The top 3 ways digital technology can boost your bottom line in 2025

Traditional titling processes hold dealers back, but modern tools are changing the rulebook for the auto industry.

Reprinted from Car Dealership Guy

New waves of technology are transforming the automotive space like never before. But in this new era of innovation, there’s another reality dealers are having to come to grips with: competition is getting more and more fierce.  

Offering the best in customer care is no longer enough to stand out from the crowd. 

Zooming in: Titling is a particularly challenging area for dealers to outshine their competitors. The process is so entrenched in bureaucracy that retailers often feel they have little to no control over how fast titles are handled. 

But digital technology is helping dealers overcome this decades-old challenge. And when it comes to digital titling, platforms like CHAMP Titles have a wide array of tools that reduce the time it takes to complete the process — all while boosting dealers’ bottom lines. 

Big picture: Traditional titling processes hold dealers back, but modern tools are changing the rulebook for the auto industry. 

Problem 1: The time crunch

One of the biggest problems with old-school titling is its reliance on pen and paper. This leads to dozens of inefficiencies, all of which hamper dealer growth efforts. 

• Filling out forms is a time-consuming process that takes considerable man-hours to complete.  
• Long wait times don’t just translate into bigger labor costs—they also add to customers’ frustrations with the already tedious sales process. 
• Lower customer satisfaction leads to lower CSI scores, which leads to lower sales, erodes trust with manufacturers…the list goes on. 

Failing to complete the titling process in the required time can also have devastating consequences for dealerships. If buyers are forced into arbitration, retailers could be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars per case. 

Solution: With the emergence of digital tech, new tools are allowing dealers to eliminate these costly delays. For example, with platforms like CHAMP’s National Digital Titling Clearinghouse (NDTC), dealers can quickly reduce the amount of time spent processing forms, getting buyers what they need in the blink of an eye.  

With customer satisfaction on the line, this approach is rapidly becoming standard across the industry, meaning retailers can’t afford to fall behind. 

Problem 2: Manual mistakes

When processing titles by hand, there’s always a chance of human error. These mistakes don’t just extend the length of time it takes to complete the process, which is bad enough in its own right—they also run the risk of violating dealers’ regulatory obligations.  

That can lead to a whole host of problems: 

• Lawsuits are the most common result of mismanaged titles, leading to hefty fines and less customer trust. 
• Government agencies like the FTC are becoming increasingly aggressive. Repeating the same mistakes as an industry could result in even more policies for dealers to navigate. 
• Fraud is also a major issue when it comes to processing titles—without the proper oversight dealers risk losing money to bad actors using false information. 
• And if worse comes to worst, losing one’s dealer license isn’t out of the question, a lesson even the biggest companies have learned the hard way. 

Making matters even more complicated, out-of-state titles can be difficult to process, since one state’s way of doing things might be completely different from another’s. Even basic elements like ad valorem taxes aren’t standard practice in all parts of the country. 

Although dealers may be used to the manual workflows they practiced earlier in their careers, F&I departments are in desperate need of a more effective solution. 

Solution: Software is incredibly useful when it comes to ensuring accuracy and compliance, regardless of when, where or how customers purchase from dealerships.  

Digital tools like NDTC store title information in a secure format, removing the need for manual verification. This lowers the odds of encountering errors and saves retailers from facing massive penalties, fraud, destroyed business relationships and expensive legal disputes.  

These advantages are why automation is quickly becoming the standard process for handling titles across the U.S., giving dealers peace of mind like never before. 

Problem 3: Costly and expensive

All the extra time spent processing titles by hand isn’t just annoying—it’s also a massive expense.  

• Handling lien releases and lender payoffs without the aid of tech takes considerable labor hours, eating into dealership budgets. 
• Manual processing also means that staff members are spending hours taking care of menial tasks when they could be doing something far more productive, like caring for customers. 
• Physical records also occupy precious office space and come with their own list of expenses, including security, mailing and time spent handling documents. 

Taking into account all the expenses of traditional title management—labor, arbitration, reduced buyer satisfaction, penalties, slower sales cycles, etc.—it’s clear that dealers need a more cost-efficient strategy. 

Solution: By using centralized platforms to automate lien releases and lender payoffs, dealers can lower their overhead and reinvest their team’s efforts into growth opportunities. That also translates to faster sales speeds and satisfied customers. 

This is why the industry is embracing a more modernized approach, one that leverages digital technology to streamline the titling process.  

Bottom line: It’s clear that digital titling is more than a way to lower business expenses and improve operational efficiency—it’s also a handy tactic for enhancing customer satisfaction.  

And the statistics speak for themselves: in a study conducted by Cox Automotive, 61% of dealers said that digital tools improved their F&I processes, while another 76% said they strengthened customer relationships and made the sales process easier.  

Digital tech is now a necessity for retailers looking to stay ahead of the curve, something that’s becoming more and more difficult as the years go by. 

Interested in unlocking your dealership’s full financial potential and outmaneuvering the competition? Take the first step by checking out CHAMP Titles’ Cost Savings Calculator today.