Are you a Cars_com RepairPal Certified Service Department?

[Jeff Kershner]

Cars.com and RepairPal have had a partnership of some degree dating back to 2008. Here's a snippet from the 2008 announcement...

RepairPal will join forces with Cars.com to deliver a unique experience for consumers needing automobile repair and ownership information. The two companies will work together to deliver a co-branded site, free to consumers. Key features of the co-branded RepairPal and Cars.com site include:

• RepairPrice Estimator. Delivers accurate, “instant” auto repair and maintenance estimates.
• Common Problems. Our expert technicians share known issues for each specific make and model.
• Quality Mechanic Q&A. Provides car insight and solutions from ASE-certified mechanics.
• Comprehensive Auto Shop Directory. Empowers drivers to find a great local mechanic, features user-ratings and reviews.
• Helpful Auto Ownership Content. Features “How To’s” and helpful hints, problems to be aware of, recalls & TSB information, and an in-depth encyclopedia of automotive terms.

Fast forward 8 years to TODAY - 2016 and Cars.com and RepairPal continue with their partnership, offering what seems to be very much of the same.

Cars.com / RepairPal Certified

Highlight your dealers service department’s excellence to win car owners’ trust with RepairPal Certified <-- opens into a PDF with more information.

By pre-qualifying your service department with a certification badge, RepairPal Certified gives in-market service shoppers the confidence to consider and choose your shop.


To earn and maintain your RepairPal certification, your service department completes an assessment that covers all repair process components. Upon passing, your shop receives its RepairPal Certified badge to showcase its fixed ops in ways competitors can’t.

I'm personally an advocate of features and services like this, that when utilized can help differentiate your dealership from the all the others.

Do we have ANY dealer members here on DealerRefresh that's Car.com / RepairPal Certified??

If you are, fill us in! What do you get from it beside warm'n fuzzies?
Is there an ROI to being RepairPal Certified and having the Certification Badge on your Cars.com Dealer Profile page?

 

[Brian Yanaga]

If you have any questions on RepairPal, I have a friend over there (6+ years) that can answer anything that is not sensitive information.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

If you have any questions on RepairPal, I have a friend over there (6+ years) that can answer anything that is not sensitive information.

What is considered "sensitive?"

What exactly are they hoping to accomplish with the Certification. I'm also curious to know what their OEM dealer penetration is.

Maybe you can get your "friend" to participate.??

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I used to have a GREAT relationship with Cars.com. I hosted a monthly article from the DealerAdvantage team and they were one of the few larger companies that were actively communicating with dealers over on the dealer forums and alike. But since the big change I don't hear a peep from them, or else I would include some more insight around this myself.

 

[Brian Yanaga]

I spoke with him. He doesn't have the visibility to the question for OEM's. However, he pushed this information to me:
"The RepairPal Certified shop program is designed to help you find a repair shop you and your family can trust. When you visit a RepairPal Certified shop, you can be sure that you are getting very high quality work from expert technicians at a fair price."

I was hoping he'd be able to give me a little more than that! Thought I'd still pass along what I was told.

 

[metacort3x]

Daddy's here now. Let's reopen those lines of communication. =D

 

[Jeff Kershner]

What exactly does Bid Daddy have to say?

 

[BrendanD77]

Thanks Jeff, for your interest in Cars.com and our RPC offering -- we are 100% invested in helping move the industry forward, to help dealers grow their businesses. My name is Brendan Dougherty and I lead Product Marketing at Cars.com.

Our analysis – on both a dealership-level as well as a macro-level -- indicates that RepairPal Certification is helping dealerships increase their conversion rates for service inquiries in their BDC as well as attracting new customers.

On a dealer-level, we worked with one regional group who saw an additional 14 RO's per month directly from inbound service leads generated from their ReparPal Certification on Cars.com. Of those, half were first-time customers to the dealership, showing that RepairPal Certification helps drive new service customers to franchise dealerships. It also shows us that current service customers of a dealership are using the internet to research and validate service pricing -- being visible and certified also helped them retain customers and their service business.

On a macro-level, Transparency conducted a study and uncovered that Cars.com is, and by proxy RepairPal Certification, helping drive NEW service business to dealerships. From the analysis that Transparency conducted across 164 dealerships (in Q1 2017), the average dealer saw 53 RO's per month from net NEW customers that had visited Cars.com before coming in to the Service Drive (which contributed to $90k in profit per month, per dealership on average). An overview of the study can be found on Transparency's website at: https://www.transparency.ai/third-party-sites-bring-first-time-customers/

We are seeing very positive signs from the dealers we've spoken to and in third-party research. I would love to hear what the dealers in this community are experiencing here in this forum or via email – I’m at [email protected].

Best regards,
Brendan Dougherty