Auto Dealership Financing

Consumer satisfaction is becoming more and more important with consumer dependence on online reviews, which is a trend auto dealerships should be working to their benefit. With traditional financing processes, great service and deals may be overlooked because of the cumbersome and lengthy process it entails – at least when it comes to soliciting positive reviews. Let’s discuss this more by looking at how to eliminate pain points in auto dealership financing processes.

Importance of Consumer Satisfaction and Reviews

Auto dealerships shouldn’t underestimate the importance of online reviews, as we learn from an article on PR Newswire called: “Cars.com Analyzes Dealers Reviews to Uncover Common Shopper Pain Points, National Trends”, written on March 9, 2015, which states:

“Online reviews continue to grow in importance within the automotive industry, with seven out of 10 car shoppers stating that reviews of dealerships are a ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important part of the research process.”

The article goes on to explain that negative reviews are longer and posted faster, and that only “…one-third of all dealer reviews on Car.com are answered.” This means most dealerships aren’t taking advantage of responding to reviews, indicating their lack of understanding of their importance. Also, keep in mind, consumers are looking at other popular review sites as well (mainly Google and Yelp).

Common Pain Points in the Financing Process

Albeit, many complaints have nothing to do with the financing process, yet if this process took minutes compared to hours, or streamlined online shopping with pre-approval and payment options – this would, inevitably, solicit many positive reviews. Generally, as long as consumers are approved and drive off in the car of their choice, they’re satisfied, yet, likely, not enough to leave a positive review.

The main pain points in the financing process are:

• • Length of time it takes (including background ID check and approval process)
  • Filling out long forms (F&I process, clipboards, in-store)
  • Lack of online shopping functionality

Consumers are shopping online for their cars in today’s modern technological world, so it makes sense to make this online shopping experience more engaging and interactive. What this means, when it comes to financing processes, is allowing consumers to get pre-approved online with a soft or hard pull credit check; also, giving them the ability to see the financial terms: down payment, monthly payment amounts, interests, etc.

This type of online shopping functionality streamlines the financing process for auto dealerships, while providing an excellent lead capture marketing technique. When consumers are able to see if they can actually finance the vehicle they want, and what the terms are, auto dealerships will increase their sales conversions 12 times more than without this functionality.

CreditPlus, ID Drive™, and MobiLot™, are eLEND Solutions to eliminate these pain points for auto dealership financing processes. With these cloud based solutions, dealerships gain the online functionality they need to: capture and engage consumers, streamline the financing process in-house, and remotely manage these processes through their mobile devices. And, the pre-approval process, including the financial terms and preferred lenders, are controlled by the dealership.

The Results of Streamlining Financing Processes

As already stated, capturing leads is 12 times more likely when online shoppers are able to easily apply for pre-approval and to see the financial terms, yet wouldn’t this improve consumer satisfaction as well? Indeed, positive reviews would be a manifested result of streamlining the financing process, both in-house and online.

Consumer reviews will only grow in their importance to auto shoppers, as younger generations of tech savvy consumers become the majority of the market; and, older generations will appreciate the contrast with traditional financing processes — making both more likely to become referrals and leave positive reviews. All of these benefits are in addition to making daily workflow processes easier in-house for faster turn-around times.

eLEND Solutions has the products auto dealerships need to keep up with evolving consumer expectations. This is a marketing and administrative solution that integrates easily into existing enterprise systems, giving sales teams, F&I departments, and consumers something to leave positive reviews about. If interested in learning more please contact us today.