SAUSALITO, Calif. — ChannelNet, a leading provider of Web-based customer loyalty solutions, announced today that it has now deployed 5 million personalized Web sites for the auto financing industry.

Personal Web sites are basically provided to auto loan/lease customers and designed to take basic self-service functionality to the next step by providing a "truly relevant personalized online experience," officials indicated.

"We are delighted with the outstanding results our clients are getting with our Personal Web sites and reaching this milestone," explained Paula Tompkins, chief executive officer and founder of ChannelNet.

In 2005, BMW Financial Services worked with ChannelNet to launch the first Personalized Web site program for its auto leasing customers.

"It took an innovative company like BMW to understand the benefits of leveraging the Internet to promote customer loyalty and reap the benefits," she added.

Given the current turmoil in the auto financing industry, companies are aggressively looking for ways to lower cost and acquire new business from existing customers.

"Traditional methods like direct mail and call centers are no longer effective or cost efficient. To reach savvy consumers, auto marketers are adjusting their strategies to ensure the content and information received by their customers is personalized and relevant," according to company officials.

"One measure of success is that owners consistently bookmark their Personal Web sites to get the information they need at their convenience, making it the perfect online platform to deliver relevant sales and marketing content," they continued.

ChannelNet's Personal Web sites can provide a number of benefits. They can generate tremendous cost savings because customers who use their Personal Site are opting out of direct mail and making fewer inquires with the call center.

"ChannelNet Personal Web site Solutions are more effective than traditional marketing," noted Renee Triemstra, vice president of customer experience. "Our technology allows marketers to provide personalized messaging and highly targeted marketing based upon dozens of customer variables.

"Marketers, for example, can target customers based upon stage in contract life cycle, geography, credit worthiness, product type and an extensive array of other profile elements. Not only can marketers generate more personalized and relevant customer communications and offers, but there is no variable delivery cost," Triemstra added.

ChannelNet's Web-based technology called Sitebuilder powers the Personal Web sites and is designed to be integrated with existing self service systems. More importantly, Personal Web sites can be implemented quickly at minimal cost, the company pointed out.

The company's site solutions are turn-key and provided as a software service. They fully comply with industry security requirements, which is ideal for financial enterprises, executives highlighted.

For more information on the company, visit www.channelnet.com.