CGA – Tom Hampton Agency

The Safeguard Rule

Posted on August 1, 2022 | by Tom Hampton Agency

In 2021, the FTC amended the Safeguard Rule. You are expected to be compliant with the updated requirements by December of 2022. I have spent many hours chasing the rabbit down the hole to learn more about these amendments and what it means for my clients. So, what is it?

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act: The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) requires financial institutions – companies that offer consumers financial products or services like loans, financial or investment advice, or insurance – to explain their information-sharing practices to their customers and to safeguard sensitive data.

Read the requirements here

First and foremost, you must designate an employee to manage or oversee your compliance project. This includes designing, implementing, maintaining, testing, and reporting on it during the entire life of the business. Despite my nature to keep things in-house, the task of developing and implementing the Security Program is quite complex and strict. In my utmost professional opinion, I recommend to everyone to outsource these duties to a professional I.T. company. It is well worth the investment into your business, your clients, and a good night’s sleep. I would also suggest working with a company that can be paid to train your designated employee (start reading up on the rules) to maintain the job duties of Safeguard Compliance once your program is in place.

Pricing to hire someone can be all over the place – from Too good to be true to The Bentley of Safeguard Compliance Professionals. I suggest you look thoroughly into the company; Do your research, ask a lot of questions, and hire a professional with a clear vision of what you expect of their performance and duties.

Non-compliance with GLBA can carry severe financial and PERSONAL consequences for OWNERS and employees. The fines for GLBA infractions can be eye-watering to say the least – some reaching up to $100,000 per violation… (Read that one more time…PER VIOLATION.) Owners, officers, and/or directors can be fined up to $10,000; Imprisoned for 5 years; Or Both. OUCH.

Once you have completed all the tasks of implementing your Security Program, the Federal Trade Commission then requires you hire a professional cyber security company to test its strength, to be followed up with a report. (If you are able to find one company that can do all the required tasks for one fee, even better!) From there fix any holes found and move forward with your business.

The information I have discussed with you all today is just the beginning of a laundry list of compliance regulations dealers are held accountable for meeting. At the end of the day, the secret to running a successful business is operating through due diligence. Sometimes staying on top of it can be like eating an elephant; The only way through is one bite at a time, creative recipes, and manageable goals to keep you on task.

As always, I am PROUD of all of you, in this, our community of dealers & friends. Let me just say, the financial storm that is gathering is going to carry us to heights we as BHPH Dealers have never seen!

The customer that cannot be pleased.

Posted on July 30, 2021 | by Tom Hampton Agency

By Tom Hampton

Every business owner has had customers that have issues that sometimes make doing business much more complicated. There is, however, a particular type of customer that cannot and will not be reasoned with or compromise their demands. For those of you experienced enough to have been around the mountain a few times during your career, have found these types of challenging clients get resolved by two general types of outcomes:

1. (Most Frequent Outcome) An unpleasant type of compromise is negotiated between both parties for a final resolution.

2. (Not So Frequent Outcome) The situation becomes unpleasantly distasteful and detrimental to both parties, with no resolutions whatsoever, and the loss of a customer (sometimes several by word of mouth, negative reviews & ratings, etc).

Losing an especially upset customer can be infuriating and frustrating (to say the least). Our pride has taken a hit, and our insecurities are rattled. So, what do you do when no resolutions can be met by either party?

First, if you have not already done so, examine the instance very closely and ask yourself, Did I do my best in the situation? What lessons can I take away from the situation to make me and my business better.

Personally, when I lose a customer in events such as this, even after 40 years in the business, part of me still mourns. The only way I know how to describe it; It is humbling. I not only feel as though I have let my customer down, but I also feel I have let my team down to lose a customer without resolution. We all strive to serve our customers to the best of our abilities.

Secondly, remind yourself and your team that in any business, you can have the BEST customer service on the planet, yet the situation will still inevitability occur at some point. As the owner, I am usually the one having that final conversation with the customer after my team has exhausted all other avenues. Unfortunately, in a lot of dealerships, the collections agent/manager is the one having these front-line battles. It is imperative you trust the people handling the confrontation before it escalates to you. These team members are much in need of your support, guidance, and sometimes, nurturing. Their frustration levels can bleed over into other interactions with detrimental results (they often do not even realize is happening) when becoming overwhelmed and feeling unsupported.

A weekly 20-minute one-on-one meeting with these team members just may help them vent, learn, and grow while meeting these challenges and company expectations. When things get heated, or an appropriate time presents itself, a great start is to have them unplug; Get up, walk around, take a breath, or maybe even a lunch break. The important part is they have a few minutes to clear their head and step away from the confrontation. I also suggest having them provide you with an emotion-free (practice makes perfect), brief, and factual statement about the incident.

Finally, before you find yourself neck-deep in a domino effect of fires to put out, provide your team with the training (such as courses, experienced management provided, or practice sessions), support, and guidance to be as successful as possible through these types of situations. Every day, as the owner, it would be best for you to be informed of any customer confrontations; What happened, what was attempted to resolve the situation, what the customer was demanding, and whether those demands can be met or not. These statements can become invaluable training tools.

You will always come across demanding customers. It is the price of admittance into the used car business. How we prepare ourselves and our team for these storms is what makes our businesses flourish!

As always, Car Guys Agency is here for all your Buy Here Pay Here needs! Contact us anytime to assist with solutions for your business! We have partners we have searched high and low for to provide our dealers with the very best available!

Create-A-Great-Day!

Tom Hampton

To buy or not to buy…

Posted on March 31, 2021 | by Tom Hampton Agency

April showers bring may flowers, but this year’s February freezes brought us auction squeezes! We are seeing prices are far above normal tax-time hikes, with no signs of tapering off. Playing the usual Price Game is the surest way to the poor house in our current market!

How are the new car dealerships holding on to high mileage trades and still getting their money for those units? Trust, transparency, and a supply-and-demand mentality! With less inventory on hand, we know that that means every unit we already have needs to get adjusted for retail. Time to re-appraise all your current inventory and start looking at replacement cost / availability.

Trust and Transparency are a symbiotic relationship. The more transparent you become in all your processes and procedures; the more trust is built along the way. Make sure your website is easy to navigate and all your policies and procedures are outlined in detail. Finance options/information should be easy to understand and access and make darn sure it is all secure!

There has been so much success in providing customers with an online credit application. Financing and an approved loan amount first, vehicle second, then delivery in minutes (not hours!) Knowledge of one’s financial abilities in any type of purchase is empowering and removes a lot of fear from the entire process! For us, it removes having to show them 20 different cars, only to find out 3 hours later, they can’t even afford the porters ’98 hooptie!

Find your technique to symbiotically build Trust and Transparency in today’s marketplace and on your website. Remember my friends. Without us, the independent used car dealer – most Americans would be walking! The better you serve your prospects, the greater your client base becomes.

Create-A-Great-Day

Tom

A KEY TO PROSPERING DURING COVID-19

Posted on May 4, 2020 | by Tom Hampton Agency

Weeks of continuous communication across the nation and across the industry has allowed me to put a few tick-marks under some points on my TALLY sheet!

These conversations are all the same:

HOW are you (the owner) Re-Inventing in all areas (personal/business)?
WHO are you collaborating with (friend & foe)?
WHICH areas would you recommend an immediate change in?
WHAT communities are you a RESOURCE for and which communities are a resource for YOU?
WHERE would you concentrate MORE effort into and why?

The conversations have lasted from 10 minutes up to 4 hours! The answers have been insightful, inventive, original and most of all … full of HOPE!

The point on my tally sheet that got the most tick-marks?

A REFERRAL PROGRAM!

Using Texts, Calls, Emails, and/or Video Chats. All have been fruitful. Integrating your referral program into your Social Media is PARAMOUNT to prospering.

That being said,

HOW is your referral program? Old School Simple to the rescue! It is very simple, very effective, and no complications necessary! It also provides a very powerful income stream to your previous customer (scared & financially insecure)!

A Simple Referral Program example:

You (previous customer) notify me (the owner) that someone (referred friend/family) is coming to do business with me. I (the owner) roll out the covid-19 sanitized Red Carpet for the client (referred friend/family). When the referred potential customer (referred friend/family) does business with me then You (the previous customer) that referred the new customer will receive a pre-determined MONITARY amount!

Example:

I sell used cars, you bought one from me 2 years ago. You got my Rewards Program email and are in need of extra bucks during this crisis. So, you tell every Tom, Dick & Henrietta to see me if they need a car!

Bingo! Now I (the dealer/business owner) have an ARMY of salespeople giving the BEST kind of recommendation on the planet – Free positive advertising via word of mouth!

****Note: Be sure the reward paid out is fair and intriguing enough.

In the previous example that dealer would have started his referral fee at about $250 and climbed up to a preset limit. Think about it; Previous customer sends a buddy that buys a $25,000 truck – caution if paying out a $100, that customer will never send YOU (Mr. Dealer or Mr. Business owner) another referral.

On the other hand, if you own a carpet cleaning business and you do the whole JOB for $250, then that referral may look like a nice Thank You card and a $20 gift card (about 10% of the job).

It is all relative, however, the KEY is the referral program. There you have a little nugget, that if worked properly, may well be you/your companies’ lifeline for a while. At the very least, it will be fun adventure!

Remember. If you don’t CREATE your future, then your future WILL create you!

Create-A-Great-Day,

Tom

Time to Change

Posted on March 2, 2020 | by Tom Hampton Agency | 4 Comments

Funny thing, time… it has so many different meanings and associations.

We here in Houston measure distance by time- “My Office is only 30 minutes from the Galleria.” We as Dealers buy according to the seasons (another different measurement of time) – for example, during the holiday seasons, we buy less and for Tax Seasons and Back to School Seasons, we buy more.

Time regulates us. Here in Texas, you can only operate certain hours and for certain days (no consecutive Sat & Sun). Time is a man-made concept used to regulate and equalize life across the planet.

We all have 24 hours in a day, no matter where you are on the planet. It is whether we spend or invest those hours that determine our financial future, our emotional future, and what guides us on our charted path.

We as business owners often find ourselves in the “there are not enough hours in a day” mode. We hurriedly put out fires in various directions as we attempt to accomplish at least ONE thing on our growing TO-DO list – before the phone rings yet again?

Sound a little too familiar?

It happens to all of us at one point or another, after all, we are Entrepreneurs’ and we can handle ANYTHING! Well um, maybe some can, however the rest of us devoid of super-human abilities, we muddle through each day.

Muddle time is over, (oops, there’s that time thing again) my friends! Earlier I quoted that you can either SPEND or INVEST your time. Most Dealers “spend” time looking for inventory, getting cars in and out of the shop, attempting to collect information for financing, and a whole host of other things!

Some Dealers “invest” time sourcing inventory, recon is done in-house for most vehicles, and they have people or services prescreen their leads to expedite financing!

What? You say that is investing MONEY and not time? Money we can always get MORE of; time, on the other hand, you cannot get back.

So, the answer is YES. By investing capital, you gain TIME.

Most business owners think you only have x-amount of hours in a business day. Well, I am here to tell you that you can easily “buy more hours” in a day! Some of you by now might be a bit confused, so I will clarify.

Investing capital to “buy” more hours: Hire someone or some company to do some of the tasks you are doing right now!

Think long and hard before you answer these:

Would you pay $200hr to run to the courthouse for 3 hours to get 4 cars titled?
Would you pay $200hr to run get parts or drop a car off to the shop?
Would you pay $200hr to make calls for missing information and verify information already given?

In fact – most Dealers do this every day and wonder why their business is so stressful and their profits are so low. As a business owner, your time is worth approximately $200hr!

So, the smart operators pay out $25-$50hr to get something off their list so that they can INVEST the time into growing their business, not SPENDING their time running their business. (In some cases, the business runs the Dealer!)

Yes. A business must be “run” in order to make money, however, that does not mean you have to run it all.

Competition continues to come into the Independent Used Car market every day. That means your slice of the pie gets smaller with each new Dealer in town. However, the more time you can invest in yourself and your dealership, the quicker you gain market share.

When was the last time you took a sales course or even had a sales meeting? When was the last time you paid a service to evaluate your webpage and then implement the changes When was the last time you went to a networking opportunity in your community? When was the last time you overhauled your Social Media strategy – or came up with one?

You see my friends, there are numerous opportunities to “invest” in your future – some take capital, most simply take time.

March 8, 2020 Time will change yet again (Daylight savings) and we will barely notice. Ask any 14 yr old the horrors of losing an hour’s sleep and March 8, 2020, has a very different meaning!

Perspective is the key to success.

Some may see themselves investing their time wisely by running the company; After all, they are saving money! That is what I call treading water. In a deep endless ocean, you can only tread so long before you drown.

This is your business and your 24 hours. My role is to play WHAT-IF. So, what if you started paying a title company to run a few titles a week? What if you tried a couple of wholesalers and saved 10hrs at auction this week? What if your salespeople or heaven forbid – your customers – only be allowed to turn in complete applications for financing? What if you started your own Dealer Group to share resources and ideas?

What If’s are endless. Your possibilities are too.

Invest or Spend. What will you do with your TIME?

Create a Great Day!