Why Your Choice of F&I Administrators Matters

Unless you have self-branded F&I products with an entirely in-house claims and admin team, chances are your store has an administrator that offers all the products and protections you sell. This is probably more than 90% of the market that must choose a provider to handle their offerings.

Picking the right administrator for our F&I products ranks right up there in importance to hiring smart and training well. Your administrator can set the tone in profits, customer satisfaction, and sales process.

What makes a good F&I administrator these days? What should your store look for if you’re thinking of making a change or using one for the first time?

Here’s a couple of hints to help you make the smart decision for your store and your F&I team…

• Deep VSC Knowledge & Experience: If your administrator just opened up shop to make a quick buck and doesn’t have the experience in the nuts & bolts of VSC selling and support, you’ll be in trouble. How they understand this process and the claims piece that comes along with it is critical to making sure your F&I managers have policies that service their customers well and guards against chargebacks.

• Amazing Customer Service: This point should not even have to be made but some administrators fall short here. Empathetic customer service to help a driver navigate the tricky waters of a large breakdown claim can be the difference between your store getting repeat business from that buyer or not. If they are being treated badly through that process, it will reflect on your store, whether it’s fair or not.
• Solid Insurance or Account Background: Experience is key is important here, too. Administrators that have a finance or insurance background can keep the process steady and consistent during the reconciliation process. They will understand and mitigate risk and this helps the overall performance of your products with the consumer.

Choose a company that handles everything, a one-stop-shop. Find one that can give your store all the sales support and training you need and one that can do all the behind the scenes processing, too. One company versus 2 or 3 is not ideal. You and your customers deserve a top-shelf experience from beginning to end. Don’t skimp on this.

Click here to see how truWarranty can fit this bill nicely. One awesome administrator for the challenges of today’s F&I office. We’re not scared. Bring it.