Team Vigilance Meets Consumer and Dealer Demands with 401Karrs
EFG Companies, the innovator behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, together with Northwood University, today announced the selection of Team Vigilance as the winner of the 2016 Innovator of the Year Award competition, and the recipient of $25,000.
Team Vigilance utilized their millennial mindset, ongoing dealership research, and F&I mentor input to create “401Karrs”. The product addresses Millennial and Gen Z concerns around financial security, and delivers on dealership goals around customer retention. In addition to the team’s monetary reward, they will potentially see 401Karrs developed by EFG for market availability. Team Vigilance is made up of three team members:
Alec Bond from Lindin, MI
Houston Huff from Tuscon, AZ
Lucas Myrhe from Austin, TX
“We want to thank all the teachers and mentors from this competition and across Northwood who’ve been a huge inspiration and motivation throughout this project,” said Lucas Myrhe. “With their guidance, we were able to deliver a product that is beneficial to customers and dealerships, increasing dealership profit, retention, and customer satisfaction.”
Contributing Author: John Stephens Executive Vice President EFG Companies
Can you remember the last time you walked into a fast food restaurant and they filled your drink order? It was a short few years ago when the restaurants started handing you a cup and you dispensed the ice and your drink of choice. The shift happened as consumers demanded a better, quicker experience. Now, order kiosks are being introduced to eliminate further wait time.
While established dealership vendors have built iPad and Docupad platforms to improve the overall customer experience in the transition to F&I, this segment of F&I technology is about to burst with robust competitive offers. Startups are now beginning to appear on the scene with full online financing capabilities. In addition, manufacturers are now investing in online financing technology.
In December of last year, AutoNation launched its first online financing offering, allowing customers to value a trade-in vehicle, determine payments and apply for credit.
In June, CarMax, Inc., the biggest U.S. used car dealer, announced the rollout of a new online financing initiative to help customers pre-qualify for financing before entering the dealership.
In October, Automotive News reported on a dealership in California that was using Express Storefront, an online-buying platform from Roadster that allows shoppers to select a vehicle, get approved for credit, sift through F&I options, and set up vehicle delivery.
Even Equifax is dipping their toe in the online financing product market. This past month, John Giamalvo, the vice president of dealer services at Equifax, spoke at the National Remarketing Conference, discussing his company’s soft-pull tab that allows customers to get a free credit report without affecting their credit. In his presentation, Giamalvo stated that he sees growing evidence that car shoppers are ready to do more of the financing process online.
Also in November, a partnership between Drive Motors, RouteOne and Dealertrack made headlines with a collaboration that resulted in an online checkout feature for dealership websites. The feature allows customers to structure their deal online before finalizing and taking delivery of the vehicle. This creates a 24/7 sales funnel, where customers submit their information at any time of day or night. The information automatically populates into the dealership’s Dealertrack and RouteOne platforms, saving an enormous amount of time in the store.
95 Percent of Clients Would Proactively Recommend EFG
EFG Companies today released the results of its most recent dealer services client satisfaction study, in which EFG’s net promoter score* ranked higher than Nordstrom, USAA Banking and Insurance, Ritz Carlton, JetBlue, Apple Laptops, Amazon and Netflix.
Among the key findings of EFG’s client satisfaction survey conducted by national research firm Troubadour Research and Consulting, EFG’s performance was rated highest in those areas that are considered the most important among the company’s client base: compliance oversight, engagement, and F&I training. On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the highest for attributes in a given area, dealers ranked EFG as:
6 for account representative engagement;
7 for compliance oversight; and,
2 for F&I training.
Research study participants noted the high quality and depth of EFG’s account service team as one of the company’s greatest strengths, describing EFG as a true partner with “skin in the game” who cares about their account and is focused on maximizing compliant profitability. Training and compliance were deemed as the most critical service provided, along with reinsurance. On a ten point scale, EFG was rated:
