By: Myril Shaw - Dealer Profit Services
Compliance is often mentioned and known to be important. No one ever questions that compliance in the areas of identity theft, protection against accidental engagement with terrorists in any form, or entanglement in money laundering transactions is important, perhaps critical, to a dealership. Yet, action on this is often neglected or deferred.
Yes, this part of compliance involves five areas:
• Red Flags
• Disposal
• OFAC
• Safeguards
• USA Patriot Act
Yes, each carries its own rules and penalties and this is exactly the reason why, after talking and thinking about them, so many dealers just put them in the closet.
Why? There are several reasons:
1. It seems complicated – who even knows exactly what is required?
2. It is time-consuming – there are documents and there is training and who has the time or the knowledge?
3. It is distracting – compliance is not the core business and most dealerships are probably doing most of the things right – it can be ignored, or at least delayed.
4. It is expensive – getting the documentation and the training will take hours, which is an expense in terms of time lost and they will cost thousands of dollars.
There are just a couple of problems with this way of thinking.
First, and perhaps most importantly, the cost of failure can add up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in fines and legal fees, and perhaps even jail time. The real issue here is that even if a single dealer is doing things 80% correctly and they get caught up in a class-action lawsuit because of a dealer up the street if they have not everything that could reasonably do, a failure that is not even theirs could cost more time and money than any compliance effort could possibly have cost.
Second, while it does require some research and some investigation to address the issues and the requirements, it is possible. It is also possible to find an organization that can support your efforts. Is the cost worth the possible negative consequences? That is a calculation that only the dealer can make.
Third, doing these "compliance things" is valuable to your customer, your country, and your company. Protecting your customer should make sense even there were no potential penalties. Protecting your country from terrorists should make sense. Protecting your company from potential penalties should make sense.
There is a bottom line here, and it is this. Doing the right thing for your customer, your country and your company should be a natural instinct and a natural response regardless of cost or convenience.
Now, there is an added benefit. The government has said that a "good faith" effort to address these compliance issues can, and probably will, result in leniency in the event of an issue. Close counts – giving best effort matters and can have a huge impact on the outcome of a negative compliance event.
Doing things right, is the right thing to do – compliance is not just a legal issue, it is a customer service issue, country respect, and company honor matter.
When you make a "good faith" effort to satisfy compliance requirements you win in uncountable ways!
Just do it!
Dealer Profit Services - Driving Profit Through Fun and Inspiration
Dealer Profit Services, LLC can help you achieve F&I excellence - no matter where you are in the development and/or maturity of your store or stores F&I success model. As the industry's best Finance Solutions Provider and the only one to take your customer to Fun and Inspiration with a Free and Idyllic lifestyle through F&I, thus driving industry-leading levels of F&I profit, Dealer Profit Services can and will equip you with what you need to take that next step in your F&I success - regardless of what that next step might be. Whether you want someone to help you take over take over your F&I and with our experienced personnel just help you drive profit to your store, provide help to you some of the time, need some quick advice, or just provide F&I Training/Consulting, we are here to help you. If you are not fully equipped with all of your Compliance Manuals and Training, Dealer Profit Services can do that too. Contact us anytime at info@dealerprofit.com or give us a call at (470) 326-0966.
