Pelican Auto Finance LLC is bolstering its service to dealers by extending its hours of operation and working to give sales reps more authority in the field, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer Joel Kennedy told Auto Finance News.
“We’re spending a lot of time looking at interactions and how we have our boots in the field,” Kennedy said. “The sales reps do quite a lot on a daily basis to try to help with educating the dealer on what our program is, and quite frankly, that’s where we get a lot of feedback to make changes to our process.”
While the deep subprime auto lender has always assigned a specific loan processor to each deal — unlike some companies where dealers could get a different person each time they call, Kennedy said — Pelican has extended its hours until 9 p.m. EST from 8 p.m. EST.
“It’s a matter of when you get to a certain size and scale, and you have enough people within the department that you can cover the expanded hours,” Kennedy said. “We spend a good deal of time looking at the demands and historical call patterns and seeing that, ‘Yes, if we extend it for an hour, it’s going to be worthwhile.’”
Pelican is also working to further empower its 23 sales reps to close deals. “It’s not something we’ve rolled out yet,” Kennedy said. “But you would get a lot of things done working directly with the underwriter, so we’re trying to make it so that the sales rep can do a lot more at the dealership. The dealer says, ‘Can we do this?’ and the sales reps says, ‘Yes I have the ability to make that change for you.’”
Pelican, which is based in Chadds Ford, Pa., and San Diego, does business in more than 30 states and has a $60 million portfolio.
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