AutoFi added Joe St. John as head of dealer success, in November 2016, to shore up in-store training for dealers, Kevin Singerman, chief executive of the online auto finance aggregator, told AFN.
“We realized [AutoFi] not only offers value to dealers for their online presence, but also wherever the consumer may want to transact, whether it’s at a dealership or in a more digital process,” Singerman said. “Because of that, there needs to be adoption and education training.”
St. John was brought on to “be the glue” around creating a dealer success function, similar to software companies that have a customer success function, Singerman said.
“Software has moved from a license model now, to a monthly rental, so you’ve got to earn your business every month,” he added. St. John is tasked with teaching the dealers how to walk consumers through the AutoFi application process online or on an iPad, while at the dealership.
Prior to joining AutoFi, St. John was director of training for F&I solutions provider Innovative Aftermarket Systems, and before that, he worked in various dealerships throughout Oklahoma — including as general manager of Jim Norton Toyota of Lawton.
“We felt like it was very important to have someone from the industry, who believes that there can be a new way of doing things, where the dealer can win and the customer can win, and be able to talk their own language,” Singerman said. “So that’s a function that we’re building out, where the auto expertise is going to be very important to us — we just didn’t have that.”
