At last week’s NADA Convention & Expo, Cars.com revealed a new tool to help franchised dealerships make their service departments stand out from the pack.

The site has launched RepairPal Certified, which was developed in partnership with RepairPal.

The certification badge is designed to verify trusted service departments for consumers shopping around, and shows consumers certified dealerships’ service departments have strong customer satisfaction scores as well as fair prices. The tool was rolled out in select markets this past week and will be available nationwide this March.

“We’re excited to launch RepairPal Certified for franchise dealers and help them take back their service business,” said Alex Vetter, chief executive officer of Cars.com. “We’ve always dedicated ourselves to building a trusted platform for car shoppers, and consumers have come to rely on us at all stages of the buying process.

“Now our goal is to transform the service and repair category by providing much-needed resources for car owner seeking help and advice when it comes to maintaining their vehicles, and or dealerships looking to boost their service business and regain their market share from national service chains.”

Cars.com pointed out that since more than 86 percent of cars on the road today are past warranty, dealers may be losing out on service opportunities with limited options to market this branch of their dealership.

RepairPal is designed to address this concern. To earn and maintain RepairPal certification, dealers must complete an assessment every 90 days covering four key areas, the company explained: technical assessment, minimum warranty, customer satisfaction and price guarantee.

A RepairPal certified dealer must also have OEM-certified technicians, at least a 12-month/12,000-mile warranty, a minimum number of Cars.com Service Reviews with an overall 4-star rating in sales or service, and pricing that falls within the RepairPal Estimator.

When dealer is certified, it will be featured on Cars.com and RepairPal.com.

Cars.com encourages certified dealers to use their certified status offline, as well, in their own marketing materials.