When you have an organized database, everyone knows where they can go to get the information that they need. It’s all in one centralized place and the information is complete, up-to-date, and edited in real-time to ensure accuracy at all points during the customer journey and beyond.

Are you ever really going to access that information? Every dealer and sales professional goes through the same thought process at one point or another. However, there’s a lot more value to having a solid database that is ripe with customer information than you might think.

If your CRM is lacking, you’ll know. Typically, you’ll know because customers will slowly fade into the background and often never return for a second purchase, for one reason or another. You’ll know because people are unsubscribing from your marketing campaigns because they’re intrusive or just not engaging. You’ll know because you don’t have the dynamic, seamless transaction from start to finish that today’s customers demand.

Eventually, this is going to slow down. For some dealers, it probably already has. When that happens, you can’t just wait for another rush. You’ve got to find a way to keep the business coming, and when things are slow you want to do it on a shoestring budget if you can. The secret here isn’t a secret at all. You need to have a solid database in place so that you can rely on it in slow times.

How many times have you sat down with a customer only to look over a form and decide to save everyone’s time, you could skip a lot of the demographic information? Sure, it might not be pertinent or critical, but it could come in handy down the line. If you’re not collecting it now, you may never have another chance.