Tips to a More Streamlined F&I Menu

When offering car buyers your standard F&I menu, when was the last time your dealership took a look at how big the menu is? Could your buyers be overwhelmed with TOO many products to choose from? Is there a case for a smaller F&I menu?

We think so.

The average F&I menu can have as many as 15-20 different products to offer buyers and with such a short amount of time to run through them all, it becomes a nightmare for everyone. Simply put...it’s overload for the customer and the F&I manager.

Here are some tips to help transition from too much to just the right amount and still be able to maintain a high PVR -

• Bundles Are Key: Offer bundles based on the type of transaction. A bundle of products for lease customers centered around appearance (to help reduce high recon fees). Another bundle for second chance/first time buyers that includes payment protection and GAP. You get the picture. A package can be competitively priced and be much faster to sell.
• Audit What’s Selling (and What’s Not): Look at what menu items are not selling well and consider dropping them altogether. Just because you CAN sell it doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for your buyers. Keep the products that have higher penetration numbers and stop pitching what no one's buying.
• What’s Sticking: No one likes to talk about chargebacks but it’s important to know what’s falling off after the sale when deciding what to keep on the menu. If VSC’s are charging back, well that could be a sales/disclosure issue and not a result of too many competing products. But if PDR or alloy coverages are charging back, decide if it’s worth keeping on the menu. Also, if the claims process for some products is becoming a problem (and you know your customer will let you know), think about dropping them.

Every dealership is ultimately tasked with making the F&I process as streamlined as possible while maintaining high revenue. A bloated F&I menu to have your staff wade through is probably not helping. The customers already hate the F&I process...trimming down the menu and making it easier to run through and sell is going to help increase PVR and CSI all at once.

Click here to learn more about how we here at truWarranty can help your dealership trim the menu with targeted bundles and best-in-industry claims adjudication. We’re here to help make F&I easy again.