Getting Started
Retail Dealership Accreditation Program (RDAP)
Getting Started on Your Application
You have made the first steps!
Deciding to become accredited should in itself be congratulated. Your business success demonstrates you have a great deal of business savvy, you have a good team around you, good business practices and you all work hard to continuously improve and move on to greater rewards.
The elements of your success and the processes you already have in place will play a part in the accreditation application process.
Of course there will be documentation you will need to show as evidence that you comply with the accreditation criteria, and should you need some assistance with business templates to get a process documented, we may be able to assist with a selection of templates you can download and utilise.
Getting Organised
Having an organised approach to accreditation will be a big help. The best way to get started is to establish a file to hold all of the required documentation. This file will be the framework for the program and may be requested by the assessor visiting your dealership.
Here is an opportunity for you to pull your dealer team together and lift their performance. They may have good suggestions on how best to implement the program’s requirements, so give them a chance to have their say and gain ownership of the process.
The next thing to do is a gap analysis – working out where you comply with the requirements and where further effort is needed to reach compliance standard. Again, involve your dealer team in assessing current standards against the requirements.
Depending on the size of the dealership, consider establishing a project team with the task of meeting regularly to review progress and keep all others informed on what is happening. Useful tools and links are included below to help you prepare to apply: