When buying a car at a dealership, customers often complain about how long it takes for their paperwork to be processed. While they wait, their enthusiasm fades and annoyance can set in.
Let’s face it, the most enjoyable part of the buying experience ends when they decide which car to buy. After that, customers traditionally face a stack of paperwork to review and sign when all they really want is to find out how quickly they can drive off the lot with their new cars.
Today’s customers usually research their options online before they come into your dealership. Then they weigh the benefits of getting an in-person and driving a car before they buy it against the convenience of buying their car or truck online. Using the digitization and automated workflows levels the playing field.
In this blog post, we’ll describe how digital document management reduces time spent between closing the sale and booking it. This increased efficiency results in happier customers and increases the speed of recognizing revenue as well.
Table of Contents
The advantages of digitizing your deal jackets
Your deal jackets are a repository for all sales-related paperwork including contracts, customer information, title, registration and financing documents. As a result, they contain 30-40 documents that are difficult to keep track of if they’re collected and filed on paper. Confirming that the deal jacket is complete and includes the customer’s signature when it’s required can be an obstacle to closing a deal quickly.
As a partial solution, some dealerships keep track of deal jacket contents on a paper checklist. The downsides of this approach include:
- Staff in each department doesn’t know if they’re working with the most current information.
- Documents may be lost or incomplete.
- Employees waste time looking for the deal jacket to double-check it and may expend more effort to track down missing documents at the last minute.
With a document management system (DMS), your dealership can create an online checklist, so everyone refers to one digital file. This ensures that staff in each department can check the deal jacket for completeness as the deal is in process. This eliminates a last-minute scramble to collect missing information. Since each deal jacket contains a comprehensive record of vehicle transactions, online access also comes in handy for audits and to prove regulatory compliance.
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Eliminating obstacles for your finance and insurance department
With a complete and fully searchable deal jacket, your finance and insurance (F&I) department has immediate access to the documents they need to work toward getting a signed contract and authorizing the vehicle for delivery.
Using digital documents, along with automated workflow, eforms and electronic signatures, fast-tracks credit application review, working with lenders, compliance checks, preparation and signing of contracts and other sales-related tasks.
A document management system also makes regulatory compliance easier by storing documents securely in a searchable database and automating document retention schedules. So, your dealership is audit-ready, protects customer data and complies with state-mandated retention periods with less effort.
The role of electronic forms
Data duplication is one of the most common issues dealerships that haven’t automated their processes face. Mistakes happen when data is entered separately in more than one system. If different departments use their own version of the information, it is difficult to establish a single source of accurate data.
Web forms make it easier to gather accurate information. When the customer fills out the form, data is entered correctly the first time. Designating mandatory fields eliminates the possibility that an incomplete form will be submitted. Forms can data, so the customer doesn’t have to provide basic information like their name and address more than once. Well-designed electronic forms enhance and speed up data collection, processing, and information management across your dealership.
Web forms expedite the sales process by eliminating:
- Manual data entry
- Issues with reading messy handwriting
- Time wasted on filing and retrieving paper forms
- Delays caused when a paper form is stalled on someone’s desk
- Lack of visibility into the progress of the sale
- Time wasted on filing and retrieving paper forms
Why your dealership should implement electronic signatures
When eforms are combined with e-signatures, their impact on the speed and accuracy of completing transactions is even more significant. Have you been hesitant to use electronic signatures because of the fear that they may not be as legally binding as a signature that’s provided in person with ink on paper? Actually, in many cases, depending on the type of e-signature that is used, electronic signatures are equally valid.
The E-Sign Act, which was enacted in 2000, ensures that electronic contracts and signatures have the same legal standing as paper ones. It states that a contract or signature cannot be denied legal effect just because it is in electronic form. This means electronic records are considered “provided in writing” if the consumer agrees to use electronic means. In 2010, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) helped align state laws to recognize the legality of electronic contracts for business and commercial transactions.
Lenders and leasing companies have been accepting contracts with electronic signatures for many years. However, regulations that apply to vehicle sales vary from state to state and, for example, not all departments of motor vehicles (DMVs) accept e-signed documents.
Key advantages of using e-signatures include:
- Speed: Sign documents instantly, reducing the time it takes to close deals.
- Convenience: Customers can sign from anywhere, making the process smoother and more flexible.
- Cost Savings: Save on paper, printing, and storage costs.
- Security: Electronic signatures are often more secure than traditional ones because of encryption and authentication features.
How document management improves business processes throughout your dealership
The DocuWare document management and workflow automation solution accelerates the booking process by digitizing documents, organizing them and storing them securely and facilitating collaboration. It also improves communication between sales, F&I and the accounting team. So, sales teams can spend more time on selling and less time chasing down paperwork.
With DocuWare, you own your documents and data and no longer pay for document access or printing. You’ll also be well on your way to going paperless by easily assembling digital files to email to customers and share between departments. The software improves back-end processes by leveraging features like template-based forms and automated workflow. For example, the solution simplifies warranty invoicing and tracking with easy information access, automated warranty claim submissions and monitoring of claim status.
Other benefits include:
- Improved accessibility: Digital documents can be accessed from anywhere, making them ideal for remote teams or dealerships with multiple locations. This boosts collaboration and improves flexibility.
- Enhanced security: Digital documents can be secured with encryption, passwords, and multi-factor authentication, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. Digital storage also supports version control, ensuring document integrity.
- Compliance automation: Digital systems automate document retention schedules, to help your dealership stay in compliance without manual effort. Version tracking and audit trails prove document integrity.
Managing expenses carefully is crucial for boosting profit margins at your dealership. The key is to control costs while finding ways to cut expenses without compromising quality. Switching from paper processes to digital document management is a great place to start.