The dealership sales and finance process has been built by dealers for dealers. Not consumers., from Driving Sales.
There’s got to be a better way to sell a car. Everyone seems to think so. In our recent dealer survey, 8 in 10 dealers agreed the time it takes to buy a car ought to take two hours or less but most say the average transaction time today is 3-4 hours from meet & greet to funded. The clear majority of these same dealers say that the biggest opportunity for change is to capture more information from the customer earlier in the process.
With the endless eCommerce sites available today, empowered ‘electronic’ shoppers have come to expect the transparency and immediate gratification made possible by the internet. It’s difficult for them to understand why buying a car still has to take so long. Most car shoppers today want to know what their payment terms will be while deciding on a vehicle, so it’s completely illogical that dealerships make it virtually impossible for car shoppers to find financing information online.
Dealers should want to provide an easy, seamless experience for their customers that starts online because that’s where they’re making their decision to buy the vehicle. A connected buying experience that seamlessly moves the customer from the Internet to the showroom to F&I is quickly becoming possible. With new technologies, financing no longer needs to be arranged exclusively as an in-store activity.
