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.

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!" 

Clear communication is mandatory in good business. It's the foundation of proper customer service and acts as an indicator of whether or not the business is functioning as a cohesive unit. In automotive sales, a discrepancy between the sales desk and F&I will cost you customers and your reputation. Customers are naturally wary of car sales personnel and even an honest mistake can be taken as intentional misdirection. There are a number of strategies to streamline communication between your departments, and we've outlined 3 to get you started below.

In order for dealerships to be set up for success, it is important that the Sales Desk and F&I Department are clearly communicating. The two teams might work separately but maintaining a good partnership will be key to maximizing profit and supporting a better customer buying experience. Here are some ways to ensure there is clear communication between both teams.

Poor, or even a lack of, communication between F&I and the sales desk can have a very negative effect on the bottom line of F&I. You might not realize the extent of the problem if you look at the dealership as a whole but studying each department in turn can reveal the truth. No matter how well the sales desk is doing, they're negatively impacting the dealership if they're inhibiting the F&I department from doing their jobs.