F&I and Showroom, October 2016

www fi magazine com 16 F I and Showroom October 2016 Prime Now Drive Now event where you can book a test drive online he said of the pilot program for Amazon Prime members which launched 11 days before the panel session Theyll bring the car to you without having to ever visit a dealership So the fact of the matter is the big guys are making a lot of moves to go more online Driving the digital push is a chorus of studies pointing to consumer dissatisfaction with the current dealership experience The one referenced most often is Autotraders Car Buyer of the Future study Released in March 2015 it showed that only 17 out of the 4002 consumers the firm surveyed in the summer of 2014 preferred the current process Cox Automotives MakeMyDeal also studied the F I experience in its 2015 Finance Insurance study The firm found that 83 of the 500 car shoppers and buyers surveyed were interested in learning about F I products before entering the dealership and if they could 63 would be more likely to buy F I products Thorpe whose firm offers a customizable electronic menu called Fusion remained unconvinced that moving the F I product sale online is the answer I want to see some hard data that indicates that by going down this road were going to sell more products were going to be more profitable and were going to have happier customers Thorpe said If you cant answer those questions in the affirmative then you need to be rethinking FIXING THE EXPERIENCE American Guardians Daniel Lievrouw expressed mixed feelings about online F I presentations Do I think what MakeMyDeal is doing is the future I think we know its gonna go there at some point in time he said The online explanation of benefits doesnt worry me But history tells us all that version 20 will be And heres what it costs And thats where it really worries me Several months prior to the P A Leadership Summit on the show floor of the 2016 NADA Convention Expo product providers Zurich and Allstate offered a similar assessment of the online F I push We are pretty confident that in the very near future all of this is going to be online said Vincent Santivasi vice president of business development for Zurich The one hurdle from a traditional standpoint is dealers have to get past that Dont talk about F I products until the car is sold But if you look at the technology weve developed theres no reason why we cant take this online he added referring to the companys illuminate iPad application and F I sales process Unveiled at NADA 2015 it comes with product videos Santivasi said could be used on dealer websites Allstates new tablet tool GRASP Guided Retail Automotive Sales Platform operates on MaximTraks FLITE platform Like illuminate the system uses a survey tool to collect ownership details and configures a protection package based on the customers risk profile One of the things weve done on the F I side is to try and cut down on the time customers are in F I and help make it a more interactive process for the customer said Allstate Auto Dealer Programs Ron Stouffer CreditMiner a credit data reseller that offers an F I platform designed to prescreen or prequalify consumers for vehicle financing is also looking to change the experience But rather than push the F I product sale online it unveiled at NADA 2016 DealerAR a presentation tool that uses augmented reality Dan ONeil the firms general manager said it can be used in the showroom and in the service lane to illustrate repairs but he believes the tools true calling is in the F I office Whats the first thing a customer says when they walk in the door of the F I office I dont want anything he said If Im a good F I manager I say Listen Im obligated under the law to present to you these offerings If you dont want them theres no problem But Im going to do my presentation anyway Before we get started I want to show you what your manufacturers warranty looks like Thats when the F I manager hands the customer the systems clip on 3D glasses which pulls the vehicle DealerAR is displaying right off the screen The producer then reviews the factory warranty spinning the floating vehicle in any direction while using the tools stylus to highlight components the war INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT Allstate Dealer Services unveiled a new tablet F I menu at the 2016 NADA Convention Expo Called GRASP Guided Retail Automotive Sales Platform the F I selling system operates on MaximTraks FLITE platform It uses a customer survey tool to collect ownership details and configures a protection package based on the customers risk profile Officials said the tool is designed to cut down on the time customers spend in the F I office as well as make the selling process more interactive