Equifax just released the results of their new automotive survey, which polled 135 dealers across the United States. The survey’s goal was to better understand the current trends affecting the day-to-day interactions between customers and dealerships, including retail transactions, credit applications, vehicle financing, fraud and digital retailing options.
The survey identified a number of challenges for dealerships, especially around unverifiable credit application data and fraudulent transactions. Of the dealers surveyed, 89% handle one or two credit applications a day with unidentifiable information and 76% encounter one to three fraudulent transactions every month.
“Dealers continue to need reliable solutions that help speed up the process with credit qualifications and fraud prevention, which continue to impact CSI scores and online reviews, and put dealer margins at risk each month,” said Jenn Reid, vice president, Strategy and Marketing leader, automotive.
Results of the survey also show that consumer time continues to act as a barrier to customer satisfaction, particularly during the F&I process. In fact, 45% of dealers surveyed said it takes between one-and-a-half and two hours to complete a deal and 31% said it takes two to two-and-a-half hours.
Online transactions are another problematic area for dealerships. The survey found that just 27% of the research/shop/transaction process is made available online before consumers arrive at a dealership, even though 74% of consumers “want a complete deal consummated online before they get to a dealership.” Although 87% of dealers acknowledge that customers would prefer to complete a deal online, only 27% are able to facilitate an entire deal online.
“There remains a distinctive gap in what dealers are currently offering and what car shoppers want when it comes to the realities of digital retailing,” Reid said. “Clearly, there is a lot of room for improvement in speeding up the transaction process and offering a complete online transaction solution.”
