Shift Magazine - June 3, 2019 - 16

LENDERS

Today, marketers are
very reliant on getting a full
picture of customer data
and using that customer
data to sell products and
then, ultimately, to retarget
and follow you around your
digital journey.

Andrea Brimmer, Ally Financial

"I think you can expect a unified communication experience and
service experience in the future. We all have to work as a closer
team together to make sure the customer has a great experience."
So if OnStar data shows that a customer needs service, GM
Financial's app could suggest an appointment at the dealership,
he said, giving one example.

RIGHT MESSAGE, RIGHT TIME

Lenders can also use data to understand customer preference
when it comes to communication - phone, email or text message - said Andrea Brimmer, chief marketing officer for Ally
Financial. Lenders can then "serve the right message at the
right time, whether it's information specific to them about their
account and transacting with us or whether it's serving them
information about our product offers or product opportunities
with our dealers," said Brimmer.
Ally markets on behalf of its dealer clients, "so we really use the
data on a myriad of different levels both in service of the customer
and their account information and helping the dealer either retain
their customers or sell to those customers additional product,"
she said.
Brimmer said Ally was using data to assess customer preference before she became chief marketing officer about four years
ago. But more recently, the lender has become more sophisticated in using data, she said.
"While there was always basic data use or account-level

shift * june 2019

transacting or channel preferences, I think where some of the
sophistication has come in is this idea of omnichannel experiences and the notion that if you want to start a conversation on
chat and finish a conversation with us on email, we have the ability to seamlessly move between channels to be able to pick up on
that conversation wherever we left off on it," she said.
Ally also uses the data to help educate customers, she said.
For example, if Ally knows a customer bought a vehicle without
a service contract, the lender may provide links that explain what
a service contract is and why it may be useful for the customer.
But lenders' and dealers' data use could substantially change
in the next few years, Brimmer said, as more stringent privacy
rules are likely to migrate to the U.S. after taking effect in Europe.
California has passed a strict privacy law that will take effect in
2020, and Brimmer expects other states to follow.
"Today, marketers are very reliant on getting a full picture of customer data and using that customer data to sell products and then,
ultimately, to retarget and follow you around your digital journey,"
she said. "That's going to change our reliance on third-party data."
The safeguards will make it more important for companies to
build out robust first-party data - information they gather, store
and analyze themselves - to understand customers, Brimmer said.
Other than changes that may come about as a result of new privacy laws, Ford Credit's Conyers expects auto lenders to continue
to use data much as they do today.
She said, "I think in five years we just have to be faster at it." ■

Shift Magazine - June 3, 2019

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