AWN is unique in all of North America in that we do NOT just process warranty. We offer three distinct services to dealers that work together for every warranty need.
First we have our Claims Management program. Here we go through a process of auditing each line of each repair order for manufacturer’s compliance. Compliance issues are are identified and communicated to dealership management through our exclusive C.A.R.S. (Claim Accountability Reporting System) application. They are booked by administrators with no less than 5 years experience in their respective manufacturer. We follow through to payment and account for payments by researching differences, appealing when appropriate and accounting for legitimate differences for posting.
Secondly, we offer first class warranty training for technicians, advisors, warranty administrators and service management. Our trainers are former service managers, shop foremen, service advisors, and lead technicians.
Lastly, we have trained warranty auditors on staff to make sure compliance is achieved both on the processing side and in the dealership. No one else offers all of these resources for the best warranty information available.
Very simply, we establish an internet connection with your DMS and work virtually just like we were sitting in the office next door. No original paperwork ever leaves the dealership. Most dealerships are on some form of electronic repair order so there is no need to mail anything to us. For the dealerships that utilize hard copies, we offer scanners to send original documents to us electronically. Because there are two things we cannot see in the virtual booking screen, customer signatures and add-on repairs. We will address these two on our setup process.
Once all your questions are answered and the decision is made to work with our team, our month to month agreement will be sent you you for electronic signature via DocuSign. On the agreement is completed, you will be put in touch with an account manager who will send you start up documentation to gather the contact information for relevant personnel at your dealership to get us the tools needed to begin services. This would include your IT department, service manager, office manager, etc.
Once we have receive the completed agreement, we allow 5 working days for our respective IT Departments to set up the necessary DMS and manufacturer website connections. Once access has been granted and the correct access is verified we will arrange a time to have a kick off call to get services started. It is important to note that we do not start new clients after the 25th of each month. If the decision is made to use our service after that date, or all needed access can not be provided by that date, we will begin services on the 1st of the next month.
First of all, there may or may not be an added cost with AWN. Secondly, if you are high in warranty cost as it is computed by the manufacturer, you will probably collect a little less. If you are low in your warranty collections, as are most clients, we will be collecting more. But at the end of the day, we will collect what is the right amount based on your technicians’ comments. And there is the key. We are not punitive when it comes to the hardest commodity to get in your service department, your technicians. If there are compliance errors, we treat those as training situations and coach accordingly through our proprietary application, C.A.R.S. (Claim Accountability and Reporting System).
If you request us to be involved in a manufacturer’s audit simply let us know as far in advance as you can. Because you are our client, our time is at no charge. However, we do ask that you compensate us for our travel expenses. Since we guarantee our work, if you are charged back because of errors that are in our realm, using straight time when an op is available or overlapping ops just to name two, we pay for the chargeback. On a day-to-day basis, we are auditing all warranty lines on every repair order and notifying you, through C.A.R.S. of compliance issues. If you are charged back because of items we have notified you on, we do not participate in those.
Not at all. We are used to a little chaos. When we start up, we look at your warranty schedule, open RO list and what is in the manufacturer’s website. We will do the research and account for everything outstanding and what should be done. Keep in mind that this is not an overnight process. Cleaning up a mess can take time.
We will provide you with a scanner and the rest is simply clerical. Have someone put the hard copies on the scanner, it copies both sides with one pass and will email them to your new administrator. We do ask for a deposit for the scanner just in case there is a change in direction.