What this checklist covers
The Customer Data Quality Checklist is a 15-point scorecard for customer profile accuracy, contact details, consent, vehicle details, service history, and CRM update discipline. Each criterion is scored from 1 to 5 on what the auditor sees on the day, and every gap goes into an action plan with an owner and a close date.
AutoSmart tip: Customer data quality audits are most revealing when a real follow-up campaign is used as the test — run a service reminder campaign, measure deliverability (bounce rate, undelivered SMS), and trace failures back to the CRM record. A bounce rate above 10% is a strong indicator of systemic data quality failure that is actively costing the dealership retention revenue.
The checks
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Profile accuracy and contact details
- Is a sample of CRM customer records reviewed, confirming that name, primary phone number, and email address are present and accurate for at least 90% of active customers?
- Are duplicate customer records identified and merged on a defined schedule, to prevent the same customer appearing under multiple profiles with inconsistent data?
- Are customer contact details updated at every touchpoint — service visit, sales enquiry, follow- up call — rather than left as originally entered?
- Are incomplete or clearly incorrect records (placeholder email addresses, sequential phone numbers, missing surnames) flagged and resolved rather than remaining in the active database?
Consent and vehicle details
- Is marketing consent status recorded against every customer record, with consent date and method of consent captured and retained?
- Are consent withdrawals actioned in the CRM within the defined timeframe, with the updated status preventing further marketing until re- consent is obtained?
- Is the customer's current vehicle correctly linked to their CRM profile, with VIN, registration, model, and colour confirmed as accurate?
- Are vehicle changes (trade-in, private sale, new purchase) updated in the CRM promptly, with no customer record still linked to a vehicle they no longer own?
Service history and complaint records
- Is the service history for each vehicle accurately reflected in the CRM, with no visits missing, incorrectly attributed, or duplicated?
- Are complaint records linked to the customer's CRM profile, visible to staff handling future interactions, so the customer does not need to re-explain prior issues?
- Is the CRM accessible to all customer-facing staff in real time, with no department maintaining a parallel record that could diverge from the central system? CRM UPDATE DISCIPLINE & GOVERNANCE
- Is CRM update at each customer touchpoint a defined process requirement — not discretionary — with non-compliance treated as a workflow gap?
- Is CRM data quality reviewed on a defined schedule, with a data quality score or equivalent metric tracked and reviewed at management level?
- Are staff who consistently fail to update the CRM accurately or promptly identified through data quality monitoring and coached, rather than the issue being managed only through reporting?
- Is there a data steward or CRM administrator responsible for data quality governance, with authority to enforce data standards across all departments?
How to run it
How the scoring works
Before the visit, fill in the dealer or centre, the auditor, the date and the audit cycle. Then score each of the 15 checks from 1 to 5 on what you see on the day, not on what the site aims for, and add them up out of 75.
- 1Not in place
- 2Attempted
- 3Defined
- 4Managed
- 5Fully sustained
- Green60–75 · 80–100%Compliant. Keep the standard.
- Amber38–59 · 50–79%Improvement needed: a structured action plan within 30 days.
- Red0–37 · Below 50%Priority intervention, escalated to regional management.
Then close every gap
Each gap goes into the action plan tracker and moves through four stages until the auditor closes it.
- 1PendingOwner and close date set
- 2In progressWork under way, evidence gathered
- 3CompletedEvidence submitted for review
- 4ApprovedVerified and closed by the auditor
