Shannon Robertson, executive director of the Association of Finance and Insurance Professionals, advised an audience at the NADA Show earlier this year to adopt three strategies to stay out of hot water.
First, dealers should install a compliance officer and have a compliance program in place, Robertson said.
"That's the basic one, right?" he said.
Retailers also should adopt the 2014 Fair Credit Compliance Policy & Program and 2019 Vehicle Protection Products Policy developed by the National Automobile Dealers Association in conjunction with the American International Automobile Dealers and National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, he advised. Both serve as templates for adopting standardized revenue margins to avoid the risk of discrimination in finance-and-insurance practices.
"The government's looking at disparity at a lot of different levels," Robertson said. "Those policies ... are designed to protect you from that."
Finally, dealerships need a complaint management system to collect, track and record the resolution of customer gripes.
"If we don't do it, they're going to go somewhere else," he said.
Robertson advised retailers to give customers an opportunity to leave feedback on their website. That way, a dealer can hear about and resolve matters before the consumer complains to the Better Business Bureau or social media, or the issue reaches the government's attention.
