Transforming a cost center into a profit center

We're announcing something today that's pretty exciting for the company because we think it's kind of a "game changer" in one of the channels we serve. It's a new solution for the buy-here pay-here (BHPH) market that we call Recover It.

For the uninitiated, BHPH dealers sell cars to credit challenged customers and, in many cases, will put a device like ours on the car to make sure the customer pays the loan. If the car owner misses payments, our device can be used to send a payment reminder -- in the form of an annoying buzzer everytime they turn on the car -- or to interrupt the starter. In the worst cases, the dealer can use the GPS to track the vehicle and recover it.

We've been in the BHPH market for several years now, but haven't had an amazing amount of success primarily because we sell on value rather than price. Our device works very well and provides a number of functions that other devices don't. Still, lots of BHPH dealers think we're "too expensive" because we cost a a couple bucks more and devices like ours are a necessary evil they don't want to spend money on.

That's why we're psyched today because we've got a new solution that turns this "cost center" into a potential profit center for BHPH dealers. Recover It is a new GPS-based solution that provides payment assurance technology, but also allows a dealer to sell highly valued stolen vehicle recovery services to credit challenged customers.

Werner Scherz, who runs our finance and BHPH channels, puts it this way: “There’s no shortage of companies that can make a low-priced black box with GPS capabilities and $0 in monthly fees. By adding highly valued services into the mix, we've created a total solution that can be a profit center for dealers rather than a cost center. Most importantly, the customer gets some great benefits, including Guidepoint’s award-winning stolen vehicle recovery service and, in many cases, a discount on auto insurance. This is truly a win-win for both dealer and customer.”

The cool thing is that we're one of a handful of companies that can actually do this. Since we launched in 2002, we've been doing stolen vehicle recovery. We're really good at it. The company has a 98 percent recovery rate, with most vehicles recovered in less than two hours.

“Working with law enforcement to provide safe, effective stolen vehicle recovery service is something that takes years to develop,” said Rand Mueller, founder and chief executive officer. “Guidepoint has invested in fully staffed 24/7/365 response centers in Dallas, Detroit and Mexico that work with law enforcement every day to safely recover stolen vehicles across the country and in Central America.”

Werner is out in Las Vegas at a conference for BHPH dealers today and tomorrow to introduce Recover It. Should be an interesting couple of days for him.