Company Ranked in the Top 25 Quartile Across All Industries Nationally
EFG Companies, the innovator behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, announced today that it is the only F&I product provider to be named to the BenchmarkPortal “Top 100” call centers for 2016 – and is ranked in the Top 25 quartile for call centers with 5-50 staff members. The BenchmarkPortal “Top 100” competition compares the performance of contact centers throughout North America by evaluating their key metrics against industry peers.
Based entirely on statistical comparison to the world’s largest and most respected database of call center metrics, the BenchmarkPortal “Top 100” competition can objectively identify centers who are achieving superior results both in financial and qualitative terms. Throughout its nearly 40-year history,EFG has continually demonstrated their commitment to exceed customer expectations. The company’s average claims call speed to answer is less than 30 seconds, 67 percent of total claims are one call claims, and 96 percent of all claims are paid within one hour of receipt of invoice.
Richard Christensen Vice President of Product Development EFG Companies
OEM and Reinsurance veteran leads the next chapter in the company’s heritage of industry-leading innovation
EFG Companies, the innovator behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, announced today the addition of Richard Christensen as Vice President of Product Development. Christensen offers a wealth of direct experience in initiating and launching corporate strategic initiatives with companies like Hyundai Capital America and Nissan North America. In his previous roles, Christensen has overseen the launch of global strategic alliance formations with product, brand development and rollout, in conjunction with development of sales processes, reinsurance models, and regulatory and compliance practices. This experience will be well utilized as he leads the strategic efforts of EFG’s product development team, including product lifecycle and relationship management.
With over 25 years of retail and wholesale automotive and reinsurance experience, Christensen most recently served as a Senior Director at Hyundai Capital America (HCA), where he was responsible for launching and managing a captive insurance subsidiary of HCA. He also served as President, Nissan Global Reinsurance, Ltd based in Bermuda, and functioned as a Sr. Manager of Vehicle Service Contracts for Nissan North America, in Los Angeles.
“Today’s dealers are under an immense amount of pressure, from undertaking stringent compliance initiatives to incentivizing new consumer groups to enter an automotive market with ever higher entry-level price tags,” said John Pappanastos, President and CEO of EFG Companies. “Dealers need agile partners who are constantly looking ahead to see where the industry is going and to look at new challenges as opportunities to increase dealer profitability. At EFG, we consider ourselves one of those partners. The addition of Rick to our leadership team strengthens our position in leading the industry in terms of product innovation and administration of quality consumer protection products that benefit consumers, dealerships and the industry as a whole.”
“Dealerships and lenders need better ways to connect and retain purchase behavior with a more informed and demanding consumer,” said Christensen. “We’re doing very progressive work that is aligned with our goals of leading the industry in focusing on customer service and consumer benefits, with an eye towards compliance and sales process for the dealers and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Contributing Author: Hollis Goode Regional Vice President EFG Companies
How comfortable is your sales team with asking for cash down payments on every transaction?
With the plethora of $0 down advertising, it’s become more commonplace for customers to expect to put $0 down on their vehicles. However, as any F&I manager will tell you, this makes it more difficult to secure a loan that is beneficial to both the dealership and the customer.
Take a look at the deals coming to the F&I office. If more than 20% of those deals are for $0 down, then there is a breakdown between your sales staff and the F&I desk.
Granted, the sales team might find it difficult to broach the subject. After getting a “no” once, they might give up, assuming they can’t negotiate. This mindset needs to be overcome in the same way you train your sales people to ask for the sale and negotiate the sale price. The more training and information you give your sales people, the less anxiety they have when asking for the sale, for a down payment, for a trade-in value, etc.
Remember, it is always better to ask than to assume the answer is no. After all, we all know what assuming makes out of you and me.
Company Ranked in the Top 25 Quartile Across All Industries Nationally
