Anxious About Your Automobile Finance and Insurance Office

The relationship between you and your F&I office can be difficult. Although you both want to sell cars, major differences can disrupt the ways you each go about that process. Your dealership may want to focus on customer loyalty and satisfaction, whereas the F&I managers are most interested in short-term profits from protective products. Both are essential for success but may appear to conflict at inopportune moments.

Consider the following as you work toward a more harmonious relationship with your F&I department:

• Hire the right F&I manager. Hiring any employee is a complicated process. While you want to hire someone who is liked by co-workers and customers, that isn’t enough to ensure that your F&I manager is successful. That person also has to have integrity and values that serve your customer base.
• Establish expectations. The new F&I manager will be successful only if they fully understand the scope of the job and the expectations. Responsibilities can vary widely from state to state or even county by county. Keeping this information in writing will allow you to train your new manager and maintain the expectations throughout their employment.
• Keep communications open. Trust is the top value for this role and the dealership as a whole. You need to ensure that both the sales floor and the F&I department feel comfortable communicating with one another. Without this aspect, significant misunderstandings may affect the customer experience.
• Foster teamwork between departments. To that end, it is critical to foster a sense of teamwork between these departments. Even if the short-term goals appear to be in conflict with one other, the long-term benefits of these aspects of the business working together will be visible over time.
• Consider performance metrics. Like any business, it is critical that you utilize performance metrics to measure the success of your F&I office, team, and managers. The department should be monitored daily to ensure that goals are met. The manager should provide a monthly summary to improve transparency and accountability.

Are you unsure where to start to determine the right manager for your F&I department? Call us to learn how to find the best person for this job and your dealership.