In this post, I am going to elaborate on Dealer Systems in the Consumer Space. Every system in F&I must have a counterpart in the consumer space. The diagram below shows the traditional dealer process in orange, and consumer systems in blue.
Each of the six tasks is now, or will be, available to customers online. Obviously, these are web based systems and, for best results, they are also mobile. Each consumer system must:
- Share data with its dealer-system counterpart
- Share data with other consumer systems
- Save deal data for later use
Each consumer system must share data with its dealer-system counterpart. If it quotes a VSC rate, the customer will expect to see that rate on the menu in the dealership. If it obtains a credit decision, the customer will expect the dealer to know about it. There are various ways to accomplish this. In the VSC example, both systems should be reading rates from the same API.
Consumer systems must also share data among themselves. Vehicle data is input to VSC rating, price is input to deal structuring, and the “line five” subtotal is input to credit processing. It’s a good idea to keep a data-flow diagram handy.
Finally, the consumer systems must cooperate to store in-process deal data. Customers should be able to choose which tasks they wish to do online, and then save the deal to be completed at the dealership.
I am mainly addressing new entrants from outside the industry, who may have a good system for one of the tasks, but fail to connect with the others. This may also include dealer groups moving into online car buying, and system vendors like Cox. My chart of platform capabilities is here.
Virag Consulting 