When ‘No’ Means ‘Maybe’ at Auto Dealerships, from Wards Auto.
Ten percent of customers who first declined to buy a service contract, ended up purchasing one when a dealership tried again.
“Half of our customers leave F&I without purchasing service contracts,” Breen says.
It happens in dealership finance and insurance offices every day. Despite a thorough aftermarket-products presentation, a buyer declines one or more of the offerings.
That’s unfortunate. Worse, some say, is the failure of F&I to follow up and give the prospective sale another go-round.
“Dealers cannot allow a customer to leave the F&I office without revisiting these sales opportunities,” says F&I veteran Becky Chernek of Chernek Consulting. “The business manager’s feeling once the customer exits the F&I office is, ‘I’m done.’
“They might send a letter afterward, but I don’t see concentrated effort to purse lost F&I sales.”
Dealers should know that once a vehicle is registered with the state department of motor vehicles, the customer information is public knowledge. Service-contract providers aggressively go after those people who started as dealership customers.