Why Leveraging Data Reporting in F&I Can Be a Good Thing

Reporting in F&I is always a bit of a tricky subject. Some staff will see it as something that can be used ‘against’ them as something to highlight where they are falling short and, well…that’s usually it. It’s something to be feared rather than something to help in either department efficiency or individual improvement.

So how can your department change that perception and leverage reporting to make everything better within F&I?

Here are a few ways robust reporting can help rather than hurt…

• What’s Selling? - It’s critical to always be re-evaluating your menu regularly to be sure that what you are offering is resonating with buyers. If your bloated, out-of-date menu has too many duds on it, it’s time to look at exactly what should stay and what should go.
• PVR - This is the most important single statistic for F&I managers and is used to determine their strength as closers and serves as the baseline for department profits each month. Deeper analysis of this can help you better reward top performers and help shine a spotlight on staff that may need a boost in training to help raise their numbers.
• Product Penetration - Use this reporting to compare to your department benchmarks/goals and if your staff is not quite hitting the numbers on a specific product, use a spiff to see if they can push to achieving the goal set. Carrot is always better than stick in these situations. Gamify it and you’ll see staff enjoy the extra bonus while striving for better numbers.
• Chargebacks - Now here’s where solid reporting can help protect your department against loss and potentially unethical work habits. If you see one F&I manager with a higher chargeback percentage than all the rest, you have a problem and the data to help you solve it. Use the numbers to address re-training and/or a potential termination as a way to protect your store. Numbers don’t lie and though they may not always tell the whole story, it’s reporting that can fix a bad situation before it escalates.

The trick for any busy dealership is to have a simple and easy platform to monitor and analyze all department data in real-time. It helps ensure that any changes with product or policy can be handled quickly and effectively.

Click here to learn more about how truWarranty can help give you the insights your department needs to know what’s working and what’s not.