DAYTON, Ohio — Reynolds and Reynolds added a new service for dealerships that matches a customer’s postal address with that customer’s up-to-date e-mail address, greatly improving the accuracy of e-mail addresses for dealership marketing campaigns.

The updated e-mail addresses automatically populate the name file in the Reynolds ERA dealership management system (DMS) and synchronize seamlessly with Contact Management, a customer relationship management tool in the ERA DMS.

At least 30 percent of all e-mail addresses in the U.S. change every year, according to industry statistics. Securing and verifying correct e-mail addresses for a dealership’s customer file can be an overwhelming task for dealership personnel. E-mail Append does the work for the dealer automatically — and writes the information back to the ERA DMS — with no additional staff time by employees or keystrokes to transfer data.

“We continually hear from dealers about their need to keep customer information current, especially e-mail addresses, in order to deliver more effective marketing campaigns,” said Trey Hiers, vice president of corporate marketing at Reynolds and Reynolds. “E-mail Append uses a proven technology with an overall address match rate that is the highest and most accurate in the industry. It’s one more cost-effective way we can help dealerships improve their marketing operations and their overall business results.”

Hiers also noted that E-mail Append is the only service available for e-mail address verification that is certified to write back to the ERA system.

The E-mail Append advantage:

• Searches more than 750 million deliverable e-mail addresses and Internet Service Providers to locate matches for the ERA customer file of postal addresses.

•Automatically queries customers for opt-in or opt-out of e-mail communications from the dealership.

•All customer records in the ERA name file are then automatically updated with current e-mail addresses and any “Do Not E-mail” privacy flags.

•As a result, the dealership is marketing to a correct address using the customer’s preferred contact method — e-mail or post office mail.

Hiers concluded: “This year, we have intensified our focus on new product development for our ERA and POWER system customers,” he said. “E-mail Append is the latest example of what we can deliver. As we move into 2010, dealerships can expect to see a steady stream of new products and product enhancements from Reynolds.”