Improved Data Security Creates a Better Customer Experience

This post features and article written by Chris Freeman, Editor in Chief at RV News.

As you read this, we are less than a month away from the RVDA Convention/Expo. You can learn plenty about the convention’s themes and speakers in this month’s magazine, but  I would like to focus on one particular area of interest.

This summer, the CDK Global data breach was a blip on RV dealers’ radar but made a massive impact on auto dealerships. I have a relative who manages a dealership who was still writing out deals, by hand and on paper, more than six weeks after the breach occurred. For RV dealers who paid attention, the breach clarified just how damaging a breach of an essential third-party provider – such as the dealer management software company – can be to your business.

The lessons from this summer will fuel many educational sessions at the RVDA convention, including one titled “Building and Exercising Your Information Security Information Incident Response Plan,” presented by Accelerate2Compliance Chief Compliance Officer Matt Vatter.

The first lesson any session will provide is that dealers ultimately will be responsible in the event of a breach. State and federal regulators will come to the dealer principle first for answers, regardless of whether the breach occurred through a third-party vendor because the dealership collected the data. Recent Federal Trade Commission statute updates clarified that RV dealerships are legally regarded as federal institutions and subject to the privacy and data collection standards set in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Safeguards Rule.

Vatter said the best clients he worked with understand that data protection is a responsibility dealers have for their business and customers. I believe data protection and security are even more important than vital to a dealership’s consumer experience.

Within the RV industry, we discuss the customer experience in sales or service terms. Improving sales personnel’s conversation with potential buyers is key to getting customers to buy. Improving repair event cycle time us the service department is crucial to persuading the consumer to return and buy their next RV at the same dealership.

Data protection is the same vein, even if we do not discuss it in the same breath. Consumers are more aware than ever of the fragility of their private information. Just think about all the major data breaches we have experienced in the past year, whether those involve healthcare companies, retailers, dealer chains or the CDK breach. Consumers now expect an RV dealership to collect only the information needed to finance or buy their vehicle and only use their personal information during the purchase transaction. If their data is handled haphazardly, those consumers will not return, spreading the news of their poor experience to family and friends.

Vatter has described the data protection process as one of three outcomes: You can be in front of the bus, you can be on the bus, or you can be run over by the bus. He said the best companies are in front of the bus, not everyone has to be so proactive. simply getting on the bus – ensuring your dealership complies with state and federal regulations – is a start.

What Vatter and others at the RVDA convection will do is lay out ways in which dealer principles can move from simply being compliance to truly being secure.

Vatter’s session, for example, will discuss how dealer principles can build a response system to reduce the time taken to identify a problem and get the right people to do the right thing in the right sequence. He said, “It’s about people and systems.”

The session will include handouts, discussions on identifying the right people for the right roles, checklists dealers can use to verify their work and scenarios to perform tabletop exercises when they return to the office.

The session is among many dealers can attend to prepare to improve their operations. I strongly encourage attendees to take these steps while they are in Las Vegas. You can take all the steps to improve your sales and service customer experience but if you cannot keep your customers’ information secure, none of those sales and service steps matter.

Thanks for reading,

Chris Freeman

Editor-in-Chief