SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Subprime lender Pelican Auto Finance LLC expects to launch its Customer Engagement 2.0 initiative in 2016, introducing a number of changes to its customer service processes, said Joel Kennedy, chief performance officer.
“We are looking at email and text, and the ability of agents to actually interact directly with the customers via that mechanism,” he told Auto Finance News at the Used Car Week conference. A customer rewards system, as well as mobile payments, e-statements, and the launch of the Pelican app, will also be a part of the initiative, he said. “Deep subprime is very document driven, and very time intensive,” Kennedy said.
The company is looking to decrease the amount of paperwork, and increase self-service options for customers. “Customer Engagement 2.0 is all about giving customers as many ways to contact us, to make a payment, to even make a payment promise,” he said. “If I wasn’t able to make a payment, and had an option to talk to somebody or shoot a text, I’d probably opt for the latter, so we are really bringing ourselves into the current generation.”