Company: Warrantech, Bedford, TX
Entry Submitted By: AmTrust Financial
Company Description: Warrantech provides innovative extended service plans (ESPs) and warranty programs for retailers, dealers, and distributors, and manufacturers in numerous consumer and automotive/vehicle markets. The company is focused on customer success through product innovation and unparallelled service excellence.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Award for Innovation in Sales

Nomination Title: Warrantech Connected Protection

Tell the story about your organization's innovations in sales or business development since the beginning of July 2013 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Warrantech is a leading provider of vehicle protection plans for OEMs such as General Motors, Mazda, Chrysler and Volvo. Our core philosophy is that a critical element to the adoption of telematics by consumers is providing them with the peace of mind that their investment in such new technologies is protected by the strength of a protection plan.

As part of its broader telematics initiatives, Warrantech proudly launched its first connected device protection solution at the 2014 National Auto Dealers Association convention. The solution provides repair and replacement benefits for mobile devices utilized in a connected vehicle, should such devices malfunction.

The program was inspired by the simple fact that consumers with connected vehicles rely on their personal mobile devices to enjoy many of the benefits provided by their newfound vehicle connectivity. Without functioning mobile devices, the perceived benefits of such connectivity are substantially impaired in the minds of the users, thereby affecting continued adoption of the technology.

As such, Warrantech redesigned its existing vehicle protection plan, which provides bumper-to-bumper protection for vehicle parts failures, to include this first-of-its-kind protection benefit for up to three mobile devices used in the vehicle. Customers who experience failure with their covered mobile devices are provided with both a toll-free number and access to an online portal to receive repair service or exchange their malfunctioning devices.

The newly designed vehicle protection plan with the Connected Protection option is now offered through automobile dealers to their customers. The price of the protection plan can be added to the vehicle financing, thereby costing the end user pennies per day for extensive coverage. The new offering provides important benefits to connected vehicle owners and much-needed additional revenue sources for auto dealers.

The program is already making a big difference for all parties involved

Since the program launch, Warrantech has received a great deal of interest from dealers who have used Connected Protection to solidify customer relationships and further their revenue stream. It has managed to enhance the value that we can offer our partners by helping them provide valuable benefits to their customers. And by strengthening our own product portfolio, we have managed to stay one step ahead of the competition in a market where data shows that vehicle purchase decisions are expected to be heavily influenced by emerging connected car features and services.

Here are just a few of the early outcomes and returns:

• Vehicle service contract sales are up 28% in 2014 due to Connected Protection
• Net income for Warrantech is up 38.7% since the beginning of the year, thanks in part to the initial returns of our Connected Protection program
• A recent study by Telematics West Coast shows that our automotive partners now have the best connected car platform in the industry, accounting for 19% of the overall market
• The same report shows that 59.7% of all customers surveyed say that having connectivity products and services increases their loyalty to automaker brands.

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above. (Do NOT list your URLs below.)