By Ray Birch
ATLANTA—Despite all the technology that’s been invested in the process, it still takes far too long to buy a car at the dealership.
That’s according to Equifax, which said lenders, automakers and dealers are going to have to work together more closely to create a streamlined and digital car buying experience.
“We have yet to have one company that solves the entire car shopping and car buying experience,” said Jenn Reid, vice president of strategy and marketing leader, automotive, at Equifax. “We don’t have an Amazon in the auto market yet.”
Why no Amazon equivalent in the auto space? It has to do with all the disparate systems, Reid said.
“The reality is we have a lot of separate technology platforms and separate experiences that need to come together to really be seamless,” said Reid, pointing to dealer websites, automakers’ systems and lenders’ platforms. “All these organizations need to come together.”
As CUToday.info previously reported, progress toward that goal is taking place.
But Reid emphasized the progress is not happening quickly enough for the consumer.
What Survey Found
A new automotive survey from Equifax shows dealers understand digital retail solutions, but may struggle in providing the solutions to customers. Time at the dealership also continues to remain a problem for consumers looking to complete a transaction, particularly when it comes to the financing process. According to dealers, 45% said it still takes between one-and-a-half and two hours, while 31% said it takes between two and two-and-a-half hours to complete a deal.
While 84% of dealers said they offer appointment setting online, only 27% said they can facilitate the entire deal online. Conversely, 87% of dealers admit that customers would prefer to complete a deal online, the study shows.
The online survey polled 135 dealers around the U.S. to get a better understanding of current trends in retail transactions, credit applications, vehicle financing and fraud.
A ‘Distinctive Gap’
Jenn Reid
“There remains a distinctive gap in what dealers are currently offering and what car shoppers want when it comes to the realities of digital retailing,” said Reid. “Clearly, there is a lot of room for improvement in speeding up the transaction process and offering a complete online transaction solution.”
Reid said it is also clear dealers continue to need reliable solutions to help speed credit qualifications and fraud prevention, which continue to impact CSI scores and online reviews, and put dealer margins at risk each month.
“The dealer, automaker and lender need to make sure the information is available for the customer the way they want it,” said Reid. “What I mean by that is, for example, if I'm a dealer and I am going to quote payments online, I need the lenders and the captives to support that on my website. These parties have to come together to make this process work. But I believe this will be solved—the connectivity issues and the partnerships. These things are beginning to be stitched together now.”
What’s Most Important
What’s most important for lenders, said Reid, is to be involved in this progress and to make sure their information is available early on in the consumer engagement funnel.
“It’s about how do I make my information available in a digital auto buying world,” said Reid. “How do I facilitate early funnel interaction with the customer, and how do I maintain that relationship throughout? I think what's big for the lending community is to determine if their lending process is conducive to a more streamlined digital shopping process.”
But as digital car shopping expands, how does a credit union maintain its close relationship with dealers as face-to-face and telephone interactions decrease?
“How do they keep that closeness in a more digital world? It’s by being even more responsive to the dealer. Maybe it's partnering with dealerships to do more proactive campaigning for customers. Maybe it’s doing more data mining though joint relationships,” she said. “The credit union relationship with the dealer has to evolve.”
A ‘Big Blind Spot’
Reid said currently there is a “big blind spot” in the online car shopping/car buying process.
“The problem is with systems and platforms that are not well connected, consumers go through a very different experience on the dealer site, the lender site and the automaker site,” reiterated Reid. “Since these platforms are not connected, consumers often have to restart the process several times. There are barriers around connecting all these things right now. But the dealers are working hard. They know consumers want a more streamlined process and there’s no shortage of investments they're making in this area.”