Opt Outs in multi-store groups

[Michael Leonard]

Here's a question, I'm looking for other multi-store groups that share the same customer database with their CDK CRM.

We have 3 dealerships, 3 locations in CRM, sharing the same customer db. When Store A opts out a customer out from emails, CRM opts that customer out in Store B & C as well.

If store C gets a new lead from that customer, the store opts the customer back in for emails. That also opts the customer back in at store A & B.

We have customers getting **bleep**ed because they feel like when they opt out (in a situation like above) that we aren't actually doing it. And then of course, there's the legal side of things with the fact that the customer opted out of emails from store A but then started getting emails again because they put in a lead at Store C.

Any experience here? Any thoughts?

 

[Alex Snyder]

There is NO....and I repeat NO software solution in the automotive space that can fix this easily. What you're referring to is a CRM or DMS solution that can support multi-tenant architectures. A.K.A. truly support dealer groups.

There have been two solutions that were able to do this nicely:

1. Dealer.com/Dealertack CRM that was mothballed in favor of the VinSolutions CRM
2. CRMSuite (iMagicLabs) has this architecture disabled within the licensing of the product to Dominion ...Like Cox, I think Dominion didn't recognize the value

CDK was able to do this within the CRM they offered years ago. However, as a user of that system, I could never make it work. Nor could I find an employee at (then ADP) CDK who could do it either. They have since rewritten it and I have no idea how well it handles "tenancy databasing" now .....judging by your post it is still the disgusting overcomplicated mess it always has been.

I am aware of a single solution on the horizon, but that won't help your problem today.

You could manage your email marketing within a solution like MailChimp. It requires a lot more work on your part, but the only solution, I can think of, is a workaround.

 

[craigh]

I agree with everything Alex said.
The only real option here is an external consent management tool.
These are fairly popular in Canada due to CASL, so there are a number of dedicated contact consent tools.

The problem is that the CRM still sends emails and it needs to be synced up with this consent, as do any unsubscribes that happen in any other product the dealership is using. The only real solution is custom tools and/or a CRM that has a proper API for handling this. If CRMs played nice, we could ping the API to get permissions for an individual contact or ping it again to update the details of that contact if they opt in or opt out in a third party tool.

But CRMs don't play nice.