Brien Joyce
Vice President
EFG Companies
While everyone is following the news coverage of the impact of Hurricane Harvey, the estimated 500 auto dealers in the Houston area affected by the hurricane are already working to get back up and running. According to Automotive News and Wards Auto, dealers in Southeast Texas expect a surge in car buying as people begin receiving insurance payouts for their damaged vehicles. This means that there will also be a surge in auto financing, and lenders will need to be prepared to help dealers manage their time with each customer wisely.
It can be expected that there will be a period of “downtime” while both dealers and consumers survey their homes and businesses to understand the full scope of the damage. This “downtime” provides lenders the perfect opportunity to prepare their operations for when consumers in the seventh most populated market in the U.S. begin car shopping en masse.
One of the biggest challenges during a car-buying surge is simply servicing the increased traffic. Dealers will often extend their hours as part of their overall strategy to capture as many sales as possible. With that in mind, now is a good time to begin preparing your team to work longer hours to ensure auto loan officers are available during longer dealership hours.
It’s also important to remember just how easy it can be to crash an online platform when a large number of users try to use it all at once. Take the time now to work out a solution with your IT team for a surge in online applications sent via your dealer portals and through your website directly from consumers. Preparing your digital platform to have the bandwidth to handle a significant increase in traffic will help make sure you are able to capture as many loans as possible with no disruption to dealer service.