It’s time for F&I managers to make use of digital strategies if they want to stay with the times
Have you ever surfed the Carvana website?
The U.S. online-only used car dealer allows you to shop, finance and trade in a vehicle, all from the comfort of your couch.
Click on the “Finance” tab on the Carvana website, and you’ll see words like “no haggling,” “no games” and “shop smarter” pop up.
Once customers have selected their vehicle, they can access tools to determine exact interest rates and monthly payments, and have the option to finance from Carvana, buy for cash or use their own bank to complete the financial transaction online.
The customer reviews on Yelp are for the most part positive, citing speedy and efficient service and visibility throughout the purchase process. One customer even said in a recent review that the service was “as simple as buying stuff on Amazon.”
There’s no dealer factored into the equation — “just you and your mouse,” says the company on its website.
But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for the F&I manager to compete and offer smarter shopping experiences in our digital world.
Rather, F&I managers should take advantage of online tools to stay ahead and keep customers satisfied with the service they have come to expect.
At the Auto Remarketing Canada conference in April, Michael Collins, Senior Vice-President, Lender and F&I solutions for Dealertrack, spoke about the changing automotive retailing and lending landscape, and how millennials (those born between 1980 and 2000) fit into the picture.
Collins said dealers are already clashing with the next generation of buyers, who have their own set of expectations about the car buying experience.
“It’s not where they come from, it’s how they think,” said Collins in his presentation.
He cited a number of statistics to illustrate his point.
For example, recent research from shows 27 per cent of millennials will refuse to wait 20 minutes for financing answers. What’s more, 22 per cent of millennials are not willing to wait for paperwork and registration.
But according to a 2015 Autotrader study on digitizing the F&I process, around 70 per cent of buyers surveyed are looking to start the finance process online.
Millennials do not want to walk into a physical dealership, only to sit around and fill out long forms and sign contracts — and in some cases, re-enter information they thought they already filled out online.
The only way to get the consumer past that 90 minute sales cycle is to start some of the process online, Collins argued.
And the time to change is now, said Collins. “Millennials are in the market. They’re not coming in five years. We don’t have a lot of time,” he said.
But we don’t need to wait for new tools that are going to revolutionize the financing process.
There’s already a lot you can do on your website to get customers started, which they can complete once they walk into your store.
Your build and price tool should reflect your dealership’s prices and interest rates — not those of your OEM — for more transparency.
Consumers also like plugging in different variables through online calculators, including trade-in value, down payments, average loan terms and leasing. Collins said this valuable data should be saved to help with retargeting.
Electronic contracting is also starting to gain traction to help speed up funding, though it’s more prominent in the U.S. with providers such as RouteOne, Reynolds & Reynolds and CDK Global.
Collins said that Dealertrack in the U.S. offers electronic contracting with a mobile review and sign functionality for iPad and Android tablets.
In addition to speeding up funding, electronic contracting also helps create compliance by reducing the potential for errors, lost documents or missed signatures.
Whatever you think works for your store, now is the time to start implementing it.
