Make F&I Interactive, Whether Using Technology or Finger Puppets

Jason Barrie says his father has no problem with how long it takes to buy a car at a dealership.

“I went with him once, and it took four hours,” recalls Barrie, vice president and general manager of Dealertrack, an F&I systems provider. “He loved it.”

He acknowledges his dad is an anomaly in today’s automotive marketplace, where most consumers want a streamlined process and get irked by its absence.

“We’re in an evolution, and the consumer is demanding a revolution,” he says.

The impatient toe-tapping can really get going in the F&I office. Most of the car-purchase paperwork (a typical deal jacket contains 56 forms and documents) occurs there. So does the selling of aftermarket products and the arranging of indirect dealer-assisted auto loans.

Some of that time is vital and unavoidable. But some of it is unduly protracted, especially if there’s a wait to get into the F&I office in the first place.

“This is what’s killing the (auto-retail) industry and causing consumers to say something is broken,” Barrie says during a presentation entitled “Improving F&I Processes to Meet Changing Customer Expectations” at a recent DrivingSales Executive Summit in Las Vegas. (Jason Barrie, left)

He cites a survey indicating one in three Americans would rather go to a state department of motor vehicles office (known for interminable waits), do their taxes or sit in an airliner’s middle seat than go through the hoops of buying a car.    

Vehicle buying on average takes three hours, he says. But time is relative, and Barrie points to the need of “making the most of customers’ time.”

That includes introducing them early on to F&I products by including those on a dealership website.

A study by Cox Automotive, Dealertrack’s parent company, indicates two-thirds of consumers are more likely to buy F&I products “if they can learn about them on their own time,” he says. “Put the information up front and they’ll buy more. Historically F&I is at the end of a long car-buying experience.”

Another way to make F&I more customer-friendly is to personalize it, rather than go through a routine, he says.

The practice of the “300% theory” of meticulously presenting 100% of products to 100% of customers 100% of the time can bog things down and bore customers. 

Barrie also advocates using technology, including F&I-specific software, to expedite the process and keep customers’ interest.

But technology is not vital to do the latter. “I don’t care if you use finger puppets, make the presentations interactive,” says Barrie whose first job was with Disney where he learned “how powerful interactivity is.”