Northridge Finance: Building Customer Loyalty

The Situation

Northridge Finance, the automotive finance arm of Bank of Ireland, predominantly serves independent car dealerships throughout the UK. Historically, their competitive position has been based upon  trust, pricing, and personal dealer relationships. However, as  the automotive finance industry increasingly shifts towards customer engagement, Northridge recognised the need to differentiate themselves through deliberate customer loyalty initiatives to support their dealer network. 

 Although Northridge brings strong industry credibility to the table, the management team have recognised that there is a valuable opportunity to enhance their competitive edge by developing dedicated systems, structured processes, and clearly defined strategies for customer loyalty and retention.Since dealers traditionally managed the direct customer relationships, Northridge had limited opportunities for customer engagement—presenting a great chance to build deeper insights into their end customers’ experiences, preferences, and loyalty.

Challenges

Northridge faced significant hurdles in this transformative approach as they sought to transform their customer loyalty strategy and execution:

• Limited existing structure: Customer loyalty processes, reporting, and strategy were still in the early stages, largely shaped by individual dealer relationships—creating a valuable opportunity for more deliberate planning and strategic oversight.
• System and data availability: Northridge had an opportunity to enhance customer insights by implementing a dedicated CRM system tailored to end customers. Existing systems were primarily dealer-focused, leaving room to build stronger capabilities around customer data, analysis, and lifecycle management.
• Changing industry dynamics: The automotive finance sector is evolving quickly, with a shift from traditional dealership-based models to more direct-to-consumer engagement. This presented an exciting opportunity for Northridge to refresh its value proposition and enhance its operational approach with a stronger focus on proactive and customer-centric management.
• Cultural mindset: Historically, Northridge relied on dealers for customer interactions, which naturally shaped a more hands-off internal mindset. Embracing direct customer engagement offered a meaningful opportunity for cultural growth—supported by internal training and clear ownership to build confidence and capability across the team.

The ddx Approach

Northridge engaged ddx to leverage our deep automotive industry expertise, practical approach, and proven ability to rapidly implement impactful strategies. 

The engagement started with our comprehensive Loyalty 360 workshop, an intensive two-day guided discovery process designed to assess current capabilities, identify gaps, and establish immediate and strategic action points across key operational areas. The workshop focused explicitly on customer relationships, dealer interactions, internal processes, systems, and organisational culture.

Further deliverables included:

• Customer Journey Mapping: clearly defined interactions across customer touchpoints, highlighting opportunities for enhanced engagement.
• Communication Blueprint: structured and optimised communication across web, app, email, phone, and dealership channels.
• Strategic Roadmap: detailed, actionable strategy incorporating mission, vision, clear KPIs, budgets, responsibilities, and timelines.

Results

Key early outcomes from ddx’s involvement included:

• Defined KPIs: established clear performance metrics, providing transparency and accountability.
• Operational efficiency: transition from costly physical mail to digital channels like email and app-driven interactions, significantly improving customer experience while reducing operational costs.
• Additional revenue opportunities: streamlined processes such as early contract settlement requests, enabling proactive customer engagement, upselling, and recurring revenue generation.
• Cultural shift: strengthen internal ownership and coalition around customer loyalty across Northridge’s senior executive team.

Why ddx?

ddx uniquely combines hands-on industry experience, advanced technological insights, and a pragmatic approach to solving complex business challenges. We embed deeply within client teams, delivering tangible results while empowering long-term self-sufficiency.

Next Steps

Future collaboration involves deepening dealer network engagement through targeted coaching, training, and structured loyalty programmes. ddx will continue providing regular oversight, project management, and strategic counsel, ensuring sustained momentum and measurable business impact.