OEC is excited to announce the addition of Tanya Sweetland, Senior Vice President of Collision, and Matt Curtin, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales, to the organization, strengthening the global strategic leadership team. Tanya and Matt join as OEC continues to expand our global market footprint to help all stakeholders in the automotive aftermarket industry streamline the repair and supply workflow. 

With a passion for innovation and a deep understanding of the collision industry, Tanya’s leadership and expertise will be invaluable. Bringing more than 30 years of experience to OEC, Tanya previously led OEC’s Advanced Repair Technologies division, bringing the RepairLogic repair planning platform from startup to its 2022 market launch. In her role as SVP of Collision, Tanya will oversee the company’s collision strategy, ensuring continued innovation, value delivery, and exceptional service to stakeholders, partners, and customers in collision repair. 

 “I’m rejoining OEC at a pivotal time for the repair industry,” said Sweetland. “And I’m energized to work with this talented team to address the market dynamics our customers and partners face daily – OEC is uniquely positioned with its solutions, technology and tenacious team to create value through innovation across our collision platforms to the benefit of a broad range of stakeholders.” 

 A highly accomplished software executive, Matt brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in go-to-market operations and scaling enterprise-class, high-growth software organizations, including previous experience in the automotive sector. With a proven track record in global sales strategy and a passion for delivering results to customers worldwide, Matt will help us expand our reach, strengthen our partnerships, and drive continued success for our global customers. 

 “I’m eager to contribute to OEC’s global success,” said Curtin. “With a strong foundation and a commitment to excellence, we have an incredible opportunity to expand our reach and deliver even greater value to our customers worldwide.” 

2025 marks OEC’s 25th anniversary. This significant milestone represents both the strong foundation the organization was built on, and OEC’s continued commitment to helping customers navigate the industry’s ever-evolving landscape in the years ahead. The additions of Tanya and Matt will only serve to strengthen our ability to deliver dynamic solutions to our growing customer base, including shops, dealers, alternative parts suppliers, manufacturers, insurers, and tire distributors. At the same time, the strategic insight and expertise provided by our newest executive leaders will position OEC for another 25 years of growth and success.  

For customers who recently became familiar with OEC and the many connections we create across the industry, it may be surprising that our original mandate was singular and direct: Help wholesale dealers sell genuine parts to shops. Why? Back in 2000, the automotive aftersales industry’s biggest challenge was the endless manual processes and inefficiencies needed to sell parts via phone and fax. This challenge ultimately led to the formation of OEC – known then as OEConnection – a joint venture between Ford, GM, Chrysler (now Stellantis), and Bell & Howell (now Snap-on Business Solutions).

Seeing how much we’ve grown over the years, our original mission seems simple. However, more than two decades ago, it was anything but simple and also had never been done before. OEC’s founding led to the development of the first online parts procurement tool designed to help shops order OE parts from dealers: CollisionLink. While the platform itself wasn’t necessarily an overnight success, its growth in the past two decades has created a robust network of 9,000+ dealers and 40,000+ shops with more than 26 manufacturers and 47+ special pricing programs. 

Following the launch of CollisionLink, OEC experienced true breakthrough success with our second solution, D2DLink, a dealer-to-dealer parts locator platform, followed shortly by D2D Express, a backorder fulfilment solution. These supply chain platforms made it easier for dealers to find parts they didn’t have on hand or were on backorder. By using the network’s expanded virtual inventory, dealers could now access the parts needed for customer repairs. The newly developed supply chain solutions, paired with the continued CollisionLink expansion, advanced our original mandate and allowed OEC to deliver its promise to help dealers sell more parts.

From there, our growth was driven by product expansion and enhancements with the development of our business intelligence solution, LinkIQ (later evolved into PSXLink). At that point, OEC also expanded into the mechanical market with RepairLink, the mechanical market’s counterpart to CollisionLink. The early and fast-paced innovation at OEC streamlined parts sales for OEMs​, making it easier for dealers and shops to buy and sell parts while establishing trusted relationships across the industry. 

Prior to the launch of D2DLink, the OEC dealer network only featured a few hundred dealers. Today, that expanded network includes:  

• 45+ OEMs 

• 30,000+ dealers  

• 135,000+ shops  

• 100+ parts suppliers 

• And growing!  

In 2016, the team diversified our product offerings to feature broader solutions and integrated new technologies to further support workflow efficiency and connectivity with our growing network of dealers, fleets, and insurers.​ From there, we extended our reach globally with major acquisitions in the UK in 2017 and 2018, allowing the value of our core platforms to be realized by customers worldwide.

As the industry continued to evolve in its complexity, OEC made the strategic decision to expand its collision repair service offerings beyond the ordering platforms that make it easier to find parts needed for proper repairs. OEC’s portfolio of collision solutions now includes tools that allow shops to quickly and comprehensively conduct repair planning research and build repair plans with RepairLogic, write and optimize accurate estimates by leveraging EstimateIQ, and enhance business and repair practices through OEM certifications with the Certified Performance Network (US) and Certified Collision Care (Canada). 

The move into these categories reflect OEC’s belief that the best way to serve our customers is by building connections across the aftersales industry, supporting efficient repair lifecycles, providing OEM parts and procedure solutions, and driving proper vehicle repair. Collision repairers are now able to further drive profitability, efficiency, consistency, and quality into their operations with a more robust set of offerings to address their most common challenges across the repair lifecycle. 

Even as OEC evolved beyond the original mandate to support the dealership wholesale business, the parts aftersales market remained a critical part of our solutions and network. In late 2021, OEC acquired Overall Parts Solutions (OPS) to provide additional parts sourcing and order management options to customers who can, in turn, offer improved customer service to the vehicle owner. The OPSTrax platform, an online parts procurement and order management solution, strengthens the parts supply chain and supports a consistent, accurate flow of all-part types across manufacturers, dealers, shops, and parts suppliers.

Our growth has continued in 2025 with the acquisition of PartsTech, enhancing our support of the mechanical repair market. The PartsTech platform connects auto repair facilities to a network of more than 225 parts and tire suppliers across 30,000 locations. Like RepairLink, PartsTech provides repair shops with access to one of the industry’s most connected, accurate and efficient mechanical parts procurement systems. Together, RepairLink and PartsTech bring industry-leading fitment information to repair facilities, streamlining workflows for quoting and ordering to boost repair efficiency. 

While the origins of OEC begin with CollisionLink, a first-of-its-kind platform, 25 years later the OEC story is one about building connections across the parts and repair ecosystem and eliminating the pain in the vehicle repair process for all stakeholders. OEC solutions currently account for more than $14 billion in North American ecommerce transactions, $30 billion in annual trade facilitation, and continue to be the leading platforms for dealers and suppliers, repairers, manufacturers, insurers, and fleets.   

The OEC team is thrilled to celebrate 25 years of serving the automotive industry in 2025 – a milestone worth applauding! That said, we are equally excited about the opportunities ahead. We’ve seen firsthand how people across the industry evolve and grow with technology to provide stronger customer service, deliver safe vehicle repairs while adapting to evolving vehicle technology, and stay connected across an ever-expanding parts and repair network. While our 25th anniversary is special for us, it truly speaks to the growth and evolution of the automotive industry.  

As we celebrate this year, we remain deeply grateful to our partners, current and former team members, and especially to our customers – from the folks behind the parts counter and under the hood, to the countless individuals we connect with across the automotive ecosystem. Here’s to a quarter century of working to eliminate the pain in the vehicle repair process​! 

For more information on OEC or to check out all of our solutions and products, visit the OEC homepage.  

OEC plays many different roles for many different people in the automotive industry – we want to take a moment to share our story: 

Back in 2000, OEMs faced a huge hurdle selling parts into dealerships, mechanical shops, and collision shops. Every transaction was handled manually, by phone or fax, creating a real need for an efficient way to do business. This is where OEC entered the market. Several major auto industry players, including GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Bell & Howell, formed OEConnection (OEC as we’re known today) to help facilitate part sales between dealers and repair facilities.  

Like the automotive industry itself, growth was not inevitable but essential for keeping pace with customer needs within an evolving market. OEC continued to develop and acquire key software solutions to better manage every aspect of maintenance and repair. By strategically growing the business, the OEC customer network expanded to include aftermarket parts suppliers, MSOs, fleets, insurers and, of course, dealers, collision & mechanical repairers, and manufacturers.  

Now customers throughout the industry and around globe use OEC technology and data services to connect with each other and get vehicles back on the road safely. From our early focus on parts to our now expanded solutions and customers, OEC connects those involved in the vehicle parts and repair ecosystem so they finally have an easier way to get their job done. 

The current availability of parts and repair data for collision repairers and parts dealers seems unlimited and easily accessible. That said, not all data is the same. Much of the parts and repair data currently available to repair customers comes from ambiguous or unofficial sources, including third-party suppliers. These data sources often lack quality assurances and affect parts accuracy, repair quality, and even pricing information.

When accessing parts data, it’s critical that the parts buyers and sellers consider the source of the data. Having information is good, of course. But when it’s unclear where the information is coming from (or if it’s reliable), it creates adverse, downstream effects, including inaccurate parts numbers & orders, outdated pricing, and unnecessary returns & delays.

For parts & repair information, OEM data is the clear source of truth. This is why the OEC solutions, supported by data direct from the OEM, deliver high-quality parts and repair information that is reliably accurate and consistently up to date. The OEC solutions, including CollisionLink & Trax, provide shops and dealers with the ability to:

• Validate each OEM part number to increase order accuracy by confirming (at the VIN level) whether a part is correct, incorrect, or if additional parts may be required. This level of accuracy streamlines the ordering process and promotes a stronger customer experience starting at the beginning of the process.
• Access an OEM parts catalog to identify and order the right parts – and all necessary parts – the first time, reducing the hassle of returns and the need to order additional parts that, with accurate data, could have been identified and procured at the beginning of the repair process.
• Receive recall notifications when the VIN on the order has an open recall, creating an opportunity for the shop and the dealer to promote proper vehicle repair and demonstrate expert awareness of vehicle safety for the customer.
• Access full option codes for visibility into vehicle options to ensure accurate parts orders for the shop based on the specific vehicle’s model and features. This is a significant advantage given the complexity and variation in vehicles on the road.
• View OEM price tapes that feature accurate parts numbers for up-to-date pricing, including current promotions, parts programs, and opportunities to price match, allowing for the creation of accurate estimates and invoices.

When shops and dealers take advantage of solutions that leverage OEM data, daily tasks are easier and performed with greater efficiency. Simply put, shops and dealers can:

• Work together effectively & productively
• Promote proper parts ordering & vehicle repair
• Experience streamlined workflows
• Increase profits & reduce costs
• Return the vehicle to the customer in a timely manner

More than that, though: the real value of leveraging OEM-sourced data is keeping the customer safe by ensuring the right parts go into the right vehicle for the right repair. This is why leveraging solutions, like the OEC platforms that feature OEM data, ensure customers always have accurate, up-to-date parts and repair information. When the repairer and dealer can trust the data, they can make – or guide – the correct part choice for the proper repair and deliver safe, efficient results for the vehicle owner.

Unfortunately, when your parts solutions don’t work together, your team loses time on admin work instead of focusing on parts sales and customer service. A quick example: The average estimate contains 40 lines, but if your systems don’t communicate with each other, it’s 40 lines of manual reentry that could otherwise be handled with one click. That’s just one scenario but demonstrates why it’s best to leverage solutions that make your behind-the-scenes processes smoother.

Here are three benefits to enabling your parts department platforms to work together:

1. Efficiency
   We’ve all heard “time is money” (many times), right? Despite how often we hear the saying, it’s not as easy to calculate time savings as it is with other types of ROI. But having more time presents its own type of ROI: the ability to get more done. So, when your dealership’s systems work together, it eliminates tasks that slow your team down. This means you can save time, grow your sales, and, most importantly, provide better support for your customers. Products that allow your DMS to communicate with parts department solutions, like collision and mechanical parts management solutions or supply chain and backorder fulfillment tools, add efficiencies to your day by:

• • Simply saving the parts team time
  • Eliminating the need to verify customer selling prices
  • Reducing errors caused by manual order re-entry

2. Accuracy
   When you eliminate frustrating administrative processes, like manually checking prices & re-entering orders in your DMS, you also improve order accuracy. That’s a bonus and solves two issues: In addition to streamlining your parts operations, connecting systems within your parts department improves the overall quality of the information that you provide to customers. By reducing the error-prone manual tasks through system integration, your parts team can:

• • Provide real-time information
  • Display accurate inventory
  • Develop a reputation for dependability

3. Profitability
   Efficiency and accuracy gains allow your team to focus on more meaningful tasks, like increasing sales. This is where you see the more expected type of ROI: healthier profits and growth. Solutions that create connections between your systems allow you to put your people in position to leverage their expertise and insights to support customers. When your parts management platforms communicate directly with your DMS system, you can experience a streamlined, accurate process to support your bottom-line by:

• • Avoiding pricing mistakes
  • Minimizing costly returns
  • Improving customer satisfaction

Too many tools, too little time
Your parts team likely uses many systems throughout the day. With so many tools and processes, it’s easy to get bogged down. When the team can zero in on customer-focused work, it benefits your shops & your parts business. This makes it worth your time to find new ways to streamline admin tasks, improve the customer experience, optimize your parts department.

For many parts departments, the idea of customer retention marketing is met with: “we don’t have time… we’re too busy!” With many struggling to find enough hours in a day to manage orders and inventory, it’s understandable that marketing doesn’t fall at the top of the to-do list. This creates the challenge parts departments often encounter: the need to meet parts revenue goals with limited resources.

By understanding which customers offer the most value to your bottom line, you can position your parts department for success by using deliberate, targeted, and cost-effective customer retention strategies. This approach is backed by data – part sales data shows that engaging existing customers offers the strongest returns while requiring fewer resources.

Customer retention by the numbers

According to 2023 OEC eCommerce data, a loyal shop spends an average of $34.6K annually – that’s 5.2 times more than a new customer. The numbers speak for themselves, but the underlying point needs to drive parts department marketing strategies. $28K in potential sales is a sizeable number – the difference in annual spend between existing and new customers – that can be the difference between hitting your goals or falling short.

Cost of new customer acquisition

With part sales growth strategies, your instincts likely lead you to focus on new customers. Targeting new business seems intuitive, but a closer look reveals a different story. It costs five times more to acquire a customer than to reengage an existing shop. When you add up the cost of acquisition, you see how many resources go toward new shops that may never order parts. The math is clear: it is more cost effective & profitable to engage existing customers and promote loyalty.

Be strategic & deliberate

While data shows customer retention provides the most upside, this does not mean new customer development should stop. It just demonstrates that you want to allocate resources to your strongest opportunities. Customer retention efforts are proven to be more successful and require fewer resources. Why? Because you know your existing customers. You have a relationship. You have sold them parts before. There is a level of familiarity with each other. Engaging this audience requires less from your team and a little nudge or friendly reminder can yield solid results. Simply put, customer retention gets more bang for the buck.

The value of shop retention, a recap:

• Existing customers spend an average of 5x more on parts annually at $34.6K
• New customers spend $6.9K on parts annually ($28K less per year on average than existing shop customers)
• New customer acquisition is 5x more expensive than customer retention OEC recently launched

OEC eMarketing, an efficient, turnkey solution designed to support dealerships with targeted marketing campaigns that retain shop customers. To learn more about the power of shop retention here.

Most parts departments have their go-to parts ordering tools – one for collision, one for mechanical, and even more – that the team uses to receive, process, and fulfill orders. In theory, it’s simple: orders come in, the team responds quickly, and the parts go out. There are, however, times when things don’t run so smoothly and not because the parts team made a mistake. As most know, managing parts orders can quickly become a time-consuming hassle, especially when you factor in a frustrating parts payment process, having too many systems that don’t work together, a lack of visibility into business trends and customer behaviors, or worse, customer retention issues and limited resources to address the matter. These are just a few areas where your parts department could benefit from a little optimization – and that means becoming more efficient, productive, and profitable.

Here are a few tips for dealership optimization that make a big impact on your operations & your customers’ experience:

Streamlining parts transactions

A seemingly endless amount of complexity is built into automotive parts and components. Even the supply chain that moves each part is impressively sophisticated. In the end, you would think that paying for the parts – the actual transaction between shop and dealer – would be, well, the easy part. Not so fast. The payment process for parts ordering (as shops and dealers agree) is anything but simple. Inefficient and outdated payment processing practices are still the prevailing method for many shops and dealers. Whether this means having a delivery guy sit at the shop and wait for cash or issuing and mailing paper invoices (not known for their efficiency), it shows a clear need for process improvements. When your dealership is equipped to handle parts transactions quickly, you make the process easier for your shops and your team, giving everyone more time to work and deliver better results.

New parts payment processing solutions offer secure, streamlined approaches that are both user friendly and cost effective. Just think, what could the team do if they weren’t bogged down by manual transaction processing? How much time could you put back in your day if you could automate the ordering, payment, and reconciliation process? Just the increase in efficiency from reduced cycle times on receivables would go a long way. When your dealership is equipped to handle parts transactions quickly, you make the process much easier for your shops and your team.

Leveraging business intelligence

A simple way to say this is: know your numbers and know your customers. Business intelligence (BI) tools provide insights that are otherwise unavailable or require you to comb through DMS data. Plus, BI solutions do more than show you sales numbers; BI helps your team monitor customer behaviors and trends, track customer interactions, and stay aware of key data points that highlight the health of your parts business.

It doesn’t take long to get caught up in the workday, making it easy to overlook trends that impact your sales, especially if you need to dig for the data. If one of your once-reliable customers starts to reduce order volume gradually, would you know? Customers speak with their wallets and it’s not always obvious until it’s too late. This is where BI makes a difference. By offering a clear look at your wholesale performance, the leading solutions provide the information you need in interactive dashboards and shareable reports. It simply boils down to having tools to help you make proactive, informed decisions, giving you the confidence of knowing your business.

Engaging in customer retention marketing

You may be thinking, “okay, great, I know my numbers and know which areas and which customers need attention.” But you’re also thinking, “I can’ t reach out to everyone or stop by all my shops with a box of doughnuts and coffee.” True, but turnkey marketing solutions can do the work for you, especially for customer re-engagement campaigns. It gets better, too! Customer marketing solutions that are designed to target your existing customers not only create new touchpoints with dormant customers, they also support cost-effective sales growth. Data shows that re-engaging current customers is the most effective way to grow your parts business through marketing campaigns.

Why? Your existing customers, on average, spend significantly more on parts annually than newly acquired customers. To go along with that, it’s also more cost effective to engage existing customers than to add new ones. It takes more resources and manhours to attract new business – that may not payoff down the line – than to work with customers familiar with your parts department.

New solutions are available within the market that use your current ecommerce data to target your existing customers through automated, professionally crafted email campaigns. These communications can include “We miss you” re-engagement campaigns or themed promotional messages that can drive business back to your dealership. Just think: When’s the last time you reached out to a significant number of your current shops? It’s not that you don’t want to, it’s just not practical. That’s why turnkey marketing solutions are becoming critical to parts department growth: you can reach out directly to your customers and strategically grow your business without over-leveraging your time, budget, or staff.

Connecting your current systems

Sometimes it can feel like technology is both the solution and the problem or, at the very least, a roadblock. You have several systems for managing parts orders and some don’t ‘speak to each other’ or integrate, creating manual work you hoped technology would eliminate. That’s the downside. The upside is that the industry’s technology providers are aware of the issue and developed solutions to address system connectivity. When systems are integrated, your parts department can move faster, work with greater accuracy, and limit mistakes that create holdups. Current solutions are designed to connect ecommerce part sales solutions with DMS platforms. This creates the connectivity you need to:

• Quickly (or even automatically) build quotes for parts orders
• Offer an accurate reflection of your inventory
• Reduce the likelihood of human error (like typos from re-entering orders)
• Limit the number of returns to process

Enhanced connectivity limits mistakes – obviously, that’s great! – but the efficiency gains allow your team to focus on more meaningful tasks, like increasing sales. These tools put your people in a position to leverage their parts expertise and insights to support their customers.

Optimization is about filling gaps & clearing obstacles

Parts department optimization is not necessarily about finding and making sweeping changes. Optimization is about taking what you’re good at, strengthening those areas, and removing obstacles. Can your team sell parts and manage customer relationships? Sure! Does the payment process always go smoothly? No. But that doesn’t mean you scrap everything. However, it’s probably time to identify ways to optimize the process. As we said above, this is an area of need that both shops and dealers cite (routinely) as creating complications. As noted, there are many examples where certain processes have small gaps that, when corrected, create a positive outcome for the business. Dealership optimization is about filling those gaps and clearing obstacles, allowing your team to do what they do best: sell parts and provide expert service to shop customers efficiently and professionally.

1. Share Customer Testimonials

Most business owners would love to believe that their customers trust them and take them at their word. In many instances, this is true. But customers really trust what other customers say about a business or an experience. Think about it, it’s why people read product reviews or look to eat at restaurants with four- or five-star ratings. Customers are more likely to believe or take recommendations from other customers. For this reason, it is worth your time and energy to ask a few customers to provide you with a testimonial you can use to promote your shop.

Once you have a testimonial – and you are certain your customer is okay with you sharing it – make sure your testimonials are in an easy-to-see spot on your website or social media, like pinned to the top of your page. This is a terrific way to show your future (and existing) customers the great work your business does through the voice of someone who has experience with you and your services.

How do you get a testimonial? Consider offering incentives or raffle prizes to customers who offer you a testimonial. It’s also important to be interactive and thoughtful toward the people who appreciate your work. Plus, it’s good customer service to make them feel like their business matters. After all, they are providing you with a free advertisement – a testimonial from a satisfied customer – that you can share anywhere you promote your shop.

2. Maintain a social media presence on multiple platforms

Sometimes it can seem like social media only exists for cat videos and vacation photos, but if your shop doesn’t have its own page, you’re missing an opportunity to connect with a larger audience. Being present on social media is a great way to stay top of mind, provide business updates, and interact with the community.

When you create a business page for your shop, not only can you offer coupons and daily deals, but you can also interact with future and existing customers. Interacting with your customers shows you care about them and want their business. It’s also a terrific way to get your name out there and spread the word about your excellent services. You can share a poll online or give them a chance to share their experience at your shop. Giving your customers a chance to speak to you and share feedback gives your shop credibility and makes their interaction personal.

Another way to engage with your customers on social media is by sharing facts and tips. This keeps them engaged, informed, or even entertained. You can consider themed posts, such as Fact Fridays, Tip Tuesdays, or Daily Deals. These are just a few ideas to start with. It takes less than 10 minutes to find an interesting fact or tip from a reliable source and share it with your followers! Posting interesting and thoughtful information, especially on topics related to the industry, keeps followers attuned to your online presence and they may even consider your social media page to be a trusted resource.

Your presence on multiple social media platforms shows you care about your appearance and reputation. Maintaining a social presence also makes it easier for your customers to find you. Plus, you can take the opportunity to help your customers get to know your employees (Employee Spotlight posts!) and learn about the background of your business. Whether you opened a year ago or you’ve been around for a while, your customers are curious about your business!

3. Make sure to have a user-friendly website

It is incredibly frustrating to log on to a website that’s basically unusable or difficult to navigate. We’ve all been there – you visit a page that is difficult to navigate, the information you’re looking for is hard to find, and, by the end, you just log off and choose a different option. Even though you’re not in the web design industry, your website is an extension of both your shop’s brand and your customer experience. You don’t want your customers to be annoyed or frustrated before they even interact with you.

This is why it’s important to make your website attractive and easy to use: it’s a reflection of your business and capabilities. Is this fair? Not necessarily. Is this how things work sometimes (especially in a very online society)? Yep.

Nowadays, the easiest way to book an appointment or to make a request is through a company’s website, making it extra important to have your credentials, achievements, reviews, appointments, and any other bit of information customers might need on your website. Plus, it needs to be easily accessible to anyone who wants to bring their vehicle to your shop. When a customer logs onto your website, you want to make sure they know they will get the best service possible, and maybe even learn a thing or two about your business.

As a small piece of advice, if you’re ever in doubt, just keep the site clean, simple, and direct.

4. Be responsive and easy to contact

When a company is difficult to contact or unresponsive to queries, it sets a bad tone from the start. If a business doesn’t answer the phone or respond to emails or social messages, how optimistic can a customer be about the service? A key part of promoting your shop is communicating with your customers. If a customer calls and you’re not able to answer, make sure you return the call or respond to a message. It’s important to let your customers know they’re not just another call and that they are, in fact, important to you and your business. Quick responses to email questions or a voicemail will help ensure you’re not losing business.

You likely understand this, but when a customer needs to have their car fixed, they probably don’t have days to wait around for a call back from you. Also, it’s not only important to respond, but to be pleasant when you pick up the phone and be ready to answer the callers’ questions. It’s also a good practice to make sure your employees are knowledgeable and can talk about your company in a clear and insightful manner while also being able to answer customer questions or address concerns.

When it comes to interacting with customers, a strong commitment to the soft skills can go a long way toward promoting your shop and providing a strong customer experience.

If you’re looking for additional new ways to find parts and provide faster service to your customers, let us know and our experts can help!

5. Create a brand experience

It’s been said that a brand is not a logo, but a promise – it’s what your customers can expect from your shop every time they engage with it. It’s important that your shop provides – and delivers – on the promise it makes to customers. By making sure you have consistent signage, attire, and collateral (t-shirts, business cards, stickers, pens, key chains, etc.), you can establish a clean and consistent experience for customers.

This doesn’t mean, however, that you need to have full renovation or large rotating sign in front of the business. It just means using a consistent logo, having professional looking employees, creating branded stickers, business cards, and signage, all of this inspires confidence and trust within your customers.

People, especially customers, appreciate consistency; it makes them feel comfortable and confident. When someone walks into your shop, you want them to feel the same way the first time as they do the sixth time, meaning:

• They see the same thing: employees in matching, branded shirts, and hats
• Hear the same thing: Responsive, well-informed employees
• Experience the same thing: High quality, timely service

This is all about making the customer comfortable and confident – it is also likely to have a positive effect on your employees, too.

Deliver on your promises

While your marketing and promotion strategies can evolve, what does not change is your main goal: providing excellent service to your customers and growing your business. If your business strives to create a stellar customer experience – from the initial point of contact to the moment the customer gets their keys back – all while serving the community and your target audience, you and your team are already on the right track. With these tips in mind and your mission to achieve brand recognition and customer satisfaction, you have all the right tools to keep your customers loyal and your shop’s reputation sparkling.

For more information and insights check out our other blog posts. For additional shop tools, check out the OEC shop solutions.

Online parts selling tools, when properly set up and utilized, can perform like a counter person that only costs about $3/hr, but the key to getting the most out of these platforms is to effectively integrate them into the parts department. Whether your dealership already adopted an online solution or you’re in the initial phases of finding and implementing the right platform, here are a few tips to help your team successfully launch an online parts sales solution and to make sure you’re using it to its fullest potential.

Put effort into the setup to enjoy the output

As a member of the parts team behind the sales counter, especially if you’re the parts manager, you know you wear a lot of hats and have a ton of responsibilities. There’s always a lot to do and there are only so many hours in the day. In fact, it’s not uncommon for parts managers to say, “I don’t have time to set this up” or something like that… when talking about online solutions. However, it’s important to understand that if your team puts the time into the setup and implementation process for the online (known as eCommerce) tool, it will be well worth it, and you’ll likely recover all that time – and then some – over the long haul.

Think about it, when you hire a new counter person, you need to take the time to train them, get them up to speed, show them the ins and outs of the parts department, and so on. Whether you’re selling collision parts, mechanical parts, or both, getting your parts sales solution up and running isn’t much different (it’s likely going to be much quicker and easier) and it averages out to only a couple bucks an hour. This is especially helpful for smaller dealers with fewer people on the staff.

When you’re tight on resources, especially people power, the right online parts ordering tools, once launched, can really reduce the stress on the team by:

• Limiting non-revenue generating phone calls
• Allowing shops to be more self-serving
• Condensing orders, reducing the necessary processing
• Driving greater efficiency and helping your team multitask
• Lowering costs

The key, though, is getting the solution up and running properly. The work you put into the platform upfront will come back to benefit you in the end and the benefits will drastically outweigh the initial effort.

Interested in how shops and dealers connect using online tools? Check out this video!

Take advantage of the available resources

While it’s critical to take the time and put in the effort to launch your online parts sales solution, it’s also important to understand that you don’t have to go at it alone. Managing a parts department and processing customer orders is a lot of work, so take advantage of the resources that are available to you for setting up your department’s eCommerce tools and helping your team use the platform effectively.

If you’re looking to start using online parts sales tools, it is important to consider what resources are available to your dealership to help you succeed. If you’re in the research phase of your decision-making process, check on the support and training opportunities that are available with the different solutions. If you’ve already launched your solution, consider looking into the training programs or supplementary materials that may be available to your team.

More often than not, your parts sales solutions will provide a few, if not all, of the following options to help you get up and running. See if your team can take advantage of:

• Training Opportunities – Customer support teams are typically available to guide you along the adoption process and offer support after any initial training
• Online Knowledgebase – Self-service, online resource libraries are an excellent way to get the info you need quickly and are often driven by common questions other users have asked when using the tools
• Free Webinars – Learn tips & tricks that will help your team use online platforms more effectively and accomplish your ultimate goal: selling more parts
• Marketing Materials – Sales collateral and other useful resources are typically available for free and are designed to help your team connect with shops to encourage them to order parts online from the dealership

Dealership Performance Coaching Solutions are also available. Interested? Learn more here!

Take action using the available insights

Want to know one of the key benefits of establishing your online parts ordering solution and getting it up and running? The customer insights! Once you’ve put in the work – with the help of eCommerce experts – to launch your online parts sales tool and utilized the available resources designed to make you an online parts sales whiz, you get the added advantage of using the insights you get into your customers and their behaviors.

One of the more interesting pieces of information that you can access with these tools is a look at which customers are using the platform to browse – or even start a cart – but not moving along to the actual purchasing phase of the transaction. With this insight, you can reach out to the customer and encourage them to complete the process to ensure they’re getting the full benefits from the program.

By communicating with more precision to your shop customers, you can remind them of the advantages that these online platforms provide, including:

• Being cost-effective with many available for free to shops
• Saving time by providing a self-service option (reducing phone calls and time spent on hold)
• Condensing orders by helping shops get the parts they need in fewer orders
• Increasing accuracy and ordering the right part the first time

A side note: If you notice shops are reviewing parts or starting but then abandoning carts, they may be encountering something that you weren’t aware of, and then you know to make adjustments, maybe to the pricing formula, to encourage or correct the online experience for your buyers.

Ultimately, the online tools and the available insights allow you to access more information on customers, provide buyers with the knowledge they need to buy parts from your dealership and have fewer but more specific customer conversations. Online parts sales doesn’t mean you’re never going to speak with your customers – parts sales is still a relationship business, but with the right tools, the conversations you have with customers can be more targeted, direct, and productive.

If your parts department is really into business analytics, business intelligence tools are available that provide extensive, in-depth customer and sales data. The leading parts sales platforms, however, do provide basic insights, (mentioned above) that allow you to get a feel for business and customer data analytics and how they can help your sales performance.

Understand the available integrations

When your dealership adopts an online parts sales solution, it’s important to understand the integrations (the other products it works well with) that the solution includes and are available to help your dealership. Integrations are designed to make the job of the parts team easier, but there are some common misconceptions about how products work together. These integrations are important to understand, since they are often misunderstood and, while many people believe that their current tools don’t work together, the truth is actually the opposite: not only do many online dealership tools work together, but they’re also easy to integrate, making your job easier. These integrations include:

• Estimating systems – The leading online parts selling platforms work well with existing estimating platforms and they’re really easy to integrate (just a few clicks of a button)

• Delivery solutions – On-demand delivery solutions are commonly underutilized but are integrated into a few parts sourcing platforms and, especially in a time of tight resources (meaning parts department employees), having a parts delivery option available is huge

Online parts sales & setting yourself up for success

Online parts sales tools are designed to help your parts department – and customers – work more efficiently, provide better insights and training, and, ultimately, grow your bottom line. It is important, however, to set expectations with your team and know what needs to be done to be set up for success. Also, understand the resources available to help your parts department maximize the platform. Right now, resources are tight, especially trained employees and time. The leading parts sales platforms take the burden off your team (in a cost-effective way) and allow you to use your time behind the parts counter more productively while also helping shops serve themselves online – a win-win for everyone.

If you have any questions about online part sales or would like to know which tools would be best for your team, let us know here and an eCommerce expert will be in touch.

By now, most of us have seen signs hanging on the businesses’ doors that say things like “Please be patient, we’re understaffed at the moment.” Or something similar, right? It means resources are tight. And by resources, we’re talking about the employees, their time, and the ability to get work done. In most industries, including repair shops, restaurants, retailers, and others, the resources needed to run the business are getting tighter. For collision repair shops, this understaffing often means the technicians’ availability is limited and shops are running longer cycle times or, even worse, losing business.

Now, you don’t have to hold an MBA from a top-tier business school to understand that providing a bad customer experience by making customers wait longer than expected or providing an experience that turns customers away is not a good business practice and is certainly not sustainable.

In the auto industry, understand that you’re not alone. There’s an ongoing squeeze when it comes to employees, time, and productivity, impacting the business’ overall profitability. The squeeze on these resources is happening everywhere, too. Dealerships are not immune to this type of crunch. Parts departments are running with thinner crews as well. Order processing times are on the rise, leading to shops, at least the ones that have not made the transition to online ordering, sitting on hold for longer than usual and slowing down the repair process.

Kind of sounds like it’s all connected, huh? Well, it is. The stress of having limited resources adds friction to the workflow between shops and dealers. But there is good news: there are tools and solutions that exist to not only help shops and dealers work together in smart, productive ways, but also in new ways that help maximize resources, minimize time-draining tasks, and help improve the bottom line.

For most, saving time really means spending less time on certain tasks. It’s not “saving time” exactly, but rather reallocating time into more productive measures. At the shop, spending less time on the phone, writing emails, or reordering parts means more time for repairs that lead to greater profitability. At the dealership, it means more time with more customers and selling more parts.

No matter where your role falls in the parts purchasing and ordering process – from buyer to seller to installer (two out of three, even?) – it’s unlikely that you’re not looking for ways to get more (there’s that word again – more) out of the resources you have available to you and your team. And since you can’t clone yourself or snap your fingers and double your staff, it’s worth considering the tools that do exist and are designed to help you get more out of the workday.

Here are a few ways to help maximize resources and promote greater profitability – even in times like these, ones full of change and transition – that provide benefits to your shop:

Embrace more efficient parts ordering

Look into tools that provide shops with access to Manufacturer catalog section images and allow users to easily access catalogs and identify parts missing from an estimate. The more accurate and complete you can be early in the repair process, the more time you can save. There’s nothing worse than that sudden moment of realization when you learn you need to go back and rework your project. Tools that give you access to Manufacturer catalog section images help you minimize calls and emails to dealers, freeing up the team – on both ends of the line – to focus on the work that brings in profits. Saving time is great of course, but what you can do with the added time is even more important to think about.

Reduce returns & limit supplements

Available tools and solutions, like parts order scrubbing by VIN, reduce costly parts returns and supplements by flagging parts that don’t fit the VIN. This makes it possible for you to send a more accurate parts order, see flagged parts that don’t fit the vehicle, and view alternative parts, all to help ensure that your parts orders are complete and accurate the first time. If you order a part that doesn’t fit the vehicle you’re working on, you need to – obviously – return that part and submit a new order for the right part.

Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking, delaying repairs and, likely, the time when you return the vehicle to its owner. This also means you or someone on your team needs to take time away from revenue-generating work to go through the administrative hassle of returning the part, ordering the correct one, and possibly calling the customer to let them know about the delay. Returns and supplements cost you productivity and time – two things most shops don’t have enough of right now.

Access parts availability

While this level of information and insight can vary from dealer to dealer, using a tool that allows you to know what’s in stock helps you effectively schedule jobs and communicate with your customers with greater accuracy. When you have access to parts availability information, you not only know the stocking situation for the parts you need, but you’re able to accurately evaluate your cycle time, provide your techs with more critical uptime for repairs, and manage customer expectations.

That last one is huge, too. Level-setting expectations and then delivering on those promises will likely go a long way toward establishing a strong customer relationship. When you operate a collision shop, your customers have likely experienced something traumatic or, at the very least, inconvenient. The more you can do to provide a smooth process throughout their interactions with your shop, the more your reputation will benefit from it.

Downstream advantages to dealers & vehicle owners

If you’re thinking, “these ideas sound like a great way to extend the resources around my shop,” you’re spot on! They primarily help shops, but there are secondary benefits that go beyond the increased efficiency your shop will experience with a greater ability to accurately order parts, limit returns & supplements, and gain access to part inventory levels.

When you order parts more efficiently, you’re helping the dealer out by allowing them to process these orders faster and with fewer hassles. If the dealership’s parts department runs more efficiently, there’s no doubt that the impact will ultimately circle back around and help you even more in the long run… like the next time you order parts… and the next time. The same is true about returns: you don’t have to process them and neither does the parts department on the receiving end.

Let’s recap real quick:

New parts ordering tools and upgrades to existing solutions help your shop and the dealership’s parts department:

• Limit administrative work (i.e., non-revenue generating tasks)
• Reduce redundant tasks, including parts returns or supplemental orders
• Take advantage of greater efficiency, allowing you to work more productively by knowing if parts are available – limiting phone calls & emails

Plus, there’s the vehicle owner (aka: your customer!): you don’t have to go back and explain that you ordered the wrong part. Awkward conversations that you don’t need to have are the best kind of awkward conversations. When you use tools that provide faster, more efficient ways to order parts AND provide more information, the benefits go beyond your collision repair shop. All of this helps you provide a better experience for your customers in the end.

For information on the tools and solutions outlined above or for insights on additional services, click here.

Here are a few things to consider right now in order to grow sales, improve the customer experience, and run a smarter – and stronger – parts business.

Embrace Technology

Whether you sell collision or mechanical parts (or both), choosing a reliable technology solution helps streamline the parts fulfillment process and creates faster customer communications while also reducing human error. Like the industry itself, technology has evolved, but it’s become intuitive, easier to use, and more beneficial to your bottom line. Online parts ordering solutions also help:

• Increase Speed & Efficiency – Online parts ordering software helps customers find parts information quickly, freeing up more time to generate revenue (i.e., selling more parts). Technology also provides greater efficiency for customers, who, like you, are also trying to grow their bottom line. An online ordering solution allows shops to log in, identify the exact parts they need, and easily submit an order to your dealership for processing.
• Improve Customer Service – If you use online parts ordering software, it can increase your team’s ability to strengthen relationships with customers, build new accounts, and find new opportunities. The right technology should expand your customer base by exposing more shops to your parts inventory while providing greater service to your existing customers who are probably familiar with the online ordering process already.
• Save Money – Help repair shops identify the exact Manufacturer parts they need, so they can submit an online order directly to your parts department, eliminating lengthy or repeat phone calls and reducing the number of returns your dealership processes.
• Stay Connected – Current technology performs many important tasks, but near the top of the list is connectivity. Parts sourcing technology connects dealerships with shops, creating a network of customers and, of course, parts sales opportunities.

Encourage Online Ordering

Online parts ordering technology incentivizes shops to buy more while offering your full inventory of replacement parts to potential buyers. In fact, online parts orders are consistently higher (more sales!) than the traditional over-the-phone order submissions. In addition to more sales, online parts ordering allows your dealership to:

• Protect Your Current Business – Engage current customers and grow sales by making it easy to purchase parts from your dealership. Online systems also provide customers with additional resources to help ensure they’re ordering the parts they need and can complete the repair correctly (the first time).
• Gain New Customers – When you sell Manufacturer parts online, you get more sales opportunities just by being present where many buyers shop for parts. The vast majority of shops begin their buying journey online, so including your inventory in an online marketplace creates greater exposure to new customers.
• Take Orders 24/7 – When you accept online parts orders, your inventory is available 24/7, allowing you to increase parts sales and begin each day with new orders. Perhaps even more importantly, many shops and buyers purchase parts outside of standard business hours, allowing your department to receive orders whenever your customers are ready to submit them.
• Improve Order Accuracy – It’s a common misconception that phone orders are more accurate than online orders. Online ordering provides shops with diagrams and illustrations, allowing them to easily identify the right parts (and all of the parts!) they need to correctly complete a repair. Plus, with Manufacturer parts, both you and your customers know they’re getting a high-quality part that’s designed specifically for that vehicle.

Lean into Your Advantage: High-Quality Manufacturer Parts

While part sourcing technology is constantly evolving and, likewise, online ordering is still relatively new, the tried-and-true element in this list is the value of Manufacturer parts. Focus on selling the Manufacturer parts you trust and keep your customers informed regarding their value. As the higher quality and safer option – which is why shops prefer to work with Manufacturer parts – they are beneficial to both the buyers and the sellers. Take time to remind customers that Manufacturer parts:

• Provide Easy Ordering – Manufacturer parts offer seamless ordering and reduce processing time since they are designed for the specific vehicle in question. There isn’t going to be a concern of “is this the right one” or “will it fit?” This makes it easier for shops to buy parts.
• Reduce Returns – When the part a customer buys is designed specifically for the vehicle they’re repairing, they’re less likely to return it (i.e., your customers know what they’re getting with an Manufacturer part). This saves your team a lot of time that would otherwise go toward processing returns.
• Are Often Included in Parts Programs – The Manufacturers have been incredibly aggressive in their willingness to implement or adopt parts programs that allow them to sell original equipment at prices that often match or even beat aftermarket pricing. These programs reduce the cost difference for shops and allow dealerships to be more competitive in their sales. Plus, your dealership can even receive reimbursements from the manufacturer when you sell Manufacturer parts.
• Offer a Better Customer Experience – Because automotive technology is evolving at spectacular rates, Manufacturer parts are, perhaps, more important than ever. New technology will make repairs even more reliant on Manufacturer parts since the aftermarket will be unlikely to meet the need given patents and the overall sophistication of the parts and vehicles. With automotive technology evolving at leaps and bounds, the dealership is going to play a critical role in helping to ensure vehicles are repaired safely and with parts that will return them to their original quality.

Be flexible but comfortable.

That’s the key! Leverage the right tools, including parts sourcing technology, provide your team and customers with an efficient workflow and a smoother process through online ordering, but also communicate the value of the products you know you can rely on: Manufacturer parts. At the very least, you’ve probably already embraced part sourcing technology to some extent. Your customers certainly have! They’re already submitting online orders and, if you’re not accepting them, you’re missing out on potential sales. And, lastly, you (and your customers) know that the Manufacturer parts your dealership sells are the right choice for vehicle repairs. The groundwork is already laid out for you and this is how you can make sure your parts department generates revenue and continues to grow. It’s also why it’s important to look for new ways to grow parts sales and increase profits… by making sure your team is – and remains – a major contributor to the success of the dealership.

Balance is a good thing. In your parts department, having a balanced approach to parts sales and management allows your team to expand its sales opportunities and grow customer relationships while avoiding an over-dependence on one source of business or a singular sales strategy. This means using different tools to achieve diverse goals that help your department reach its ultimate objective: healthy parts sales and happy customers. It starts by understanding your options for growing revenue streams and identifying the right solutions to help you capitalize on these opportunities.

Take a look at these three common phases (or opportunities) in a dealership’s parts business and how different tools can help contribute to sales and strengthen the department:

Parts Wholesale

The wholesale parts business is likely your parts department’s bread and butter service: the actual selling of collision and mechanical parts to shops and buyers. Parts go out the door and money comes back in. But it’s not just as simple as receiving a call from a shop, taking the order, and getting the part out the door and to the customer. These days, it’s about implementing the right tools to efficiently process online orders while also helping your team generate revenue. Here are a few things to consider when researching and selecting an online system to drive your wholesale program:

• Collision – Manufacturers are big believers in online collision parts sales with many implementing aggressive pricing programs that reimburse dealers for selling select Manufacturer parts, allowing the dealer to compete with the aftermarket and provide an improved experience for the buying shop. The benefits go beyond the dealership, too. The buyer, in turn, is less likely to return properly fitting, high-quality Manufacturer parts and the vehicle owner receives a quality repair and a safe vehicle that’s returned to its original condition.
• Mechanical – Providing similar benefits to collision programs, the leading Manufacturer mechanical parts programs provide a complete network of shops and dealerships, creating a large, robust parts wholesale ecosystem that connects buyers to sellers. This means the dealership not only provides a better experience for its existing customers but also expands its territory to more buyers who are already using the online marketplace.
• Retail – Selling directly to the end customer is an additional line of revenue that can create repeat business and loyal buyers at the consumer level. There are different retail solutions available for dealerships: some platforms allow your parts team to sell directly to the online buyers and others facilitate parts sales through the eBay marketplace.

Important note: While parts sales platforms do require your dealership to make an investment, the best collision
and mechanical parts sourcing solutions produce a strong return on that investment, meaning the anticipated uptick in parts sales covers the cost of the solution AND produces profits on the other side! Plus, if your Manufacturer offers a parts program that provides reimbursements on select Manufacturer parts sales, it’s an added consideration when selecting an online parts solution.

Optimization & Strategy

The keyword is right there: optimization. It’s not something the pros pass up. Why? Because it’s essentially a way to run a stronger, more strategic business. So, if you’re in the “Yes, I do want to discover new ways to improve” category, then consider adopting tools that help optimize your workflow, provide insights into how you can improve parts sales, and identify ways you can enhance your customer relationships. Here are a few types of tools and services that you can explore when you’re looking to evolve your strategy and improve performance:

• Business Intelligence – The best business intelligence (BI) platforms provide access to business insights and help improve customer relationships by allowing dealerships to proactively monitor business trends, customer behaviors, and the overall health of the parts department. These platforms give you an opportunity to adjust sales strategies based on your department’s strengths and opportunities while also functioning as a customer relationship management tool – or CRM – that allows you to work closely with your buyers to ensure their parts sourcing needs are being met by your dealership.
• Training – Professional “coaches” or parts sales experts are often available through parts sourcing programs for in-person or virtual training and can help your team implement a parts sales solution or hone existing skills with new strategies. If you bring in a wholesale expert, you can make sure everyone on your team understands the department’s tools and strategies and get everyone rowing in the same direction.
• Parts Delivery – Most dealerships have some form of parts delivery, but reliability and timeliness are often followed by a question mark. Obviously, that’s not good for business. On-demand parts delivery services are now being integrated into parts sourcing solutions, making it much easier to get parts to buyers and to provide a complete – and improved – customer experience.

Inventory

Parts managers are busy. There are parts sales to focus on. There’s inventory to maintain. There’s the parts team to oversee. On a good day, there’s time to eat lunch while sitting down (what a luxury!) and chug a whole pot of coffee – on a good day. However, the savviest parts managers add solutions to make all their tasks more manageable and the workday more efficient. The right inventory programs can lead to increased sales and a more strategic and efficient parts department. Here are a few tools to check out:

• Inventory Management – Managing a parts inventory is not easy, especially since it’s only one of the many hats a parts manager wears daily. Many parts managers add strategic solutions to their toolbox that optimize their inventory AND help achieve sales goals. The best tools for managing inventory allow your team to work more productively, identify popular parts that sell, eliminate obsolete stock, and improve turn rates.
• Supply Chain – The leading supply chain solutions allow parts departments to make inventory available to a larger dealership network and expand the sales territory. Additionally, when your parts department is part of a larger network, it can locate parts for customers while also selling to dealerships looking for specific Manufacturer parts. When you see the logic written out in plain English, it almost makes too much sense: buying and selling parts to network dealers who will also buy from you and sell parts to you.
• Idle Reduction – Idle parts are a waste of time, money, and space. They take up much-needed resources and when you do try to move them, they take up even more resources because the buyer pool is smaller. Many parts managers offload the task to a parts broker who can help match sellers with buyers in order to get those idle parts out the door, freeing up space for parts that move (i.e., the money makers).

When considering your options for growing parts sales and increasing revenue streams, take a step back and think of it this way: you’re looking for balance, meaning you’re not being overly reliant on one business segment or, as the saying goes, putting all your eggs in one basket. Not to get in the weeds or move away from the topic at hand, but consider this common refrain when it comes to investing: diversify! You want to have a wholesale tool for your collision and mechanical parts. You want to have optimization tools to grow customer relationships. Lastly, you want to have supply chain or inventory solutions in an effort to run a smarter department. When you operate a balanced parts department, you’re working to safeguard yourself (and your team) against inevitable bumps in the road or unforeseen challenges, providing a level of stability you might not have had otherwise. Plus, in normal times, all three phases work toward the greater good of the dealership and, more specifically, to the benefit of your parts department.