Onboarding Best Practices
Each dealer integration begins with a Product Registration. This is a process where a dealer works with their Software Vendor to setup specific products for integration through the PEN.
This is an important event to establish contact and coordination with your Dealers. Getting the system setup and working is only a small portion of the formula for success at your dealers. This resource page is intended to help our Provider’s define and implement consistent Dealer Onboarding practices.
Dealer Onboarding Best Practices Webinar
Getting setup for integration is just a step in the Dealer Onboarding Process.
Consistent onboarding routines will help reduce confusion and fire drills.
More important, they build a foundation for success at your dealers. Between 100-150 dealer registrations occur daily across the network of over 60 F&I and Digital platforms. A registration is counted as one or more Provider products at a single dealership on a single Dealer System (Menu or Digital).
The best-case scenario is when Dealer, your Agent, and the Dealer System Vendor all work together to Prepare, Implement, Test and Follow Up to ensure the benefits of integration are maximized. Unfortunately, this level of coordination is the exception not the norm.
To support this activity, PEN implemented Dealer Setup Notifications (DSN) to help Providers become aware of Dealer activity. Learn more about the DSN Process.
The DSN is only the trigger to help Providers initiate your own Dealer Onboarding routines. Suggested processes may include:
- Informing your Agent that the Dealer was setup for integration in a software
- Sending your Dealer an information kit to give them resources, such as back-office contract approval process
- Requesting your Agent to follow up with the dealer two weeks after go live to ensure everything is working. Or at first month end to help accounting with reconciliation.
None of these procedures are technical. Defining and implementing Dealer Onboarding processes can help reduce support escalations, reactionary fire drills, or worse… dealer indifference.
Please review the Onboarding Best Practices chart to see the three phases of Onboarding. Contact PEN Services to get help in defining the right process for your company.