These days, you've probably noticed that there's a lot of stress on your F&I department. After all, they're the ones that work on nearly every single sales deal that goes out your door. As with other departments, it's important that your F&I department doesn't function on its own island; this is for the good of the F&I department and for the store. Ever since F&I became its own entity within dealerships, there has been a tendency for an invisible disconnect to develop between that office and the service department.

The Disconnect Between F&I and Service

Let’s get hypothetical: say your F&I manager sells a “bumper-to-bumper” service contract to a new customer. Six months later, the customer returns to the dealership with what they believe is a covered repair. A service advisor reviews the situation and determines that the repair isn't covered by the service contract after all. Suddenly, you've got an immediate conflict between departments that can cause internal animosity—and serious customer satisfaction problems. If this disconnect isn’t resolved quickly and effectively, it will almost certainly lead to lower sales in both departments and poor customer retention rates. This gives the F&I team, the service team, and the sales team fewer customers—and therefore fewer opportunities to make sales. Furthermore, if enough customers have a negative experience like the above example, they are likely to tell other would-be customers not to bring their business to your store. It’s a lose-lose.

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Corey M. Smith

National Fixed Operations Training Manager

NationalAutoCare.com