The Road to ROI with F&I

While communication is vital to the success of any organization, keeping a clear flow of communication between the F&I Department and the Sales Desk is essential in a dealership. Negative communication can deliver a stormy impact on employee morale, the profitability of the dealership, and affect the reputation of the dealership's brand. The dealership must make sure that the communication flow between their F&I Department and Sales Desk are active and ongoing. Cohesiveness is necessary to ensure all things needed to keep the dealership in a high-profit margin and a high-level reputation of the dealership's brand. It's equally crucial to keep employee morale high and healthy.

While there are no laws that require you have to hire a compliance officer, there's a chance that without a hyper-focus on compliance, you could wind up breaking actual laws as a result.

Let us explain.

Repeat business is the proverbial 'bird-in-hand.' Your current customers are fertile ground for cross-selling. It's your golden opportunity to wow them beyond belief. Take the initiative, know your customers and understand their needs. Do this and your long-standing customers will remain loyal and your successes will continue to grow. 

Every word shared between salespeople, sales managers and the F&I Department carries with it the power to affect the bottom line. Details are crucial and as one sales manager once wisely suggested to his salesperson, "Land the plane!" 

Dealers often focus their marketing efforts on finding new leads and bringing in first-time customers. While those strategies are important, the most successful dealer managers know that retaining their customers is also essential. We wanted to highlight a few best practices the most successful dealerships leverage to create the ultimate customer experience and increase retention.

Smart business management is preparing for the "What-Ifs." While it's hard to predict sicknesses, it's also hard to predict if an employee will resign. If your dealership is void of F&I staffing, there can be a disruption in your day to day sales operations. Before your dealership stalls out, setting up a "Fill-In" F&I Specialist should be a consideration.

Proper marketing is crucial to the success of any business. From print media and digital ad campaigns to social media marketing- all play a significant role in creating a brand image. However, there is one thing that is perhaps the most important tool for spreading the word about a business. That is customer reviews. 

The term "reinsurance" is confusing, but its concept is not hard to understand. As explained on AutoSuccess, "reinsurance is a separate company, owned by you the dealer, to provide Warranties, Vehicle Service Contracts, GAP, Certified Pre-Owned programs, and Collateral Protection to your customers without having to buy from a third party company."

Did you know that attracting a new customer is five times costlier than retaining an old one? Also, by increasing customer retention by only 5%, you can boost your profits by 25-95%. These statistics apply to all industries, including the automotive sector.

Dealerships are increasingly realizing that transactional, one-time business practices no longer work. They have to focus on strategies to not only attract but also retain customers. Customer retention has positive outcomes for dealerships, including reducing costs, enhancing customer lifetime value, increasing competitiveness, and boosting profitability. This article outlines four ways for dealerships to increase customer retention, and consequently harness its benefits.

While the ignition is the key to starting a vehicle, the sales desk is the key to approaching and earning a customer's trust. It's that trust that helps customers feel confident to commit to purchasing a vehicle. Beyond the commitment to purchase a vehicle, a customer's journey within your dealership is only just beginning.