INFO.FOREVERCAR.COM/NADA2017

Digital Vehicle Service Contract (VSC) technology provider ForeverCar™ announced today its new dealer-branded VSC sales platform to help dealers sell protection products for buyers of older, higher mileage vehicles while helping dealers recapture “lost” VSC opportunities from prior lead investments.

ForeverCar helps dealers increase the long-term value of their customers while giving customers what they want most today – control over the shopping experience.

At NADA, ForeverCar will present this powerful portal in NADA Expo Conference Room #CR103, behind the Ford Motor Company display, Jan. 26 – Jan. 29, 2017, in New Orleans.

ForeverCar helps dealers drive service agreement sales, service department volume, and customer retention for:

• Franchised used car departments whose existing VSC offerings may not provide many options for buyers of older, higher-mileage vehicles.
• Independent dealers who don’t offer VSCs but now can provide a broad range of plans, options, deductibles, and prices.
• Dealers who want to monetize prior investments in leads by remarketing to those opportunities to convert some into VSC customers, investing no dealer resources – human or digital.

“ForeverCar is the first dealer-branded service contract portal that also uniquely remarkets service contracts to the tens of thousands of leads a dealer has in its database to help monetize some of the 70 percent of vehicle buyers who decline to purchase this coverage.  That is an incredible amount of opportunity to recoup,” said Brooke Schulz Fernandez, Vice President, Business Development.

“Our platform helps dealers give customers more choices for protecting their vehicle investment, and it drives service department visits to build service sales and long-term retention,” Fernandez said. “We designed this tool to deliver solutions dealers indicated were missing from their current VSC sales practices.”

ForeverCar addresses these benefits for dealers:

1. Provides a powerful tool for remarketing to customers who declined to purchase a VSC when buying their vehicle.
2. Helps monetize leads that either did not convert the first time or converted as a vehicle sale but not a service contract.
3. Leverages the power of peer review, by providing web-based customer experience reviews from TrustPilot.

ForeverCar is the vehicle service contract industry’s only technology portal providing engaging and intuitive decisioning for consumers, whether interacting with the tool in a dealership’s finance office or online. It is the only portal of its kind that markets VSC sales to a dealer’s customer database to help dealers monetize those original investments.

At NADA, ForeverCar will present its portal in NADA Expo Conference Room #CR103, behind the Ford Motor Company display, Jan. 26 – Jan. 29, 2017, in New Orleans.

To learn more about ForeverCar and to schedule a demo, click to INFO.FOREVERCAR.COM/NADA2017 or contact Brooke Schulz Fernandez at BROOKE@FOREVERCAR.COM or 1.312.273.8303.

ForeverCar.com media contact:
Anthony Millot
ANTHONY@FOREVERCAR.COM

ATLANTA, GA, December 19, 2016 – CompetitorPro today announced the auto retail industry’s first competitive intelligence solution, providing automobile dealers with actionable, in-depth performance metrics on their top competitors. 

“CompetitorPro has figured out how to bridge the gap in business intelligence, that missing piece that now enables dealers to benchmark their business against their top competitors,” said Dinos Constantine, COO at Holler-Classic Automotive Group, Orlando. 

CompetitorPro sources over 1.4 billion data points collected daily, including multiple redundant sources of both vehicle and dealer data. All data sources are publicly available, and they do not pull any data from dealership management systems (DMS). Using proprietary machine learning and natural language processing algorithms, CompetitorPro gives dealers actionable insights in an easy to read dashboard, to help them outmaneuver their competition. 

“We’re on top of business intelligence applications here at the Del Grande Dealer Group, but the industry has never had this kind of day-to-day insight about their key competitors,” said Jeremy Beaver, COO of the Silicon Valley-based group. Like Constantine, he has been testing CompetitorPro for several months. 

CompetitorPro will provide NADA ‘17 attendees a free analysis of how they compare against their top local competitor. Visit Booth 5607 during January 26-29 at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Visit www.CompetitorPro for a demo. 

CompetitorPro’s intuitive dashboard user interface delivers side-by-side operating metrics comparing a dealer’s performance to their top competitors, as determined by the dealer, in these categories:

• Sales Data: For both new and used vehicles, month-to-date totals, top volume models, current and historic monthly sales, average inventory by month, days in stock, total sales, average MSRP and price to market, and average price change per VIN.
• Inventory Data: Days to sale and inventory turn, vehicle aging, pricing, repricing frequency, price-to-market data and days to sell.
• Website Analytics: Including monthly site visits versus competition, site engagement statistics, organic and paid keyword engagement data, cost per click, bounce rates, traffic sources, other websites your consumer is cross shopping, and the competitors’ top referring sites.
• Advertising Analysis and Spend: To identify competitors’ media choices and those advertising sources’ performance data. 

“Until now, dealers have been unable to instantly view this level of competitive insight, and have been challenged with benchmarking the performance of their stores against their main competition. CompetitorPro allows visibility into your competitor’s strategies, ultimately allowing you to outsmart the competition,” said CompetitorPro CEO Steve Greenfield. 

The U.S. automotive landscape is very competitive: 2,500 dealerships have more than 10 same-brand competitors within a 20-mile radius. Except for very rural operators, most dealerships have multiple local competitors with whom they compete aggressively, whether same-brand stores or other make retailers. 

“In the used car space, dealers have other tools to help them price vehicles and identify the best models for their market. But without CompetitorPro I wouldn’t be able to find used car data about the dealership up the street,” said Emanuel Jones II, General Manager for Legacy Automotive, Atlanta. 

Visit NADA, booth 5607 to get a free competitive analysis of how your store compares to your key competitor’s performance metrics. Visit www.CompetitorPro now for a demo. For more information, contact Steve Greenfield at (470) 223-0227.

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Olathe, KS, November 15, 2016 – LotPop, the virtual dealership management team for franchised new car and independent used car dealerships, announced today LotScore powered by LotPop, a weekly report of a dealers’ top inventory, market and pricing indicators to help drive more used car sales at higher margins. 

LotScore will challenge dealers to question how they traditionally look at inventory management. 

“Dealers using inventory management systems have access to so much data the information confuses decision making. Instead, LotScore distills that data and, along with analyzing third-party party website data, presents managers with 23 essential and actionable inventory performance metrics,” said Jasen Rice, LotPop founder and CEO.

LotScore represents more than a decade of research isolating key inventory performance metrics that actually point to inventory, pricing and market trends. This is the insight a GM, GSM or used car manager needs at their fingertips to isolate opportunities or trouble before things go off track,” Rice said.

LotScore scores a dealer’s inventory in four key areas weekly and scores their progress toward goals. This service focuses on scoring: 

• Inventory Status
• Inventory Marketing
• Inventory Stocking
• Inventory ROI 

LotScore is available as part of LotPop’s virtual inventory management service for physical and online inventory management success. It is available to dealers using LotPop’s full services, which include all-encompassing professional inventory oversight, recommendations and management of inventory aging and turn, and online listings and merchandising best practices. 

LotScore is also available separately, for dealers who manage their own inventory but would benefit from having the used car inventory trends metrics provided by LotScore powered by LotPop. 

For more information, contact Jasen Rice at jrice@lotpop.com or call 1-844-568-7674 or 314-568-2754 or visit www.lotpop.com and to obtain a free Inventory Evaluation from LotPop.

At the Used Car Week conference next month in Las Vegas, Wheel’s Automotive Dealer Supplies, Inc. will announce its line of CPO-specific visual marketing ideas for automobile dealers.

Wheel’s CPO-specific merchandising tools are designed and printed on demand specifically for OEM and third-party certified vehicle programs. Wheel’s is the expert in certified pre-owned merchandising and is partnered with 17 OEMs’ CPO programs.

The company’s CPO-centric merchandising solutions deliver crisp, OEM-like presentations of CPO inventory, whether on the lot, in the showroom or online that gives this unique inventory classification the desired new-car/high-value perception dealers want to convey to their markets.

“To be successful in this evolving CPO market, dealers are encouraged to adopt new tactics on how they merchandise and market today’s certified pre-owned inventory,” says Richard Ashworth, president of Wheel’s, North America’s most renowned experts in innovative marketing products for automotive retailers.

Ashworth and the Wheel’s team will discuss CPO merchandising, marketing strategies and product solutions at Used Car Week, Nov. 14-18 at Booth #210, at Las Vegas’ Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa.

A reason that updated and specifically designed CPO-related signage and merchandising tactics carry more weight in CPO today is that CPO selling dynamics have changed so much, says Ed French of AutoProfit Automotive Consulting.

“It used to be any-old CPO sign on a car was enough to get eyeballs on it, but not today. CPO now has to stand on its own, with its unique identity and category between used and new cars, and must be marked and merchandised accordingly,” says the former Buick dealer and current member of the board of directors at TruWorth Auto, a used car superstore in Indianapolis, Indiana.  

Wheel’s CPO-defined merchandising products visually resemble OEM new-car signage, banners, point-of-sales showroom displays, lot flags and more. By duplicating and extending this crisp new-car signage look to CPO inventory, dealers help customers connect with CPOs’ unique quality and value.

“CPO inventory is not used cars,” Ashworth notes, “so dealers who use the right visual cues, attention-getters and marketing products create a crucial and vital distinction in buyers’ minds. Active CPO merchandising is much more than lipstick.” 

Several OEMs require their dealers use branded CPO-differentiated signage, point-of-sale displays, banners and windshield stickers. Their contracts with Wheels enable dealers of these OEMs to order CPO merchandising materials directly.

“Given the unique status that CPO vehicles fall under today – thanks to a great extent to OEM advertising – signage and point-of-sale materials for these vehicles need to be more polished and restrained,” says Ashworth. “This is the image our unique line of CPO-specific merchandising products conveys.”

To view Wheel’s line of distinctive CPO-focused showroom and lot merchandising and marketing products, visit Wheel’s at Used Car Week, Nov. 14-18, Booth #210, at Las Vegas’ Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa. For more information, contact Renee Perri, Vice President of Corporate Division at 1-800-465-8831, Ext. 105 or www.wheelsauto.com

Automotive Compliance Consultants president Terry Dortch recapped what he described as “sad and unfortunate” news about employee crimes against dealers. Before going into a few tips for protecting the dealership against such activities, Dortch highlighted a few recent headlines about such occurrences, including:

• Florida couple accused of stealing $2 million from S.C. car dealership, warrants say.

• Kentucky dealership employee arrested and charged with three counts of theft by deception.

• Pennsylvania dealership controller headed to jail after embezzling $10 million.

Dortch acknowledged the criminal activity itself is detrimental, but the breach of trust can be worse. Whether informal or formal, Automotive Compliance Consultants insisted employees make a covenant with their employer when they agree to give their services for compensation.

Said a dealer whose longtime employee was charged with falsifying vendor payables to steal from the dealership, “The crime feels like the betrayal of a family member.”

A survey a few years ago by an accounting firm noted that a third of dealership respondents had “experienced actual or attempted fraud.” Of those, 62 percent of the fraud perpetrators were employees.

“These events can seem to happen out of the blue, but often in retrospect behaviors, practices and outside activities were warnings about such individuals,” Dortch said. “These individuals are often more concerned with what they get from their position than what they can contribute.”

Automotive Compliance Consultants explained that operators can consider these defenses for asset theft:

• Security cameras to watch over parts and materials inventory shelves, supply rooms, parking lots and other outside areas to observe suspicious activities.

• Limit access to areas like the parts department, main office, F&I office, cashier office, materials closets and parts storage.

• Note employees’ lifestyles, habits and behaviors that seem suspicious or otherwise indicate they may live above their visible means.

• Employees hanging around in areas where they have no legitimate reason to do so is a red flag.

• Enforce your internal controls policies.

For back-office defense, Automotive Compliance Consultants shared these suggestions:

• Don’t allow one person to have complete control of bank accounts. Have one individual handle payoffs of trade-in balances and another control license and title activities; have a third person manage the day-to-day bill paying. This would mean having multiple accounts.

• Conduct regular audits of the books; auditing by a third party preferred.

• Daily review the DOC or daily operating control sheet. Look at vendor expenses closely and know each vendor and the service they provide. Look for any abnormalities in the expense, i.e. is it way too high for the service they are providing?

• Investigate anything that looks different or out of place on vehicle values, bank statements, inventory balances or number of ROs.

• Don’t shrug off any swing in profit, revenue or payables — always investigate.

• Pay close attention to used inventory and the water that exists. Market fluctuations will occur, but you don’t want to see large swings that could signal something amiss.

• Pay close attention to your wholesaled vehicles run a report at least monthly to see what is being wholesaled and check the price it was sold at.

• Pay close attention to contracts in transit — again, this could mean something other than just waiting on stips or stipulations, the documents required by a lender to fund a loan, such as proof of income, residence, and proof of insurance.

• Check bank statements personally; randomly look for abnormalities.

• Keep an eye on used car reconditioning; if looks out of place, dig deeper.

• Conduct monthly inventory of all vehicles, used and new, and match to the dollar amount on the books and/or floor plan.

And when it comes to data security, Automotive Compliance Consultants recommended that operators engage a managed security services provider to monitor your store’s network and alert your IT staff when an intrusion occurs so immediate action can be taken.  Absent such real-time network monitoring, the dealership will likely remain open to network compromise and perhaps substantial loss.

Finally, Automotive Compliance Consultants stressed that dealerships need to make sure every employee knows that no internal theft of any kind will be tolerated — and be sure they understand violations will cause dismissal, at least, and criminal prosecution often.

“Sometimes having a third party audit the dealership’s exposures will provide the most prevention and peace of mind,” Automotive Compliance Consultants added.

Automotive Compliance Consultants specializes in dealership compliance, providing in-dealership consultations and analysis, compliance audits and training, and offers solutions for all compliance needs. The Automotive Compliance Consultants staff has extensive experience in the automotive retail industry and focuses exclusively on dealership compliance issues.

For information, contact Dortch at terry_dortch@compliantnow.com or visit www.compliantnow.com.

Wheel’s Automotive Dealer Supplies Inc. announced today its revolutionary Flagmaster 360, a new display design that holds flags and banners open in all weather conditions. Wheel’s is North America’s most renowned experts in innovative marketing products for automotive retailers. 

Flagmaster 360 rotates 360-degrees on square or round poles, without the need for shock cords. More durable than Wheel’s original and highly popular Flagmaster, Flagmaster 360 will not scratch poles. It is available to fit all Wheel’s 3.5-by-7-foot and 3.5-by-10-foot flags. Click to see Flagmaster 360 in action. 

With Flagmaster 360, flag-type merchandising is now always crisply seen and readable by consumers, whatever the weather – blustery or still days, which can otherwise blur this important branding and marketing. Flagmaster 360 has been tested to 74 mph winds with no damage resulting to the device or pole. Easily installed, it comes with a one-year warranty. 

To order Wheel’s proprietary Flagmaster 360 for more visible inventory merchandising whatever the weather, call Renee at 1-800-465-8831, Ext. 105. For more innovative and cost-saving lot merchandising and dealership supplies, visit wheelsauto.com.

By Jim Maxim, Jr.

I want to present here five F&I performance calculations that if you regularly work them and respond appropriately your F&I department will produce more profit. First, all business and industries when measuring performance or production use metrics called Key Performance Indicators (KPI). 

We will look at five F&I metrics considered the top five KPI’s in the F&I industry. KPIs reveal how you’re doing – and help identify any issues or problems to address. Since money is involved here, tracking and measuring these KPIs should be mastered by every dealer and F&I manager.

Healthy F&I departments and their managers work at mastering each of these metrics:

1.PVR is Profit per Vehicle Retail in dollars. This calculation is Total Dollars Profit = Finance Reserve + F&I Product Income ÷ by Total Units Sold

PVR is the most popular F&I metric and KPI. Most experts in the F&I industry would agree that PVR is King and is the most common metric referred to in measuring F&I performance.  The goal and objective are for F&I to achieve higher PVR.

How to improve PVR: Given today’s downward pressure on financial reserve, hope for improved PVR rests on the F&I manager’s F&I product sales penetration. Consumer buying behaviors have changed over the years. With consumers owning and keeping vehicles longer, many protection products now offer more value to them. Consider training the F&I team about these changing consumer buying behaviors and how they change customer wants and needs. 

F&I managers must change how they present F&I products, so product value is evident in the buyers’ minds.  Perhaps the most powerful tool F&I managers are using today that helps increase PVR is an F&I menu presentation system.  In 2015, MaximTrak did a survey of dealers using its e-menu technology that showed the digital platform responsible for per-vehicle retail (PVR) lifts of $538 and 52% product penetration lifts. 

2.Individual F&I Product Sales Penetration (%) is the # of F&I Product Sold ÷ Total # Vehicle Units Sold. For example: 60 VSC Sold ÷ 100 Units = 60%.

Notes:                                         

• Vehicle Service Contract - most popular of all F&I products
• VSC – most profitable in dollars
  - impacts other departments in the store like parts and service
  - good if the vehicle comes back with a trade

How to improve penetration: Developing new skills and product knowledge through training can help F&I staff make incremental improvements by learning new ways to engage with customers, build rapport, and offer what customers truly value. 

For instance, F&I managers that interview the customer by asking questions better understand customers’ needs for F&I protection products.  Top F&I performers interview the buyer and then perform a thorough needs analysis before doing a menu presentation. 

Electronic F&I menus are now incorporating “smart survey” techniques that analyze consumer responses based on a lifestyles survey. Smart surveys capture answers to the questions F&I typically would y ask a customer. These surveys can be incorporated in the sales process while sales finalizes the deal for F&I.  Smart surveys identify respondents’ lifestyle traits and provide F&I information on the customers need for protection products. Smart surveys include a system that “learns” about the customer - their driving habits, ownership plans, risk profile, and more. The result helps consumers – and F&I managers - recognize what optional protection products would bring the most value to them. 

This technology: 

• Reveals to buyers and F&I about customers’ personal risk analysis and compares it with the protection products offered at the dealership.
• Provides insight into customers’ driving habits and ownership plans that help in understanding customer buying behaviors and interests.  This helps give dealers valuable insight into the F&I products that appeal to its customers and the products or services the customer is most likely to consider purchasing.
• Dealers can utilize data to determine the products F&I should offer. This helps dealers in working with its vendors in designing new products and services for F&I to offer customers based on their needs and interest in buying.

Technologies like this that helps to match customers to the right products can make less experienced F&I managers more confident and responsive when discussing protection products with their customers. 

3.Average F&I Products Sold per Unit is Total # of F&I Products Sold ÷ by Total Vehicles Units Sold. For example: 250 F&I Products Sold ÷ 100 Vehicle Units Sold = 2.5             

How to improve products sold per vehicle: Having a third or fourth product presented to every customer every time is the third leg of a strong F&I product offering. For your dealership, this might be a dealer-branded prepaid maintenance plan or a bundled package of protection productsPresenting a fourth or fifth product can increase F&I penetration and PVR, but also customer retention and service sales.  A high-end menu system will ensure the right products are presented every time. Ask your F&I agent for new ideas to help you increase the number of products sold per deal.
 

4.Ratio between Finance Reserve Gross and F&I Product Gross – there are two calculations here: Finance Reserve Ratio (%)  = Total  Finance Reserve $ ÷ Total F&I Gross $, and
F&I Product Gross Ratio (%) = Total F&I Product Gross $ ÷ Total F&I Gross $.                         

Goal and objective are to have a higher F&I product gross ratio -This is because the sale of F&I products provide these values:

   1. Customer retention for the dealership
   2. Tangible values to the customer
   3. Higher resale value on the vehicle.
 

NOTE: Finance rate markup provides zero value to the consumer
 

How to improve product reserve/gross ratio – Improving the sale of retention-building products can help boost these key ratios. VSCs, prepaid maintenance plans, and other products that link buyers back to the dealership help build retention and drive service profits. F&I can increase sale penetration of such products by gaining more knowledge of how these products benefit the consumer and gives F&I confidence in presenting their value in compelling ways; if buyers see F&I is not bought into these products’ value, why should the consumer want to buy?  Utilizing state-of-the-art interactive sales tools like incorporating a Factory Warranty Review presentation using visuals that include graphs helps sell VSC products. 

5.Menu Utilization – an indicator that shows the frequency in utilizing a menu presentation system for offering and selling F&I products: Total # F&I Menu’s Printed ÷ Total Units Sold = Menu Utilization %. 

F&I menus are generated by F&I managers as either paper or paperless menus.  Electronic F&I menu systems now have reporting available that tracks F&I managers using an F&I menu presentation system and sales tools that include:

• Needs analysis interview
• F&I product sales tools that include graphs and videos
• E-F&I Menu presentation, either printed or electronically prepared and signed.
• Waiver form for products accepted and declines, either printed or electronically prepared and signed.

       Notes: 

• Instead of measuring utilization based on # or units, electronic F&I menu systems can measure time. Measuring time helps to evaluate F&I managers’ use of various sales tools, capabilities, and functionality that come with e-F&I menu systems.
• Measuring F&I manager utilization of all resources that come with an e-F&I menu system helps
  support F&I menu training.  Measuring F&I manager utilization of a menu system provides for an effort-based reporting tool.
• Menu utilization measures for quality results while F&I production measures quantitative results.
• High usage of an e-F&I menu system and all the sales tool that come with the system can correlate to increase F&I production and profits for the dealer.

Manage by facts

Using data to manage a department eliminates subjectivity and emotion and helps managers focus on reality. The reality is within the data accessible from the store’s dealer management system or third-party F&I software platform. 

You will find these reporting tools very useful: 

1. F&I Menu Reporting –   F&I reports created with data generated from e-menu systems.
2. Dashboard Reporting – Dealer reports generated through F&I platform integration with the DMS.
3. Distributor Reporting – For enterprise reporting from the platform for dealer groups and their F&I agencies.
4. Utilization Reporting – Reports created that measure F&I managers the use and efforts of an F&I menu system as a tool for selling F&I products.
5. Delivery-Type Reporting – Digital sales report analyzing in-store and online F&I activities and sales. 

Many changes are taking place in the automotive industry. We are seeing more OEM’s manufacturing and introducing EV’s in the marketplace. This may suggest the need for tracking the sale of F&I products by vehicle type.  This report, whether standalone or part of the dealer’s dashboard reporting, tracks the sale of F&I products across various channels, e.g. online versus in-store. This will be an important metric to watch as we move forward more deeply into the digital dealership.

Automobile dealers face many challenges in running their business. The competition for customers today is greater, and profit from the sale has been thinned by the OEMs. This has resulted in the need to generate more revenue from F&I to make a deal profitable.  Now, dealers also are facing the risk and loss of revenue from finance reserve and possible increasing regulatory pressure for add-on pricing as well, from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

With dealers facing more competition for customers, thinning profit margins, and potential loss of F&I revenues, dealers will need to depend more heavily on real-time data. These KPIs, when put into detail reports,  gives management crisp direction on how to make informed and intelligent business decisions for running the business and improving the dealer’s bottom line. 

Jim Maxim, Jr. is President of MaximTrak Technologies, www.maximtrak.com.  Reach him at maxim@maximtrak.com

CRYSTAL LAKE, IL, July 13, 2016 – The sad and unfortunate news about employee crimes against auto dealers continues, so a few tips for protecting the dealership against such activities is timely, notes

Terry Dortch, president of Automotive Compliance Consultants. 

A few recent headlines about such occurrences: 

• Florida couple accused of stealing $2 million from S.C. car dealership, warrants say
• Kentucky car dealership employee arrested and charged with three counts of theft by deception.
• Pennsylvania dealership controller headed to jail after embezzling $10 million. 

The criminal activity itself is detrimental, but the breach of trust can be worse. Whether informal or formal, employees make a covenant with their employer when they agree to give their services for compensation. 

Said a dealer whose long-time employee was charged with falsifying vendor payables to steal from the dealership. “The crime feels like the betrayal of a family member,” he said. 

“These events can seem to happen out of the blue, but often in retrospect behaviors, practices, and outside activities were warnings about such individuals,” Dortch said. “These individuals are often more concerned with what they get from their position than what they can contribute.” 

A survey a few years ago by an accounting firm noted that a third of dealership respondents had “experienced actual or attempted fraud.”  Of those, Sixty-two percent of the fraud perpetrators were employees! 

Consider these defenses for asset theft: 

• Security cameras to watch over parts and materials inventory shelves, supply rooms, parking lots, and other outside areas to observe suspicious activities.
• Limit access to areas like parts department, main office, F&I office, Cashier office, materials closets, and parts cores storage.
• Note employees’ lifestyles, habits and behaviors that seem suspicious or otherwise indicate they may live above their visible means.
• Employees hanging around in areas where they have no legitimate reason to do so is a red flag.
• Enforce your internal controls policies. 

For back office defense: 

• Don’t allow one person to have complete control of bank accounts. Have one individual handle payoffs of trade-in balances and another to control license and title activities; have a third person manage the day-to-day bill paying. This would mean having multiple accounts.

• Conduct regular audits of the books; auditing by a third party preferred.
• Daily review the DOC or Daily Operating Control sheet. Look at vendor expenses closely and know each vendor and the service they provide. Look for any abnormalities in the expense IE is it way too high for the service they are providing.
• Investigate anything that looks different or out of place on vehicle values, bank statements, inventory balances, or number of ROs.
• Don’t shrug off any swing in profit, revenue, or payables --always investigate!
• Pay close attention to used inventory and the water that exists. Market fluctuations will occur, but you don’t want to see large swings that could signal something amiss.
• Pay close attention to your wholesaled vehicles run a report at least monthly to see what is being wholesaled and check the price it was sold at.
• Pay close attention to contracts in transit – again, this could mean something other than just waiting on Stips or stipulations, the documents required by a lender to fund a loan,  such as proof of income, residence, and proof of insurance.
• Check bank statements personally; randomly look for abnormalities.
• Keep an eye on used car reconditioning; if looks out of place, dig deeper!
• Conduct monthly inventory of all vehicles, used and new, and match to the dollar amount on the books and/or floor plan.

Data security:

• Engage a Managed Security Services Provider to monitor your network and alert your IT staff when an intrusion occurs so immediate action can be taken.  Absent such real-time network monitoring, the dealership will likely remain open to network compromise and perhaps substantial loss. 

Make sure every employee knows that no internal theft of any kind will be tolerated – and be sure they understand violations will cause dismissal, at least, and criminal prosecution often. Sometimes having a third-party audit the dealership’s exposures will provide the most prevention and peace of mind.

Automotive Compliance Consultants specializes in dealership compliance, providing in-dealership consultations and analysis, compliance audits and training, and offers solutions for all compliance needs. The Automotive Compliance Consultants staff has extensive experience in the automotive retail industry and focuses exclusively on dealership compliance issues. 

For information, contact Terry Dortch at terry_dortch@compliantnow.com or visit www.compliantnow.com.

Most days of the week, Paul Ciardiello is the new car director and general sales manager for Manly Honda in Santa Rosa, California. But on Mondays he’s Chef Paul at nearby Redwood Gospel Mission cooking up savory meals for more than 350 homeless individuals and recovering addicts. 

For Ciardiello, second from left in photo, his volunteer work at the mission is part atonement, a slice of “I’ve been there too,” and a unique opportunity to practice his first love, cooking for others. Ciardiello is more than Chef Paul to the mission’s diners. He’s also a skilled, highly rated former professional chef who happened to walk into a Manly Auto Group dealership a few years ago to buy a car. 

“They must have liked something I said or how I presented myself, because out of the blue they offered me a job,” Ciardiello recalled recently, still sounding astounded at the chance offer and opportunity put before him. “I said no, I’m a chef. I got into my car and drove to the new restaurant I was to open in three weeks.” 

He grew up in the restaurant business. A dishwasher at 13, he spent 22 years working in restaurant kitchens. “I had good reviews by the food critics, and then a few years ago I came from Connecticut to Santa Rosa to work for noted celebrity chef Michael Chiarello, who like me, specializes in Italian-influenced California cuisine.” 

Some say God’s hands in events is easier to see in the rearview mirror. Ciardiello is one. “I arrived at the restaurant and was told by the owners we weren’t opening, that I wasn’t to order the $35,000 in wine, that the investment money had been lost in a Ponzi scheme. I was out of work,” Ciardiello said. 

He drove back to Manly and asked if the offer was still good. Along the way, he noticed three poorly clothed individuals sharing one cup of coffee on a particular cold Sonoma County winter morning. That experience led to his researching the Internet for organizations giving back to and servicing the Santa Rosa community. His search took him to Redwood Gospel Mission. 

“I’d been there, I’d been homeless. When I contacted the Mission they asked me why I wanted to volunteer, to come in and cook for them, and I told them, “A car guy has to get to heaven too, but that mostly I have been blessed and didn’t want to take that fortune for granted,” he said. 

Matt Sutton, far left in photo, is Food Service Manager for the Mission, and supervises Paul. “He’s about the longest serving volunteer here,” he said. “The residents count on him and come up with recipes to stump him. Paul’s actions speak volumes and he ministers to our guests by them. He is consistent and reliable, and they know that he really cares.” 

Recalling walking into Manly’s that day, Ciardiello said, “There are not many industries where an individual can walk in at 35 years old and within 10 years later have done what I’ve been given the opportunities here,” he said. “It is mind boggling to think how I went from working 90 hours a week for the pay I received to now working fewer hours, with less stress, more income and time for my family. I got lucky, and I know it.” 

Ciardiello works a four-hour shift at the mission every Monday. With a sous chef and other help from residents of the Mission’s 12-step program, he prepares meals for the Mission’s homeless population, its addiction recovery residents, and for an affiliated nearby women’s shelter. 

He works with whatever food products are available. Much of it is donated. FoodNetwork Star Guy Fieri films his Guy’s Grocery Games nearby and donates show food products to the Mission. 

The Mission feeds upwards of 300 individuals daily. Mission residents and especially Ciardiello’s kitchen crew can’t wait for him to arrive to assemble and prepare the meal they’d devised for him that day. As he does, he teaches food safety, sanitation and meal preparation basics. By the time most of his kitchen crew have completed their six-to-12-month recovery program, they’ve also earned a certificate in food service. Then a new inbound recovery crew rotates in and, as Ciardiello said, he starts again with the basics, “This is how you chop an onion...” 

“Guys here in recovery or those just out of prison tell me that their day goes by much quicker and enjoyable on the day they’re with me in the kitchen,” Ciardiello said. “We engage in conversations about suffering, how Jesus suffered, and how our emotions are so raw and the hunger for healing so intense. I love these kinds of conversations, and one reason I love being there is to hear those kinds of redemption stories.” 

Jim Leman writes about automotive retail operations from Grayslake, IL. He too works with the homeless and spends his Wednesday mornings volunteering at a food pantry. You can reach him at jimleman@gmail.com

Unique social engine lets shoppers select, build common ground with sales associate of choice before store visit

TAMPA, FLA, June 28, 2016 – SurgeCurve™, a new web-based customer engagement and marketing tool launched today with 12 beta active sites, announced SurgeCurve CEO Matt Rutkovitz. He added he’s seeking 12 additional retailers to experience how this new “Meet the Sales Team” online video engagement engine maximizes sales conversions. 

SurgeCurve technology improves sales by empowering shoppers to digitally “handpick” the sales associate they want helping them when buying a car -- before they ever step into the showroom. SurgeCurve gives consumers control of what until now creates discomfort and apprehension – and often dread – in the car-buying process. 

“SurgeCurve fills that sometimes awkward gap consumers enter when they flow from a smooth online experience to brick-and-mortar,” Rutkovitz says. “Now buyers walk in more comfortable with the sales process because they’ve already built comfort and trust with their associate of choice through pre-visit video and other social media interactions on SurgeCurve.” 

Sales associates create a compelling profile on SurgeCurve. They populate it with such content as video profiles, feeds, reviews, and call scheduling. Shoppers schedule phone calls with their preferred associates to narrow down whom they will select to greet and engage with them at the store. 

SurgeCurve’s “meet the sales team” on steroids engine links sales associate data to Facebook and other popular consumer-facing social media sites. Shoppers and their sales associate then share posts across their networks. Reviews give shoppers insight into what others say about associates and their experiences. A manager always retains posting and editing control. 

“We are in the people business, and people buy from people they like. SurgeCurve is the human touch that reduces the friction in a process that’s unpredictable for most shoppers,” Rutkovitz noted. 

Blake Schindler, used car manager for Bob Davidson Ford-Lincoln, Baltimore, is one of SurgeCurve’s beta testers. “We’re now better able to keep in contact with customers before and after the sale, which builds loyalty and therefore more profit for the dealership,” he said. 

“One of the most exciting benefits of SurgeCurve is how it eliminates our whole staff from having to learn all different types of social media while it gives me the ability to control the content,” Schindler said. 

Rutkovitz said SurgeCurve is seeking 12 dealerships to beta test this unique sales conversion tool.   

“With SurgeCurve, you put that control in buyers’ hands and write more ups in the Sold column,” Rutkovitz said. He can be contacted at info@surgecurve.com or 813-906-0026 if interested in becoming a beta site for SurgeCurve. 

About SurgeCurve

The world has changed. Because people prefer to buy from people like them and whom they like, SurgeCurve gives car shoppers a personal insight to your sales staff and their interests and personalities so they can choose whom they want to work with when visiting the dealership. SurgeCurve enables sales associates to market themselves and communicate about the dealership using online reviews, scheduled calls, videos and pictures to always generate new business and stay productive, even in downtime. For more information visit www.surgecurve.com or contact the company at info@surgecurve.com or 813-906-0026 to schedule a demo of the remarkable SurgeCurve.