five Reasons Why Your Customer Database Should Avoid the Internet
By Sandi Jerome
Any dealer who attended NADA or has picked up a recent Automotive magazine can't help but notice that the "dot-coms" have invaded the automotive business. What started as a method to market new vehicles to the computer savvy buyer has turned into a "total solution" for increased customer retention, service and parts sales, and even better customer satisfaction. Most of these companies want to put your customer database and customer's vehicle service history on the Internet for you and your customers to use. Before you agree to send your customer database to an Internet-based CRM Company consider these issues:
Privacy laws-Many states are considering privacy laws and the FTC will start hearings this summer regarding a consumer's privacy. Your customer gave you information for the purpose of buying a vehicle and never gave you permission to release this information to third parties or put it on the Internet. H&R Block suffered a recent media embarrassment when customers' tax returns were viewed by visitors to their Web site. Think of how angry your customers will be if their social security number, birth date, employer, income, etc. are on the Internet-and without their knowledge. Most of the proposed legislation will require you to inform customers of what information was put on the Internet and who has access to it. This could be a tremendous burden for your staff to comply.
Security-the database that you put on the Internet is available to anyone who works for the Internet company that you contract with. Although you are careful in hiring your own employees, what assurance do you have that the employees at these companies will not use the database or sell it to a third party? Hackers are out there and they are usually employed in a technology position. Recent attacks on large servers caused "denial of service" even for companies that have extensive security routines.
Speed-not everyone can afford a T-1 line to connect to the Internet. Some of your employees who might be using this database to contact customers will be using regular phone lines. In most areas the phone lines are only clear enough to provide slow Internet service. Internet usage volumes further hamper the speed. Depending on your ISP and their backbone to the Internet, you might have extremely painful Internet access. Even if the Internet company that you are considering has a high-speed backbone and fast servers now, that could change as they add more dealers to their system.
Reliability-count how many things can go down between your employee and your CRM database on the Internet: the PC at your dealership, your own network (if you have it), the modem in the PC or your server, the phone line to your ISP, your ISP's servers and routers, your ISP's phone connection to the backbone, the backbone's servers and routers, the phone connection that your Internet CRM company uses, and their servers and routers. That's 11 things that must be working perfectly for you to have access to your own database records.
Control-if you decide to switch CRM software companies, where is your database and how do you convert it? If it is on the Internet, it may be difficult to get the full file back on a PC at your dealership. In addition, you might be restricted on how many records you can retrieve or what custom reports that you can create.
In summary, I am a big fan of the Internet. I buy flowers, books, DVDs and computer equipment on the Internet. I use it for research, communication, and I even attend online classes. I recently installed a satellite dish to improve my access speed. The Internet is a big part of my life and I depend on it for many things. The one thing that I don't depend on it for is database storage. I keep my customer database on my own PC. I write my own reports from my database files and clean it up by sending it regularly to the local post office, which does this free of change. It is so valuable to me that I back it up monthly to a CD and mail it to my father, three states away. I might be considered overly protective, but my customer database is my livelihood. Before you send your database away to the Internet, be assured that these five issues have been addressed.
Sandi Jerome is the manager for consulting service for Jeff Sacks & Associates. sjerome@dealeronline.com
