5 Questions Your Dealership Should Ask When Deciding on the Best CDP

Recently dealerships have begun to openly embrace the use of customer data platforms (CDPs) in their operations as a way to better manage, sort, and consolidate consumer information into just one view.

Unlike a CRM, CDPs essentially merge all lead data in just one place, allowing dealerships to effectively monitor customer journeys from beginning to end. Not only that, but CDPs also help reduce or remove one of the biggest issues dealerships face with CRMs: duplicate data.

If your dealership wants to migrate to a CDP system, here are 5 essential questions to ask when beginning your search:

Find the Best Customer Data Platform (CDP) for Your Dealership by Asking These 5 Questions:

1. Which Data Sources Does This Automotive CDP Integrate With?

Customer data can come in many formats. Ideally, the CDP system chosen should be able to collect entry-level data easily and allow dealerships to manage it without much effort. As a result, ensuring the chosen system can integrate with the data source your automotive dealership needs is paramount to successfully migrating from a CRM to a CDP.

2. How Is the Data Structured?

CDPs can have different data structuring capabilities. Most will have no issues storing conventional data with a set of pre-established and conventional fields:

• Customer name & ID 
• Email
• Transaction dates

However, if your dealership needs to structure data beyond the conventional, such as store unstructured data in multiple formats like audio files and images, it’s important to include such requirements in your search.

3. How Does the CDP Merge My Shopper Information?

CDPs can be an amazing tool for helping dealerships improve their consumer relationships. A good CDP system should allow you to merge shopper information from across various channels:

• Social media
• Email marketing
• Website 
• Ads
• CRM 
• DMS
• Finance data

Some can even allow merging offline and online data, giving dealerships the ability to view all available customer journeys in one interface.

4. How Much Manual Effort Is Required for the Dealership? Is Anything Automated?

Ideally, your new CDP system should automate most if not all menial tasks when it comes to structuring, pulling, and storing customer information. Such systems should automatically pull data from different sources and empower dealerships to be able to leverage the newly structured data swiftly.

5. Is the Dealership Data Being Stored Securely, and Does the CDP Follow Best Security Practices?

Lastly, it’s imperative to ensure your new CDP system is highly secure and has measures in place to protect consumer information. Any breach of confidentiality or data leak could potentially have devastating effects on a dealership, and significantly reduce the level of trust customers have in a company.

Final Thoughts: How Fullpath Can Provide the Best CDP Option for You

Fullpath is here to provide the best CDP system for dealerships: intuitive, effective, automated, and highly secure.

Our innovative solutions can empower your car dealership to effectively migrate to an automotive CDP that will empower your business to effectively leverage customer data to improve your marketing efforts, boost sales, and establish better relationships with your target audience.

If you want to see our CDP solution in action, we encourage you to request a free demo today.