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The Online F&I Box is Gentler But Has Better Profitability

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I bet you have never heard a customer say, “I can’t wait to go to the F&I Box.” Well, most consumers don’t know it’s called “the Box”; they know that going into F&I is stressful and time-consuming. They know to put up their guard and push hard to get through the protection offers as fast as possible.

That is where digital retailing is very different. The CreditIQ purchase flow takes, on average, 35 minutes to complete from start to finish. When a customer is on a VDP and decides to start the purchase process, the timer starts with entering just name and email (phone is optional). At that time, a soft credit pull is done and assesses their buying power, so accurate monthly payment range pricing is shown for the vehicle selected. As they move through the process and fill out the information needed for the full credit check, they become pencil perfect buyers and shown actual monthly payments based on their actual credit scores. Add a trade, no problem. Get the trade payoff, easy. Select your finance or lease payment option (margins controlled by the dealer) and then get presented protection product options. 

At this point, they are 10-20 minutes into the process, depending on how fast they type or if they had to search for some information. Customers lower their guard and have time to think/learn more about the value of the products being offered instead of just saying no to get out of the stressful box. The CreditIQ process is a relaxed and easy flow that results in increased purchases of protection products. Some of our clients are seeing up to 8% more deals buying a protection product, all quickly added to the payment for them to analyze. 

As I noted above, we are also seeing a 12% increase in inhouse financing being done. Oh, and remember that since customers see multiple financing offers, they are accepting offers with a full margin spread at a higher rate than showroom buyers. We see anywhere from a few hundred to several hundred dollar increases in profit per deal.

So, YES, the online “BOX” is definitely kinder and more profitable.
If you are ready to increase F&I revenue and be kinder to your customers with true pencil perfect digital retailing, please reach out to us at – sales@creditiq.com or click below to learn more.

Kent Mihlbauer
Author: Kent Mihlbauer