Category: Registration & Title

Avoiding Title and Payoff Surprises With Trade-Ins

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Under the current market conditions, with new car inventory at historic lows, dealerships’ used car programs are more important than ever as a revenue and cash flow source. That puts increased focus on your dealership’s trade-in process, both for replenishing used car inventory and enticing car buyers to upgrade.

Now the challenge is to ensure that you have all the information you need to keep the deal moving smoothly.

The more you know…

Let’s say someone brings in a trade-in vehicle with great resale potential and they’re eager to purchase another vehicle from you. The customer tells you that nothing has changed with their name or address since they bought the car and they’re the only person listed on the title.

What you don’t know is that the title actually lists an old address – and the customer’s former spouse as the co-lienholder.

With manual processes and paperwork, that kind of revelation could take a while to surface and when it does, there’s a chance that your dealership could be stuck with a vehicle it can’t legally sell. At the very least, it will create extra work and hassle for you and your customer. At worst, it can cause the deal to unravel and leave you with the fallout if you’ve sold the trade to someone else or sold a new car to the customer who brought in the trade, valued with the vehicle they brought in.

When your dealership has access to a digital trade-in title solution, you can view all the title details immediately. That way, if there’s a potential problem you can begin to work it out with the customer then and there, before you even accept the trade. Having the information you need up front helps ensure smoother transactions and preserve your CSI scores.

Payoff perspective

Another manual trade-in process that can bring its own surprises is loan payoff. Having complete and reliable payoff information is important for desking clean deals. It also cuts down on time-consuming back-and-forth with the lender if you need to make adjustments.

A digital trade-in titling solution provides direct lender connections for real-time payoff quotes based on the payoff date and allows for immediate title release as soon as the lender receives payment.

Keeping cash flow moving

Why is all this important? Because delays in payoff and title release equal delays in cash flow. While the dealership waits for the title on a trade-in, holding costs accumulate and the potential for retailing or auctioning the vehicle is held back. The sooner you can have the title in hand, the quicker that cash flows into your bank account.

Find out how Dealertrack Accelerated Title helps keeps your trade-in process moving without any surprises.

Your Shortcut to Faster Trade-In Titling

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The typical trade-in process is full of time-consuming manual steps that can mean a long road ahead before you receive the title and turn the inventory. Dealertrack Accelerated Title® offers an expressway to faster title release with just a few easy, online steps.

See how it works in the infographic below (click image for a larger view) and visit go.dealertrack.com/ATexpress to get your dealership on the AT Expressway.

How Dealertrack Accelerated Title speeds trade-in title release

Clear Titles, Full Details Make for a Winning Trade-In

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Autumn means colorful leaves, a chill in the air and the welcome return of football. This year, the auto business is experiencing some tough challenges brought on by daunting economic and industry conditions. Your dealership’s team has a job to do, and trade-ins can be part of a winning strategy for keeping your used car inventory stocked and your cash flow moving.

To lead your team to victory, you can take a cue from the inspirational pep talks football coaches use to help their players turn the game around. So, here are some encouraging words about how your dealership can utilize a digital solution to dig deep and overcome some of the obstacles you’re up against when it comes to trade-in titling.

The Need for A Clearer View of the Field

Let’s say you have a customer who’s ready to buy a vehicle – and they have a trade-in that you know is in demand. If they don’t have title in hand and you use a manual process to obtain one, it could be weeks before you can be 100% sure you’re in the clear and that there are no surprises like a former spouse as co-lienholder or wrong addresses to impede your progress.

Keep Deals from Getting Sacked

If you do encounter one of those payoff surprises, what you thought was a touchdown could end up being a costly sack. If you can’t gain a clear title for a trade – especially if you’ve already re-sold it – you could be facing a very unhappy customer and an expensive loss.

A better strategy is to beef up your defensive line with a digital trade-in titling solution that allows you to see full title details before you decide to take in a trade. That way, you have the information you need to anticipate anything that might tackle the deal so you can take the appropriate action before it’s too late.

Improve Your Inventory Game

Between car buyers’ understandable budget concerns and unusually low levels of new car inventory, used cars are having a moment in the spotlight for dealerships. Trade-ins play a big role in keeping a dealership’s used car inventory lineup solid, so it helps to optimize your payoff and title release process to not only avoid any payoff surprises, but also help keep trade-in inventory moving.

Outrun Cash Flow Interference

Manual payoff and title release takes an average of 18 or more days according to Dealertrack data. While trade-ins sit idle, you’re not yet realizing a profit on your investment. At the same time, holding costs add up until the title arrives, further impeding your profit opportunity.

Even if you’re planning on auctioning the vehicle, having the title in hand nearly doubles your chances of first pass sale at auction1 – and until the title arrives, your cash flow on the sale is held back while you wait.

Using a digital trade-in titling solution to expedite title release from key lenders can get your trade-in inventory in play faster by reducing the time spent waiting from weeks to days. That way you’ll get to the cash flow goalpost more quickly, regardless of whether you re-sell trades on your lot or at auction.

Want to learn how Dealertrack Accelerated Title trade-in titling solution can help you reach your dealership’s inventory turn goal lines more quickly? Visit our feature page for more information and to request a demo.

12018 (1.6X) Manheim Articles “Impact of Delayed Titles at Auction

The Good News & Bad News About Out-of-State Deals

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Let’s start with the good news! Out-of-state deals are increasing as dealers promote their inventory online and cast a wider net for potential customers. Out-of-state sales grew by 16% over the past year, according to Cox Automotive analysis of IHS Market new and used vehicle registration data*. Even with the current economic situation, cross-border sales are a natural consequence of online car shopping.

As great as it is for dealerships to leverage their online presence to bring in more cross-border customers, dealers and retailers need to be prepared to avoid potential complications that come from out-of-state business.

Here are some of those potential challenges:

Good: There’s a buyer coming in this weekend for a top deal with all the bells and whistles!
Bad: The buyer is from two states away and no one in the back office is familiar with the reg and title processes from the customer’s home state.

In the past, a dealership in Nebraska probably wouldn’t register a vehicle in North Dakota very often. Thanks to digital retailing, an increasing number of customers are willing to visit another state to purchase the vehicle they want, which means out-of-state registration and title processes are becoming a common challenge for dealerships across the country. Because no title clerk has every state’s reg and title processes memorized, this leads to more time spent on phones figuring out the details, more DMV rules and regulations to know and understand, and more paperwork to process.

Good: An enthusiastic and motivated online car shopper “went the extra mile” to come to your dealership because a few local customers of your dealership area raved about the service they received.
Bad: The deal process could be slowed down or held up by time-consuming manual tax and fee calculations to make the deal accurate.

Even if your dealership’s home state has technology solutions for in-state reg and title calculations, those don’t apply to cross-border deals. If your staff needs to build a deal for an out-of-state customer, they need to know that state’s taxes and fees to get to the best deal for the customer. Being forced to compare deal options using unfamiliar tax rates and fees could make it take longer than usual to complete the deal, which could dampen your customer’s enthusiasm. If calculation errors lead to deal inaccuracies, your customer satisfaction scores could take a hit.

Good: Your registration and title submission for in-state customers is handled electronically, straight to the state DMV.
Bad: It’s much more difficult to finalize out-of-state registration and title transactions because the in-state checklist isn’t the same for customers in different states.

Most dealerships end up providing their cross-border customers with a very general idea of what they might need for registration. That lack of specificity has drawbacks for customers that could cause them to overlook something important, make them have to chase down paperwork and documents during the signing process, or worse, leave them with an unwelcome to-do list that could sour their experience and drive down your CSI score. Your dealership could help create a much more positive experience by giving every customer a simple and defined list for what paperwork they need and what steps they need to take for their specific situation.

Good, Better, Best! The right out-of-state registration and titling technology solution can help ensure that all your cross-border customers get the same level of customer service that in-state customers receive. That technology support can help smooth the process for your back-office staff to help save them time and drive up deal productivity.

Learn how the new Dealertrack RegUSA® can provide the simple solutions your dealership needs for all these scenarios.

*Based on Cox Automotive derived analysis of IHS Markit new and used vehicle registration data as of Q3 2019 where a selling dealer was identified. Used registrations includes selling dealer for 31 states.

 

Streamlining Out-of-State Registration & Title

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As many dealerships enable digital retailing tools, their potential customer base can expand significantly as they engage with clients outside their normal reach. As of early this year, dealers using digital retailing saw a 25% increase in out-of-state customers.* Even in today’s business environment, buyers are still willing to cross state lines to purchase a vehicle if it’s what they want at the price they want to pay.

More sales are always good, but out-of-state transactions can introduce uncertainty into the deal, starting with desking. One factor that plays into this uncertainty is that not all desked deals go as deep as city, county and municipality for taxes and fees. Different states have different tax and fee calculations that can vary down to the county or municipality – and might also be affected by the type of vehicle being purchased. If you’re team is not aware of the nuances, the result can be payment miscalculations.

Then there’s the customer service aspect of handling registration and titling work for every customer so they can go home with their new vehicle and not worry about needing to stand in line at the DMV. Does your back office know the regulations and have access to the forms for every state? Probably not – and if they did, laws and forms change all the time, which makes staying up-to-state extremely cumbersome.

Many dealerships seeking to providing fast and accurate registration and title services for all their customers choose a 50-state registration and titling solution. This helps ensure that they can roll out the red carpet for customers from any state – and empower their back-office staff to smoothly complete the deal.

When you’re selecting a cross-border registration and title solution, here’s what to look for:

  • Guidance through every step of registration and titling specific to the customer’s situation.
  • Side-by-side comparison for deals so customers can choose the one that best meets their needs.
  • The ability to identify and access the exact documents required by each deal.
  • Confirmation as you enter data so you will not need to correct anything later.
  • Speed to keep deals moving and status monitoring to know when each deal is complete.

A comprehensive out-of-state registration and title solution helps your dealership provide a high level of customer service and improve efficiency and productivity from your front office to your back office.

Not sure your dealership needs a 50-state registration and titling solution? Find out why you should reconsider.

*Based on Dealertrack credit application data between December 2019 – February 2020 when compared with and without the adoption of Digital Retailing</span.

3 Keys to Reimagining Your Dealership’s Back Office

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Now is a great time to seek out time- and money-saving opportunities in every facet of your operation, including registration and title processing. Why? Because making your back-office processes more efficient can help address three key challenges that dealerships are facing today: slow cash flow, staffing shortages, and untapped opportunities produced by the expanded customer base that digital retailing enables.

Let’s look at how registration and titling technology solutions can address each of those challenges.

  1. Leverage used car inventory to get cash flow moving for your dealership

Incoming vehicles taken as trades need clean titles to remarket at retail or auction at wholesale. It usually takes 18 or more days* to get the payoff and title release completed, and that’s if there are no payoff surprises along the way. In the meantime, cash flow is stunted and holding costs mount on these vehicles as they sit idle on your lot or fail to sell at auction.

A digital titling solution can help streamline and significantly shorten the time for vehicle payoff and title or lien release, which in turn helps your dealership avoid payoff surprises, inventory more quickly and keep cash flowing.

  1. Keep your back-office staff caught up 

As dealerships and DMVs both face continuing staffing shortages, your back office may be faced with registration and titling work that tends to pile up. Add current sales to the workload and the stress intensifies.

In states with electronic registration and title, you can now process motor vehicle transactions online from your office, in real-time. But some electronic solutions are intuitive enough for staffing flexibility and efficient enough to tackle batch import processing and GL writebacks to your DMS while finalizing deals.

  1. Extend your front office technology improvements through to the back office

We’ve seen year over year increases in cross-border deals across the country as online shopping has taken hold, but this trend has intensified as dealerships implement more digital retailing tools to help them facilitate virtual sales.

Dealerships wishing to take advantage of the opportunities that digital retailing tools send their way can be stymied by the 51 unique state motor vehicle jurisdictions, ~100 distinct sets of taxes and fees, ~250 unique forms, and approximately 300 possible registration and title transactions for any given deal. Whether you are a GM or controller, it’s easy to see how time-consuming these deals can be for your back-office operations. Any shortcuts and band-aids used to make up for the issue only raise compliance concerns.

Electronic solutions can help take the guesswork out of processing these state- and county-specific deals with a guided interface that customizes each unique transaction. An electronic checklist of requirements and instructions tailored to each deal helps ensure that every customer is handled more efficiently, regardless of their state or county.

Start reimagining your back office today

Technology providers continue to innovate and improve registration and title workflows with input from dealerships. Get to know the innovative and powerful digital solutions that meet today’s titling challenges head-on, increasing efficiency and cash flow for your dealership’s back office to ultimately improve your bottom line.

To further explore solutions to finish each deal strong, see our latest resources.

Untapped Opportunities for More Efficient Deal Completion

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An increasing number of dealers are adopting digital retailing tools to power the car buyer journey. Sharing inventory and starting deals online allows dealerships to expand their reach and customer base, which translates into year-over-year growth of out-of-state sales.

As dealerships welcome these additional customers, they quickly discover that there’s an added level of complexity to these deals. The back-end office processes of finalizing an out-of-state deal can become a time-consuming and costly process for dealerships due to 51 unique DMV jurisdictions, 100 distinct sets of taxes and fees, 250 unique forms, and 300 possible registration and title transactions.*

There’s value in improving technology and processes between the front office and back office to better streamline deal finalization. Here are some key things to consider at your dealership:

Establish user-friendly processes that empower your staff

Start by examining your mix of in-state and out-of-state customers to determine where your cross-border customers are coming from. Once you know your mix, there is an opportunity for you to create step-by-step processes for out-of-state deals that will more quickly and efficiently address these customers’ registration and titling needs.

Setting up this process requires you to obtain the relevant state-specific taxes and fees. You also need knowledge of, access to, and instructions for the proper forms needed to process the cross-border deals. Think about whether technology solutions could take the place of setting this process up manually and save you the time it takes to source forms, make phone calls to get the information state by state, and keep it updated.

Ensure you’re set up for reliable deal comparisons

Before the dealership can finalize the deal, the back office needs to work closely with the front office to complete the customer’s registration and titling work so that pricing is included in the “all-in” deal price. This involves gathering the proper documentation, taxes and fees relative to where the buyer lives to help cut down on inaccuracies and offline emails and/or phone calls with the customers. A more efficient process can result in better CSI scores.

Have the proper documentation

Because each state has different registration and titling paperwork, it’s important to be able to create a checklist for your back-office staff – and for your customer – to ensure that you are filling out all the necessary documentation. As more and more states adopt electronic registration and title (and some even mandate it), an electronic checklist tailored to each customer can help you stay up to date as changes go into effect.

Provide the same level of service for every customer

Another consideration is that you want each customer to be able to walk out the door knowing that they have given you all the information you need and signed everything that needs to be signed. Some customers may not be able to go in person to their DMV because it’s closed to the public – or they may not feel comfortable going if it’s open. Handling their registration and title process for them is one way to deliver exceptional customer service.

Consider an electronic reg & title solution

A 50-state registration and titling solution can offer online processing to help dealers eliminate the uncertainty of unfamiliar state rules and requirements. In addition to providing the necessary documents and tax rates for each state, these solutions also support refund check writing and Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments to streamline the accounting process and reduce per-deal check writing.

Other advantages to a technology solution includes DMS integration to allow the back office to pre-process transactions online. Your back office can gain tools to help estimate accurate taxes and fees and checklists to guide them toward collecting the correct customer information.

Interested in learning more? Download our Titling for a New Today Guide that focuses on process optimization.

*Source: Cox Automotive Internal Data

Why Use An Out-of-State Reg & Title Solution?

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Your dealership’s online presence has done its job and brought in a customer from several states away who’s been looking for a vehicle of the exact make, model, trim and color that you have on your lot. The deal goes smoothly, the transaction is almost done, and now it’s registration and titling time.

Because your dealership prides itself on customer service, you look to provide all customers with a hassle-free experience that includes reg and title work that saves from a trip to the DMV. But not all states are the same when it comes to deal closing.

Let’s face it: it’s nearly impossible for back-office folks at the dealership to know the ins and outs of registration and titling for all 50 states. Among different states you’ll find a wide variety of taxes, rules for categorizing certain vehicles, inspection requirements and exemptions, and insurance regulations. Each state has its own set of required forms that often include rules about who can sign them and when.

Even if you made a dedicated effort to learn about the hundreds of rules and forms needed to cover every state, you’d find it to be a moving target as regulations change and so do forms.

So, what can you do to provide a high level of service for every customer – including registration and title – and gain the CSI scores to show for it? Many dealerships are choosing to add 50-state registration and titling solution to their back-office toolkit.

With the right technology, your dealership can be prepared to welcome customers from anywhere in the country. Be sure to look for a solution that can:

  • Guide you through the necessary registration and title steps and transactions for each deal.
  • Compare deals side by side to help customers choose the option that’s best for them.
  • Identify and provide the exact documents that each deal requires.
  • Confirm data accuracy as you go along to eliminate the need for later corrections.
  • Progress deals quickly and give you the ability to monitor their status so you’ll know when they’ve been completed.

With a reliable cross-border registration and title solution in place, you can support your dealership’s commitment to customer service while gaining efficiency for deal completion and back-office productivity.

Dealertrack RegUSA® simplifies complex out-of-state deals for customers in any state. Find out how!

3 Reasons to Prepare for Out-of-State Reg & Title Processing

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Unless your dealership is on a state line, you can probably remember a time when out-of-state deals were few and far between. The internet has changed all that. Now, your next customer might be walking in the door after a cross-country road trip or a one-way flight.

Anything that makes sales increase is great, but is your back office prepared to handle registration and title needs for these customers?

Let’s have a look at some stats every dealership needs to take to heart:

1. 71% of car shoppers search for deals online before they visit a dealership

Today’s customers are less concerned with where your dealership is located and more interested in whether you can provide the vehicle they want. The key is to be prepared for expanding your customer base – and that includes providing the same registration and titling services that local buyers enjoy.

2. Out-of-state sales have increased by 28% over the past three years

Car shoppers aren’t just browsing online – they’re visiting other states and buying there. As more tech-savvy generations become the primary base of car buyers, it’s safe to say that this trend will continue to build.

3. Customers spend an average of 3+ hours at the dealership before delivery

Three or more hours at the dealership is already a long stretch and making it longer for out-of-state buyers risks your dealership’s CSI score. It can also lead to negative online reviews that may deter future out-of-state sales.

Are you ready?

The out-of-state buyer has chosen your dealership because you have a vehicle that meets their specifications closely enough that they were willing to put in extra effort to buy it from you. Now it’s your turn to make sure you go the extra mile for them.

It’s unlikely that your back office staff is familiar with the registration and title documentation and fee structure for all 50 states, but that’s where Dealertrack RegUSA comes in. This online tool will help you find out what information is necessary to meet state requirements, accurately estimate vehicle taxes and fees, and let you review state forms with the customer while they’re still in the showroom.

To learn more about how Dealertrack RegUSA can help you increase registration and title processing efficiency for out-of-state deals, read our ebook – or request a demo.

Sources:
1. and 3.  2017 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Study
2. 2017 Cox Automotive Research, Out of State Vehicle Registration and Titling Transactions

Reduce Holding Costs to Protect Your Bottom Line

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It’s been a great day at your dealership. You’ve been working hard matching buyers with vehicles and taking in a good number of trade-ins. Eventually you’ll sell those trade-ins to other customers or at auction, but first comes the payoff and lien and title release process. And if you’re doing the process manually, it’s going to take a while.

Dealertrack data shows that the average length of time it takes for payoff and lien and title release is between 12 and 18 days – or even more. That’s how long it takes to initiate the payoff, verify and finalize accurate payoff amounts, write and overnight checks, address any payoff surprises that surface, and make phone calls to lenders for title status updates and tracking information.

In the meantime, your holding costs are adding up. According to a 2019 NCM Group study, having a vehicle sit on the lot costs a dealer an average of $37 per day. When you multiply that by the number of trade-ins you bring in per month, the expense of holding costs quickly balloons into the hundreds and even thousands of dollars per year.

With Dealertrack Accelerated Title, your dealership can reduce payoff and lien and title release time from weeks to as fast as 4-6 days. In fact, it’s the only solution in the industry that can speed the process that quickly. It also allows you to track the status online to see when the lien sat release or title will be delivered, so you can show up better at auction and quickly move inventory off your lot.

Faster title payoff and lien and title release gives your dealership the opportunity to improve profitability with the potential to turn inventory faster for the vehicles you take in on trade, ultimately saving on holding costs.

Want to know more? Schedule a demo and we’ll walk you through the Accelerated Title process.