Current State of Insurance Verification for Auto Dealerships

Published on
August 21, 2024
Contributors
Ray Huang
Head of Marketing

Ray is the Head of Marketing at Canopy Connect and has helped dozens of startups and growth companies over his 20-year career to develop strategies and implement tactics that yield high-impact results.

TL;DR:

  • Traditional insurance verification processes for auto dealerships are slow and inefficient.
  • Auto dealerships must modernize their insurance verification processes to comply with regulations and ensure secure, accurate data handling.
  • Canopy Connect streamlines auto insurance verification for dealerships, offering a fast, secure, and integrated digital solution that benefits both dealers and customers.

Challenges for Auto Insurance Verification

Dealerships today face significant challenges when verifying insurance for vehicle sales. The traditional process involves manually exchanging documents, which can lead to delays of days or even lost deals. Dealers often need to call insurance agents to confirm policy details, causing further holdups. This outdated approach creates a poor customer experience and eats up valuable time for dealership staff.

Current Ways to Verify Auto Insurance

While we're in 2024, verifying auto insurance at many dealerships feels stuck in the past. The typical process relies on outdated methods like physical insurance cards or declarations pages. Dealerships that decide to go a step further by calling insurance carriers still face delays and inaccuracies. This process is frustrating for both salespeople and customers, and often doesn't provide a truly accurate picture of the customer's coverage.

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FTC Safeguard Data

Auto dealerships that rely on physical copies of insurance information need to improve their processes to meet compliance with regulations like the FTC's Safeguards Rule. Simply asking for an insurance card is no longer sufficient, as it doesn't guarantee accurate or secure data handling. This rule mandates that financial institutions, including auto dealerships, must have measures in place to guarantee the security and confidentiality of customer records and information. Dealerships should adopt secure and efficient methods for collecting and verifying insurance information to protect themselves and their customers from potential fines and liabilities.

Canopy Connect's Digital Verification Solution

Canopy Connect offers a streamlined digital verification process. Car buyers simply click a link, select their insurance provider, and sign in to their account. Within seconds, Canopy Connect authenticates the insurance information directly with the carrier and returns verified policy details to the dealer. This eliminates the need for manual document exchanges and time-consuming phone calls.

Benefits of Instant Insurance Verification for Dealerships

By adopting Canopy Connect's solution, dealerships can close deals faster and move cars off the lot more quickly. The platform helps prevent fraud by providing data directly from the source of truth—the insurance carrier. It also enables dealers to meet regulatory requirements more easily and reduces the risk of fines for releasing uninsured vehicles. For dealerships with in-house insurance agencies, Canopy Connect can boost insurance sales by providing a seamless way to offer additional coverage.

Instant Insurance Verification: Improved Customer Experience

Car buyers benefit significantly from this digital approach. Instead of hunting for policy documents or waiting on hold with their insurance company, they can verify their coverage in 20-30 seconds. The platform even allows customers to add a new vehicle to their existing policy instantly, further streamlining the car-buying process.

Extensive Coverage and Capabilities

Canopy Connect covers 96% of the auto insurance market and 91% of the homeowners insurance market in the United States. The platform can retrieve a wide range of policy information, including coverages, limits, vehicle details, and claims history. This comprehensive data allows dealers to make informed decisions quickly.

Canopy Connect's Integration with Dealer Systems

To maximize efficiency, Canopy Connect integrates with existing dealer management systems (DMS) and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. This allows dealerships to access verified insurance information directly within the systems they use daily, eliminating the need for separate logins or manual data entry.

How to Speed up Insurance Verification for Car Dealerships

Insurance verification is a critical step in the car-buying process that has long been a source of frustration for both dealers and customers. Canopy Connect's digital solution addresses these pain points, offering a faster, more secure, and more convenient way to verify insurance coverage.

To learn more about how Canopy Connect can benefit your dealership, visit usecanopy.com or email hello@usecanopy.com.