A new initiative to give retailers a significant boost in improving customer retention has been developed by Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Limited (VWFS).

VWFS is believed to be the first UK vehicle finance company to be able to accurately predict when customers move from negative to positive equity with their vehicle finance package.

“This means we can pinpoint the most likely time when a customer would consider changing their vehicle and talk to them at that moment,” explained Managing Director Graham Wheeler, “Predicting the right time is highly important. Getting it wrong and contacting the customer too early could result in them becoming disillusioned and disappointed at the showroom.”

Mr Wheeler added that initial trials have been very successful, and the programme is being rolled out nationwide over the next few weeks.

The sophisticated VWFS equity prediction system incorporates the very latest used car value data of the various vehicle models together with the customer’s individual finance agreement information.

Mr Wheeler said: “We want to do all we can to help retailers retain their customers and believe that this is a very exciting way of doing it.