AutoFi is developing its own online educational series to teach showroom staff how to use the startup’s multi-lender, indirect, car-buying portal, amidst a nationwide rollout to Ford franchise dealers, Joe St. John, AutoFi’s head of dealer success, told Auto Finance News.
“We do webinars, we’re currently developing an online training portal that is really robust and has videos and written content to help dealers understand best practices around leveraging the platform for success,” St. John said. “We want to make sure we seamlessly integrate with the way they work, and that they see it this as an addition to what they’re doing — a tool that makes their job better — not something that creates a bunch of friction points and frustrations.”
St. John took up this newly created position in the fall, and has since been traveling to various dealerships to meet the staff in person and show how AutoFi can bring in new and existing online consumers — or be used on a tablet in store. The company doesn’t have a mobile app but rather dealers direct customers to the store’s website.
“One part is technology, and the other is training and development,” St. John said. “It’s getting people in the dealership comfortable with the platform, and understanding some of the best practices that we’re seeing from other pilot partners in order to leverage that, if possible.”
The online widget installed on a dealer’s website allows consumers to pick a new or used car from a local showroom inventory, apply for financing with quick decisioning, trade in a vehicle using Kelly Blue Book or Black Book valuations, and include add-ons all online from their home or in the dealership, St. John demonstrated in a demo to AFN.
AutoFi is also offering e-contracting through DocuSign, which further reduces the time spent in the dealership when a consumer comes to pick up their car, he said.
Training doesn’t stop at the dealer level either, AutoFi is also trying to inform the consumer, he added. As a consumer goes through AutoFi’s car-buying process, it includes various videos to transparently explain concepts like GAP insurance and other vehicle protections that are important for a dealer’s bottom line.
