Raising Awareness in F&I

A recent Cox Automotive study found one of the biggest obstacles we face in F&I is low consumer awareness. Customers simply don’t know about F&I products – what they are, and how they bring value. This is one of the single most difficult issues in our industry today, especially as buying habits continue to evolve and more and more consumers want to be fully informed before they ever set foot on dealership property. Let’s face it: everyone loses out when consumers walk through the door with no information. It sets up the F&I manager with an even greater challenge to overcome this awareness barrier and earn the customer’s trust.

So what can we do about it?

We at RoadVantage are making this a priority to assist in educating the public – not just on what our products do, but on why these products are a smart investment for almost every consumer who purchases a vehicle.

To that end, we set out to create a tool that is available and beneficial for all – dealers, providers, consumers. We’ve created a 2-minute entertaining video that demonstrates the value of F&I products in a simple and lighthearted fashion, designed to educate customers and drive interest in F&I protection for their vehicle purchase. Best of all, we are making the video available to everyone, so dealers can use it – free of charge – on their websites, on the showroom TVs, in the F&I managers’ offices, and in their marketing materials. While the video is branded for RoadVantage and features the coverage we offer, the video is available for anyone to use to help customers understand why they should request F&I protection for their next vehicle purchase.

The video is available on the RoadVantage YouTube channel for you to view, share, and download. We are very excited about this project. We encourage our agents to download the video and share it on their own websites, social media, sales presentations and marketing materials. The video highlights the robust coverage in our Preferred line of bundles. Dealers who are selling bundles are the ideal target audience for this sales tool, and by posting this video to their websites and/or including it in their F&I presentations, they can demonstrate not only the value of F&I products to consumers, but also show how their F&I coverage is better than what’s offered elsewhere.

Along those lines, we will also be posting a version of the video without Key Replacement, and without the Hail damage deductible (for states/lenders where these are not options). Please watch our YouTube channel for these other versions.

We hope this video will help to raise consumer awareness and interest in F&I programs, and make the sales process easier for everyone. After viewing the video, please drop us a note at marketing@roadvantage.com with your thoughts about what types of content you would like to see more of from providers to help everyone in the F&I industry raise consumers’ collective awareness.

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