WAYNE, Pa., Aug. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MaximTrak Technologies, the international finance and insurance (F&I) platform provider, announced today that Chevrolet-Buick-GMC and Cadillac (CBGC) Protection, General Motors' Protection coverage group, has selected the MaximTrak Digital F&I Retailing Suite of solutions for its North American Dealers.

MaximTrak's interactive F&I platform, known as FLITE™, helps dealers deliver seamless, efficient, and consistent aftermarket product presentations that save time, promote trust, and engage customers. The system can improve product transparency to help consumers understand how vehicle service contracts and similar investment protection products are a benefit to them.

CBGC Protection chose the MaximTrak platform earlier in the year for its ability to deliver a comprehensive and customizable F&I application that streamlines menu selling, electronic contracting, reporting, and compliance management. Onboarding and training on the application are now being rolled out to GM dealerships throughout the United States.

"Exceptional customer service at the dealership depends on two things: a smooth sales experience and a simplified transactional process. This includes ease of selecting and purchasing a protection plan," said Kenneth Mac, director, CBGC Protection. "Working with MaximTrak's digital F&I e-menu tool is a step in that direction. The technology will streamline the CBGC Protection products purchase with customers and provide dealerships with sales reports on the back end."

The MaximTrak digital suite of solutions consists of four primary product lines:

• MenuTrak™ – interactive digital menus, sales aids, videos, and compliance management
• ETrak™ – e-rating, electronic contracting tools for finance and service lane
• Dashboards™ – customizable reporting tool
• FLITE™ – interactive touch technology, smart survey, decisioning engine, risk profile, and intelligent product recommendations solution
• ServiceTrak™ – service drive menu selling tool for service writers, repair order upsales and vehicle protection options for the customers in the service lane.

As reported in MaximTrak's white paper, The Digital Difference, an investigation of nearly two million F&I dealer transactions using MaximTrak e-menu technology revealed the digital platform was responsible for per-vehicle retail lifts of $538 and 52 percent product penetration lifts.

"MaximTrak is in business to bring to auto retailers innovative F&I technology that increases aftermarket product penetration and reduces the customer's time in the dealership. We are excited to be working with CBGC Protection to deliver these advantages to its dealers," said Jim Maxim, Jr., President, MaximTrak Technologies and Chief Digital Officer, RouteOne.

ABOUT MAXIMTRAK

MaximTrak, a RouteOne Company, offers an all-in-one, digitized platform for flexible F&I and is preferred by leaders in the industry concerned with efficiency, profitability, compliance, and the modern customer experience.  The MaximTrak platform transforms the vehicle delivery process into a flexible, customer-friendly program that converts traditional F&I wisdom into consistent, repeatable, and sustainable results. For more information, call 1.800.282.6308 or visit www.maximtrak.com

WAYNE, PA., June 6, 2017 --  MaximTrak Technologies, international F&I platform provider and technology partner for top names in the industry, has once again been named a Dealers’ Choice Award winner by the readers of Auto Dealer Today magazine, a sister publication of F&I and Showroom.

To vote, dealers and dealership personnel needed to write in providers’ names and then score them on the product or service itself. Scoring also pertained to customer support and service, value, and whether the user would recommend the company to another dealer.

“Regular readers of Auto Dealer Today voted MaximTrak as a best-in-class technology provider in our space – for the third consecutive year,” said Jim Maxim, Jr., President of MaximTrak Technologies. “We thank all the dealers who took the special time to get involved and vote for MaximTrak because of how we impact their business.”

“That dealers went out of their way to voluntarily recognize us affirms to OEMs and our other global partners in the U.S., Canada, China, Australia, South America and Europe that MaximTrak creates world-class F&I experiences that not only handle the challenges of modern F&I but increase profitability and CSI scores.” Maxim added.

MaximTrak, a RouteOne Company, offers the industry’s only all-in-one, flexible F&I system preferred by top names concerned with efficiency, profitability, compliance, and the modern customer experience.

With a comprehensive array of best-in-class products, MaximTrak has redefined the F&I transaction into customizable workflows to meet the demands of F&I Managers, Agents, Dealer Principals, and OEMs around the world. These products include; FLITE™ (interactive touch technology, smart survey, decisioning engine, risk profile, intelligent product recommendations), MenuTrak (interactive menus, sales aids, videos, compliance management), ETrak (e-rating, electronic contracting) and Dashboards (custom executive reporting).

“Using MaximTrak for their F&I processes, dealers deliver a customer experience that replaces any feelings of ‘being sold’ with trust and transparency when offering the best solutions for the customer. This is a significant step in serving modern consumers who demand informed, individualized, and intelligent decisions," Maxim added.

The MaximTrak platform transforms the vehicle delivery process into a customer-friendly program that converts traditional F&I wisdom into consistent, repeatable and sustainable results. For more information, call 1.800.282.6308 or visit www.maximtrak.com

by Ryan Williams - Fidelis PPM

Margin compression attacks from within and without. Every business should scrutinize every process to stop profit leaks and spot margin opportunities.

Be sure to explore these processes:

Service Turnover: Sales’ failure to conduct a professional and well-structured sales-to-service turnover kills retention. Dean Estep, a former fixed-operations training director for the AutoNation dealership chain and current managing partner at Next-Level Automotive Group, has said this is the point where dealers “stumble in establishing a long-term relationship with the customer.” Cox Automotive notes that conducting this turnover results in customers 2.3 times more likely to use that dealership’s service department.

Advisor Engagement: Service consultant Lou Aronica of MSX International says advisors who sell in the lane at check-in may trade nickels for dollars. Don’t upsell customers in the service drive until techs have gone through their vehicles and report their findings. It’s by choosing not to grab for every penny that trust is built. Both revenue and retention opportunity suffer, Aronica says, where a service department pushes advisors to up-sell in the lane during the R.O. creation. “Customers are more interested in getting in and out quickly than about your advisors looking over their car. They come back because of how they’re treated and the perceived value of the service,” he says.

Retention Sales: Stop wasting opportunities. Every retained customer is future service and vehicle business.  Many dealers kick-start retention by engaging customers with discount-priced dealer-branded prepaid maintenance plans they offer or sell in F&I. Does it work? Our studies show the right plan can drive first-year retention by eighty-five percent and two- and third-year rates by sixty-five percent. They also can boost customer-pay repair order averages by $70 each. Those that return these benefits have the following in common:

• Drive consumers to the dealership, especially the service department
• Deliver a positive experience, which encourage customers continue to come back
• Have baked-in accountability tools to measure the lift in customer-pay dollars for each visit, so program ROI is measurable.

F&I: Studies by digital F&I technology provider MaximTrak Technologies, show that use of e-menu technology lifts per-vehicle retail (PVR) lifts of $538 and product penetration  fifty-two percent. When more customers buy more products, especially ones like service agreements, prepaid maintenance plans, and tire and wheel services you build retention and service dollars.

Used Car Reconditioning: Keep an eye on at least two costs here: (1) Holding cost depreciation, which accumulates at an average of $50 a day per vehicle you own until you sell it, and (2) Over- reconditioning. Both accumulate to eat margin. Dennis McGinn, CEO for Rapid Recon, pushes dealers to get vehicles through recon in three to five days to reduce holding costs and get cars to the frontline quicker.  When done, cars sell faster for more gross.

Lost Opportunities: Never give up on Declined Service customers. Call them back the next day, the next week and a month from now – they may not yet have attended to those services. You may find them in a better frame of mind, with more time and even a little more cash.  Consider offering credit services for repairs. Tim Clay, Chief Revenue Officer for Confident Financial Solutions, notes that the service provides a desirable alternative to credit card financing. He notes that many dealerships report a 20 percent or greater increase in monthly service revenues because of signing up for the company’s service.

Ryan Williams is president of Fidelis PPM and DRIV Technologies. Reach him at Ryan@getfidelis.com or visit www.getfidelis.com

By Brooke Fernandez

Radical dealership technology should automatically engage and satisfy customers. It should increase business through traditional and new channels – all along the customer’s purchase journey. It must generate income and repeat business 24/7 without requiring hands-on staff time.

Vehicle service protection is one F&I product line now being marketed and sold via innovative all-digital technology. A self-serve customer engagement platform enables your dealership to market and sell to buyers of high mileage vehicles at any point along their customer journey without F&I having to lift a finger.

Consider these five reasons why technology like this will revolutionize how dealers sell service contracts and re-capture lost VSC sales opportunities:

• No start-up fees.
• Gives dealers a new way to make money without having to rewrite the loan.
• Customers can purchase online by logging onto your dealership-branded VSC site to complete the only end-to-end buying experience of its kind.
• Sales are seamless. Dealers earn commission dollars without lifting a finger.
• The platform automatically mines the dealer’s DMS to identify lost opportunities and remarkets those lost leads to recapture lost revenue for the dealer.

Self-serve online F&I technology like this brings advanced sales throughput to a dealership while expanding its market reach and penetrating new market demographics. It promises to give new and used car dealers a new way to offer protection services to a wider group of customers.

This sophisticated yet hands-off portal resides in the Cloud and the F&I desktop. Customers selecting coverage for their higher mileage vehicles may finance the purchase through a vehicle installment loan or finance it directly through funding sources integrated into this platform. Either way, dealers earn commission on every sale.

A new wave

This portal is the latest example of how technology continues to revolutionize vehicle and F&I sales. From emerging virtual reality engagement devices to shopper behavior analysis, digital innovation promotes, markets, and sells vehicles and ancillary products seamlessly. In cases like dealer-branded self-serve portals, timelessly and tirelessly.

The portal would also expand a dealership’s reach beyond traditional channels and broaden the demographics it can now seamlessly service. Dealers using this technology will see an increase in their VSC sales – and a built-in VSC remarketing engine brings more revenue potential to dealers using it.

VSC closing rates average 35-40%. After separating out the potential lease and cash customers who don’t buy service contracts, most dealers are leaving considerable VSC revenue on the table. Revenue that most dealers rarely pursue after the sale.

Using self-serve digital VSC sales and remarketing technology, dealers can:

• Expand VSC sales into new markets and buyer demographics
• Re-target lost VSC and vehicle sales opportunities; VSC remarketing can typically close 15% of retargeted opportunities. At the average dealer profit on a VCS, the upside is significant.
• Engage customers where they are, at the time convenient to them. No irritating phone calls or direct mail. Instead, providing a menu of plan benefits and prices to mix and match to fit their risk profile and budget.

Dealers can experience this radical new VSC sales engine April 11-13, at the Tampa (Fla.) Convention Center, booth 729 at Digital Dealer 22, the leading technology-based conference for automotive dealership profitability tools.

Attended by 90% of the nation’s leading dealer groups, Digital Dealer Conferences set the pace among auto dealers, GMs, and their marketing and technology staffs to learn how to be leaner, faster, more transparent, and more productive.

This new technology forever changes VSC sales outcomes:

• Provides a powerful tool for remarketing to customers who declined to purchase a VSC when buying their vehicle.
• Helps monetize leads that either did not convert the first time or converted as a vehicle sale but not a service contract.
• Leverages the power of peer review, by providing web-based customer experience reviews from TrustPilot, so consumers trust the site, its content, and VSC providers represented.

ForeverCar is the vehicle service contract industry’s only technology portal providing engaging and intuitive decisioning for consumers, whether interacting with the tool in a dealership’s finance office or online. It is the only portal of its kind that markets VSC sales to a dealer’s customer database to help dealers monetize those original investments.

About the author:

Brooke Fernandez, VP of Business Development at ForeverCar, is a seasoned sales and marketing executive who brings a range of B2B enterprise experience in the technology arena — and now tackling the inefficiencies of the extended warranty market. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a master’s degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Brooke is integral in ForeverCar’s mission to transform the extended warranty space using technology, transparency and big data to modernize the industry.

PLANO, TX, January 9, 2017 – DealerDoc, the solution for out-of-state titling made easy, said today its one-stop online process helps new and used car dealers capture more business from millennial-aged buyers wanting to buy from out-of-state dealers. 

Today, millennial’s make up 28% of the new-car market nationwide, which was almost as many vehicles the baby boomer generation purchased in 2015, noted the Associated Press recently, citing J.D. Power’s Power Information Network.  

Millennial’s comfort level with today’s e-commerce process will effectively mean more will purchase their vehicles at dealerships across state lines. 

Dealers currently generate from 5 to 20 percent of their sales volume from out-of-state purchasers, depending on the franchise and/or marketplace.  These sales are likely to grow as internet e-commerce continues to increase, and lenders get more aggressive with buying across state lines. 

“Lienholders are expanding their buying territories throughout the U.S. as millennials continue to purchase in numbers that are exceeding any other age group.   The reality is these buyers will not let borders limit their choices or how businesses service them,” said Ken Roberts, Founder and CEO of DealerDoc, LLC. 

“DealerDoc’s automated software and titling service ensure dealers will not be held captive by misinformation that often complicates out-of-state titling due to traditional error-prone manual process, but instead gives them the confidence to sell, title and register a vehicle accurately and almost effortlessly in all 50 states,” Roberts added.

This national reach is critical to online retailer Vroom, as it expands its market reach nationally, said Vroom Corporate Controller Todd Wilkinson.  Consumers browsing Vroom.com use the online DealerDoc service to get a quick and accurate summary of their tax, tag, title, and licensing fees to facilitate the purchase of a vehicle. 

“DealerDoc expands our customer base, enabling Vroom to touch every corner of the country. It improves the customer experience with the real-time titling and registration accuracy it delivers, which keeps the deal moving forward,” Wilkinson added.

Dealers serving military families also find DealerDoc a convenient and accurate solution for titling vehicles out of state for buyers based in those dealers’ communities.

“Many of our customers are stationed here in San Antonio but want to register their vehicle in their home state, DealerDoc lets us do that quickly and accurately,” said Mirt Medina, Finance Director for Red McCombs Toyota in San Antonio, Texas, a military community.  “I have had customers buy from us because a competitor didn’t want to bother with their out-of-state titling. DealerDoc is about professional F&I and taking care of customer needs, from A to Z.” 

DealerDoc allows a dealer to send all out-of-state paperwork to one location for processing.  Once DealerDoc receives the titling packet, it’s processed and sent out within 24 hours. 

“Our tool is so accurate that we guarantee all taxes and fees for processing,” Roberts said. 

Using DealerDoc, dealers obtain the correct taxes and fees needed in seconds for quick bank approvals.  It gives dealers the luxury of pre-populating and printing all state-required documents along with a detailed checklists for specific requirements in every jurisdiction - all with just the click of a button. The software guides the manager by only asking the necessary questions for that jurisdiction to eliminate errors and delays. 

“It would be great if every out-of-state lien was recorded correctly the first time, which a service like DealerDoc ensures,” noted Matthew Mulkey, Senior Vice President, Dealer Service Center Manager for CRB Auto, powered by Mechanics Bank. 

“DealerDoc simplifies the entire process,” Roberts noted. 

DealerDoc representatives will be in New Orleans during the NADA convention to discuss how the company’s out-of-state titling software can help dealers market to and better serve out-of-state customers quickly and accurately for closing more of these opportunities. 

For more information or a demo, visit DealerDoc. At NADA, contact Joel Ferrier, National Director at 318-349-0288 or Ken Roberts at 469-223-6321 or email contact@dealerdocusa.com.

INFO.FOREVERCAR.COM/NADA2017

Digital Vehicle Service Contract (VSC) technology provider ForeverCar™ announced today its new dealer-branded VSC sales platform to help dealers sell protection products for buyers of older, higher mileage vehicles while helping dealers recapture “lost” VSC opportunities from prior lead investments.

ForeverCar helps dealers increase the long-term value of their customers while giving customers what they want most today – control over the shopping experience.

At NADA, ForeverCar will present this powerful portal in NADA Expo Conference Room #CR103, behind the Ford Motor Company display, Jan. 26 – Jan. 29, 2017, in New Orleans.

ForeverCar helps dealers drive service agreement sales, service department volume, and customer retention for:

• Franchised used car departments whose existing VSC offerings may not provide many options for buyers of older, higher-mileage vehicles.
• Independent dealers who don’t offer VSCs but now can provide a broad range of plans, options, deductibles, and prices.
• Dealers who want to monetize prior investments in leads by remarketing to those opportunities to convert some into VSC customers, investing no dealer resources – human or digital.

“ForeverCar is the first dealer-branded service contract portal that also uniquely remarkets service contracts to the tens of thousands of leads a dealer has in its database to help monetize some of the 70 percent of vehicle buyers who decline to purchase this coverage.  That is an incredible amount of opportunity to recoup,” said Brooke Schulz Fernandez, Vice President, Business Development.

“Our platform helps dealers give customers more choices for protecting their vehicle investment, and it drives service department visits to build service sales and long-term retention,” Fernandez said. “We designed this tool to deliver solutions dealers indicated were missing from their current VSC sales practices.”

ForeverCar addresses these benefits for dealers:

1. Provides a powerful tool for remarketing to customers who declined to purchase a VSC when buying their vehicle.
2. Helps monetize leads that either did not convert the first time or converted as a vehicle sale but not a service contract.
3. Leverages the power of peer review, by providing web-based customer experience reviews from TrustPilot.

ForeverCar is the vehicle service contract industry’s only technology portal providing engaging and intuitive decisioning for consumers, whether interacting with the tool in a dealership’s finance office or online. It is the only portal of its kind that markets VSC sales to a dealer’s customer database to help dealers monetize those original investments.

At NADA, ForeverCar will present its portal in NADA Expo Conference Room #CR103, behind the Ford Motor Company display, Jan. 26 – Jan. 29, 2017, in New Orleans.

To learn more about ForeverCar and to schedule a demo, click to INFO.FOREVERCAR.COM/NADA2017 or contact Brooke Schulz Fernandez at BROOKE@FOREVERCAR.COM or 1.312.273.8303.

ForeverCar.com media contact:
Anthony Millot
ANTHONY@FOREVERCAR.COM

By Jim Maxim, Jr.

I want to present here five F&I performance calculations that if you regularly work them and respond appropriately your F&I department will produce more profit. First, all business and industries when measuring performance or production use metrics called Key Performance Indicators (KPI). 

We will look at five F&I metrics considered the top five KPI’s in the F&I industry. KPIs reveal how you’re doing – and help identify any issues or problems to address. Since money is involved here, tracking and measuring these KPIs should be mastered by every dealer and F&I manager.

Healthy F&I departments and their managers work at mastering each of these metrics:

1.PVR is Profit per Vehicle Retail in dollars. This calculation is Total Dollars Profit = Finance Reserve + F&I Product Income ÷ by Total Units Sold

PVR is the most popular F&I metric and KPI. Most experts in the F&I industry would agree that PVR is King and is the most common metric referred to in measuring F&I performance.  The goal and objective are for F&I to achieve higher PVR.

How to improve PVR: Given today’s downward pressure on financial reserve, hope for improved PVR rests on the F&I manager’s F&I product sales penetration. Consumer buying behaviors have changed over the years. With consumers owning and keeping vehicles longer, many protection products now offer more value to them. Consider training the F&I team about these changing consumer buying behaviors and how they change customer wants and needs. 

F&I managers must change how they present F&I products, so product value is evident in the buyers’ minds.  Perhaps the most powerful tool F&I managers are using today that helps increase PVR is an F&I menu presentation system.  In 2015, MaximTrak did a survey of dealers using its e-menu technology that showed the digital platform responsible for per-vehicle retail (PVR) lifts of $538 and 52% product penetration lifts. 

2.Individual F&I Product Sales Penetration (%) is the # of F&I Product Sold ÷ Total # Vehicle Units Sold. For example: 60 VSC Sold ÷ 100 Units = 60%.

Notes:                                         

• Vehicle Service Contract - most popular of all F&I products
• VSC – most profitable in dollars
  - impacts other departments in the store like parts and service
  - good if the vehicle comes back with a trade

How to improve penetration: Developing new skills and product knowledge through training can help F&I staff make incremental improvements by learning new ways to engage with customers, build rapport, and offer what customers truly value. 

For instance, F&I managers that interview the customer by asking questions better understand customers’ needs for F&I protection products.  Top F&I performers interview the buyer and then perform a thorough needs analysis before doing a menu presentation. 

Electronic F&I menus are now incorporating “smart survey” techniques that analyze consumer responses based on a lifestyles survey. Smart surveys capture answers to the questions F&I typically would y ask a customer. These surveys can be incorporated in the sales process while sales finalizes the deal for F&I.  Smart surveys identify respondents’ lifestyle traits and provide F&I information on the customers need for protection products. Smart surveys include a system that “learns” about the customer - their driving habits, ownership plans, risk profile, and more. The result helps consumers – and F&I managers - recognize what optional protection products would bring the most value to them. 

This technology: 

• Reveals to buyers and F&I about customers’ personal risk analysis and compares it with the protection products offered at the dealership.
• Provides insight into customers’ driving habits and ownership plans that help in understanding customer buying behaviors and interests.  This helps give dealers valuable insight into the F&I products that appeal to its customers and the products or services the customer is most likely to consider purchasing.
• Dealers can utilize data to determine the products F&I should offer. This helps dealers in working with its vendors in designing new products and services for F&I to offer customers based on their needs and interest in buying.

Technologies like this that helps to match customers to the right products can make less experienced F&I managers more confident and responsive when discussing protection products with their customers. 

3.Average F&I Products Sold per Unit is Total # of F&I Products Sold ÷ by Total Vehicles Units Sold. For example: 250 F&I Products Sold ÷ 100 Vehicle Units Sold = 2.5             

How to improve products sold per vehicle: Having a third or fourth product presented to every customer every time is the third leg of a strong F&I product offering. For your dealership, this might be a dealer-branded prepaid maintenance plan or a bundled package of protection productsPresenting a fourth or fifth product can increase F&I penetration and PVR, but also customer retention and service sales.  A high-end menu system will ensure the right products are presented every time. Ask your F&I agent for new ideas to help you increase the number of products sold per deal.
 

4.Ratio between Finance Reserve Gross and F&I Product Gross – there are two calculations here: Finance Reserve Ratio (%)  = Total  Finance Reserve $ ÷ Total F&I Gross $, and
F&I Product Gross Ratio (%) = Total F&I Product Gross $ ÷ Total F&I Gross $.                         

Goal and objective are to have a higher F&I product gross ratio -This is because the sale of F&I products provide these values:

   1. Customer retention for the dealership
   2. Tangible values to the customer
   3. Higher resale value on the vehicle.
 

NOTE: Finance rate markup provides zero value to the consumer
 

How to improve product reserve/gross ratio – Improving the sale of retention-building products can help boost these key ratios. VSCs, prepaid maintenance plans, and other products that link buyers back to the dealership help build retention and drive service profits. F&I can increase sale penetration of such products by gaining more knowledge of how these products benefit the consumer and gives F&I confidence in presenting their value in compelling ways; if buyers see F&I is not bought into these products’ value, why should the consumer want to buy?  Utilizing state-of-the-art interactive sales tools like incorporating a Factory Warranty Review presentation using visuals that include graphs helps sell VSC products. 

5.Menu Utilization – an indicator that shows the frequency in utilizing a menu presentation system for offering and selling F&I products: Total # F&I Menu’s Printed ÷ Total Units Sold = Menu Utilization %. 

F&I menus are generated by F&I managers as either paper or paperless menus.  Electronic F&I menu systems now have reporting available that tracks F&I managers using an F&I menu presentation system and sales tools that include:

• Needs analysis interview
• F&I product sales tools that include graphs and videos
• E-F&I Menu presentation, either printed or electronically prepared and signed.
• Waiver form for products accepted and declines, either printed or electronically prepared and signed.

       Notes: 

• Instead of measuring utilization based on # or units, electronic F&I menu systems can measure time. Measuring time helps to evaluate F&I managers’ use of various sales tools, capabilities, and functionality that come with e-F&I menu systems.
• Measuring F&I manager utilization of all resources that come with an e-F&I menu system helps
  support F&I menu training.  Measuring F&I manager utilization of a menu system provides for an effort-based reporting tool.
• Menu utilization measures for quality results while F&I production measures quantitative results.
• High usage of an e-F&I menu system and all the sales tool that come with the system can correlate to increase F&I production and profits for the dealer.

Manage by facts

Using data to manage a department eliminates subjectivity and emotion and helps managers focus on reality. The reality is within the data accessible from the store’s dealer management system or third-party F&I software platform. 

You will find these reporting tools very useful: 

1. F&I Menu Reporting –   F&I reports created with data generated from e-menu systems.
2. Dashboard Reporting – Dealer reports generated through F&I platform integration with the DMS.
3. Distributor Reporting – For enterprise reporting from the platform for dealer groups and their F&I agencies.
4. Utilization Reporting – Reports created that measure F&I managers the use and efforts of an F&I menu system as a tool for selling F&I products.
5. Delivery-Type Reporting – Digital sales report analyzing in-store and online F&I activities and sales. 

Many changes are taking place in the automotive industry. We are seeing more OEM’s manufacturing and introducing EV’s in the marketplace. This may suggest the need for tracking the sale of F&I products by vehicle type.  This report, whether standalone or part of the dealer’s dashboard reporting, tracks the sale of F&I products across various channels, e.g. online versus in-store. This will be an important metric to watch as we move forward more deeply into the digital dealership.

Automobile dealers face many challenges in running their business. The competition for customers today is greater, and profit from the sale has been thinned by the OEMs. This has resulted in the need to generate more revenue from F&I to make a deal profitable.  Now, dealers also are facing the risk and loss of revenue from finance reserve and possible increasing regulatory pressure for add-on pricing as well, from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

With dealers facing more competition for customers, thinning profit margins, and potential loss of F&I revenues, dealers will need to depend more heavily on real-time data. These KPIs, when put into detail reports,  gives management crisp direction on how to make informed and intelligent business decisions for running the business and improving the dealer’s bottom line. 

Jim Maxim, Jr. is President of MaximTrak Technologies, www.maximtrak.com.  Reach him at maxim@maximtrak.com

By David R. Missimer

Dealers often ask us how they’re to respond to someone requesting information about why the dealership ran their credit.

The nature of these requests is one of two motives:

• The consumer is demanding to know why the dealership ran their credit, or
• The consumer is a victim of identity theft

The dealership may receive requests for information from a phone call, correspondence from the consumer, correspondence from an individual claiming to represent the consumer or law enforcement.

The response is conditioned on whether the request is for identity theft information, or concerns previous credit inquiries by the dealership.

Usually for most franchised dealers, our recommendation is simple and straightforward – reply as the dealership, as it is the “User” of the credit report and not a “Furnisher” of information under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

However, and to be clear, if the dealership finances transactions (BHPH) or reports information to consumer reporting agencies on particular consumers, the dealership then is a “Furnisher” under FCRA and has very different obligations to investigate and respond to claims from consumers.

This article addresses the requirements the “User” of a consumer report must respond to consumer inquiries.

The previous credit inquiry

Frequently consumers will question a credit inquiry from the dealership that shows on their credit report will be to demand it be removed, or that information be sent to them verifying the dealership had a permissible purpose of requesting the consumer report. The dealership’s only obligation is to verify it had a permissible purpose of running credit on the individual. This can be accomplished by locating the signed credit application in either the deal file or dead deal folder.

Once you confirm a signed credit application for the consumer, the only response required is to advise the individual that credit was run at their request and the dealership has a signed credit application on file.  Do not send, email, or fax a copy of the application to the individual inquiring.

Once the dealership is satisfied that appropriate documentation exists for the credit request, nothing further is required. The only time a consumer should be provided a copy of their signed credit application is when you are 100% certain they are who they say they are, or in response to an identity theft claim.

Identity theft

Under FCRA, the User of a credit report must provide certain information to a victim of identity theft, law enforcement officials identified by the victim, or authorized individuals investigating the claimed identity theft on behalf of the victim. Before providing any information, however, the dealership must receive a written request for information, and verify both the identity of the individual claiming to be a victim of identity theft, and the theft itself.

A request for information from an Identity Theft Victim must:

• Be in writing, and
• If not initially provided, then at the dealership’s request, include available relevant information concerning the alleged Identity Theft, including the date of the transaction and any other identifying information.

Once an acceptable written request is received, the dealership must verify both the claim of identity theft and the identity of the person claiming their identity was stolen. To prove the claim of theft, the victim must provide a copy of a police report and a completed Identity Theft Affidavit.

To check the identity of the person making the theft claim one of the following, at a minimum, must be provided:

• A government-issued identification card;
• Personally identifiable information of the same type provided the Dealership by the unauthorized person; or
• Identifying information typically requested from customers financing their purchase.

Once the victim has made the request, and both the existence of a theft claim and the claimant’s identity have been verified and only then, must the dealership turn over information concerning that transaction.

The next time a consumer contacts your dealership demanding you take action concerning their credit report don’t panic. Follow the above guidelines and respond accordingly.

The consumer may not be satisfied with your response to their prior credit inquiry, but can take no action against the dealership that ran the bureau for a permissible purpose. If that consumer believes another used his or her identification at your store, let them take the necessary steps to report it as identity theft.

The easiest identity theft scam in the world is to contact a creditor and demand they send a copy of the credit application.

For more information on this subject, contact the author or visit www.compliantnow.com.

David R. Missimer, dmissimer@compliantnow.com is General Counsel for Automotive Compliance Consultants Inc. He spent 28 years in private practice as a seasoned litigator and trial lawyer representing lenders, auto dealers and numerous other entities and individuals. He has worked with dealership compliance issues since 2003. He joined Automotive Compliance Consultants in 2003. He is a member of American Financial Services Association and National Automotive Finance Association as General Counsel of Automotive Compliance Consultants Inc.

A new white paper from MaximTrak Technologies leads auto dealers into the present and future potential of digital F&I platforms for improving F&I profitability and customer satisfaction. 

“The digital revolution has influenced F&I best practices for more than a decade, led by digital cutting-edge e-menu technology. Today the industry is being driven by multichannel, high-touch, visual tools that integrate with the industry, use predictive technology, are easy to use, and engage consumers proactively in the F&I experience,” notes Jim Maxim, Jr, president, MaximTrak Technologies. 

This new report notes recent results of dealers using digital technologies to boost PVR and aftermarket product penetration. Across a study of 270 dealers and 1.5 million transactions, PVR increased $538 per deal and service contract penetration lifts of 52% per deal.  

“Every dealership I talk to wants new opportunities to maximize F&I profitability. Those dealerships that embrace the right technology experience better results…more than they thought possible. Profitability is not elusive…it is a choice,” Maxim says. 

Click here to download this report (http://offers.maximtrak.com/future_of_f-i). 

This white paper also details MAXIMTRAK FLITE, a digital platform that combines a state-of-the-art touch screen, tablet technology, and a unique “smart survey” with MaximTrak’s fully integrated, compliant and comprehensive system. It is designed to put the F&I customer in control in a whole new way. With FLITE, a buyer’s entire buying process is enhanced and streamlined with interactive videos, surveys, product recommendations, package building, and more. With the flick of a finger, customers are guided through a consistent, frictionless, and enjoyable sales experience transforming the vehicle delivery process and driving dealer profitability. 

To learn more and for a personal demonstration, contact 1.800.282.6308 or email sales@maximtrak.com. Click here to download this report.

More than 100 companies at NADA this year marketed products and services aimed at making fixed operations more efficient and profitable. The big question coming out of NADA is this: did dealers grasp onto the better ideas to help them eliminate costs, improve service volume, and increase customer retention? 

“If not, that’s a big miss,” says Ryan Williams, president of Fidelis PPM, revenue- and retention-building prepaid maintenance software. “Dealers should already be investing in solutions that create new revenue streams and then hold on to it.” 

Coincidently, international sales strategist Grant Cardone, a name well known in automotive retailing, shared similar caution, in his article “Prepare for a Massive Recession,” in Entrepreneur magazine.  “Don’t wait for it to get here - operate like it is here now,” Cardone wrote. “Stop ALL spending except on those things that can increase income. Do NOT spend to consume; spend only to increase income. 

With monthly proven ROI and 20% service growth, products such as prepaid maintenance programs meet these criteria, Williams says. “When programs like this can deliver a three-year retention average of 68% and $70 per RO upsell, their contribution to a dealership’s profitability can be enormous.” 

 Dealers should ask the following when considering products or services that are being offered: 

• Does your retention program drive consumers to your shop?
• Is the customer experience it delivers positive enough, so they come back again?
• Are there accountability tools baked into the solution to measure the lift in customer-pay dollars for each visit, so program ROI can be proved? The dealers Williams met with at NADA were actively gauging vendors’ service-profitability ideas. They were also seeking advice about solutions that didn’t require them to reinvent how their service department operates.  

Programs that enhance existing processes, such as prepaid maintenance plans that drive buyers back to the selling dealership, help retain customer business and keep service bays occupied. Such plans produce: 

• 85% first-year retention, 65% each of the following two years
• $70 customer-pay upsell per repair order
• On average $1,105 in customer-pay service business a year with you, for the majority of the six years consumers own their vehicles today 

“Every decision a dealer makes about an investment factors in at least two objectives: How will it streamline operations to remove waste and cost, and how will it drive service volume, retention, and thus revenue,” Williams notes. 

“If a dealer isn’t evaluating purchases for their ability to achieve both goals, dealers leave potential revenue on the table. That’s not the way to situate the dealership for leaner days ahead.” 

Williams notes that most any vendor’s service offering, especially from those marketing prepaid maintenance and related programs, must offer the dealer measurability. 

“Most programs cannot substantiate their retention promises, and dealers putting faith in such plans have misplaced hope,” he says. 

Fidelis PPM is the authority in helping dealers retain customers through process-driven prepaid preventive maintenance retention programs. These programs drive consumers into participating dealers’ service  departments. Deep reporting tools provide dealers with detail-rich accountability metrics.

For more information, visit www.getfidelis.com    or email Williams at ryan@getfidelis.com