Welcome everybody to Service Drive Revolution, we hope you’re having a great week! Chris Collins here and I have is Christian Lafferty who is back from a long road trip with his girlfriend, Anette.
Christian tells us that he only dates her for the halibut.
We are going to talk to this guest that found this tool on social media that will help you increase your sales, your retention, and morale of your customers. She helps people live better lives if they do it correctly. She’s a great guest that’s really sweet. We’re going to talk to her and go in depth with her findings so we can improve our life and the lives around us. DigniFi is an alternative purchase option that is changing the way we buy.
Most of the time when they leave, the art becomes past tense. It only was real when they were present and is hard to recreate an insert entirely in one’s memory, our training will have the opposite effect when someone is taking it, ingesting it, and it should be delivered in a way that has a lasting effect. Every tool available should be used appropriately for manipulation at the highest level, hence, psychological magic and understanding life-changing empowering knowledge is contagious to other aspects of life. When someone takes a new tool and gets positive results, they gain confidence, and we all have witnessed a manager have success, then becomes a better father, better husband, better citizen, no longer feeling left behind or irrelevant.
We’re trying to advance the idea of Service Advisor training with real results, but packaging it in different ways that isn’t just the normal unless you took notes or watched it 10 times, you’re not going to retain it. The things that we’re doing are going to help it be retained.
We are fans of LeeAnn Radonski on social media and we follow each other. Today we’re going to have LeeAnn Radonski tell our audience how she helps dealerships, motorcycle dealerships, Marines, etc. I believe she’s an equal opportunity helper in the sense that she’s helping them create more sales and retention.
Here is what LeeAnn Radonski had to say about the work that she does and her position,
“We are in dealerships where we are in the service department. We are in the parts department accessories. We’re in F&I sales collision. We’re in all profit centers of the dealership. We are also now in RV shops, front and back. We’re in Harley Davidson, power sports and now Marine and Boats. I also saw a tractor dealership come through the other day! We are everywhere. We helped to generate more sales and revenue and profits by giving the dealerships and these shops like a revolving line of credit that their customers can come back and use over and over again. Doing this creates retention and it creates customer loyalty. It’s convenient for them to just come in and pay for these things on their dealership loyalty card.”
“When you’ve got different OEMs, you’ve got some of the higher OEMs like Mercedes, BMW, even Toyota. You’ve got these, these customers who have money, really good credit, so you’re going to see them come in, they get accessories and all kinds. We’re getting to be a pretty upscale brand, with Kia, but there are some other OEMs where customers are a little bit more credit challenged and they come in and they need necessary maintenance on these cars cause these are their only cars. When we head over to an RV motorcycle, you’ve got some customers who have really good credit and they’re going to get qualified for higher loans and higher credit limits.
DigniFi is the way to go. So they’re using these on accessories, they’re using these on fun things and we’re there for both. We’ve got options for the ones who may be on the lower side of the credit scale and we’ve also got options for those who are going to be able to get that $5,000 credit limit to go get motorcycle parts, helmets fixed, and explore their options. And I believe that’s like any other industry.”
I definitely agree with her, based on her diverse background in different industries. I believe it’s the same when you talk about inside parts departments, in a Jeep dealership, or in an independent shop, where when you look around, most people are accessorizing and adding onto their vehicles. If they’ve got dirt bikes or they need the trailer, they’re going to need the helmets and all those things.
There’s a way to increase your sales by increasing their options of how to buy it, just traditionally buying it is not the only way to increase your sales.
Additionally, LeeAnn Radonski tells us that by doing this we’re creating customer loyalty because if you have a Lowe’s card, you’re going to need lumber, light switches, or plants.
She also mentions that there are many point of sale lenders that can just take payment for anything, but she’s different. She wants them to have this and she wants them to have no down payment. LeeAnn wants customers to have six months interest deferred, so that they keep coming back. This is what’s important to the dealership, it’s important to the customer, and it is important to us.
I asked LeeAnn to elaborate more about DigniFi,
“How does the industry work that you’re able to loan money for accessories, repairs, and things like that? How do you hedge those bats? Is it at a higher interest rate?
LeeAnn Radonski details exactly what she does at DigniFi and how this is all possible by telling us,
“It’s a Service Platform for matching consumers with lenders for whatever they need. We can do $2,000 cash advance for a trade assist, so if you need a down payment, we can do an instant cash advance for the customer. You turn around and write a check, a swipe, a debit card, and that’s their down payment. They also can go over to the Service Department and put on tires for that car that they just bought. They can go back to F&I, they can buy extended warranties, which now, the way that used cars are right now, how expensive they are. You’re going to need that extended warranty for a little while.
Basically we get the customer pre-qualified through the dealership, the advisor, and the salesperson sends a link to their phone. They click on that link and they pre-qualify for whatever they’re going to get.
There’s two different options we can give them: if they’re approved for $3000 or more, they get a line of credit that they can only use there at that dealership and they can use it for anything that they want. It’s not swipeable anywhere else, they’re just going to be able to keep coming back there. There’s another tier for customers who have a little bit lower credit limit or a credit rating, which is a short-term loan that they’re going to be able to use just one time and that will get them accessories, extended warranties, etc.”
I asked LeeAnn if she’s the middle person and that she then put it out to other lenders. I concluded that she collected all the lenders and she’s serving them up and then offering them the option from what’s available. DigniFi is just one of the platform for financial, she also brings up another one. She tells us that her lender is Web Bank online and that if you’re approved for this card holder, you get six months, no interest. LeeAnn says that you can come back every time the customer spends $350 or more, they get six months, no interest.
As we’re getting deeper into our conversation, I had to ask LeeAnn,
DigniFi is one of those companies that’s trying to make a difference with how we purchase. LeeAnn thought about this for a second and gave us this answer,
“I think that we need to help them make it quick and easy because Service Advisors these days are swamped. We’ve got part shortages, we’ve got people coming in, everybody’s running on their last leg here, and I think that this is something that I’ve heard from both the customers and the Service Advisors. The way we do it is quick and easy, we have the Service Advisors send a link to the customer’s phone, to see if they pre-qualify. It’s completely contactless, which has been really important in the last year or so. I also think that with all these integrations that Service Advisors have been sending videos out to their customers now showing them the recommended services. We’ve got advisors who will give estimates over the phone.
We’re trying to do everything we can to make it quick and easy for the advisor so that they can get back to doing what they need to do because selling financing is not what their main job is. They’re trying to help the customer and get these recommended services that they need. I believe that everybody’s kind of helping back and doing what they’re doing to get out there on the road.”
LeeAnn Radonski reminds us to be upfront with our customers, have open communication and educate the customers. She tells us that it is a very bizarre time in the car industry right now and how we’re trying to do the best that we can, as an Automotive Industry to improve the customer retention and boost sales. In order to do so, just talking about DigniFi will give them more option.
Moreover, LeeAnn thinks that even in terms of customer service and retention, that just offering this line of credit to your customers will improve client relations. She says that maybe they don’t need this line of credit, however, it is definitely a customer service option! LeeAnn concludes that this line is something that customers appreciate and will keep, she understands that it’s all about customer retention, keeping the customers happy right now is everything we need to constantly think about.
What is DigniFi doing correctly?
LeeAnn Radonski builds off of this statement by telling us why this DigniFi’s technique is so important in our industry, she says
“If we see something we’ve got options for you, send them that link to apply to pre-qualify and this won’t impact their credit. When you send them the video text that the Service Advisors and Technicians made for them, just follow that up with the payment plan just in case they want to do this. Just following it up and letting them know that it’s there, is all the difference in the world for a customer. You don’t know the answer of whether they are interested in the line of credit, until you offer. The statistics are 60% of Americans right now do not have thousands of dollars to spend on emergency repairs and 80% of them live paycheck to paycheck. A lot of times, they’re not going to tell you so it’s best if you just say,
“Hey, we offer this to everybody. You can pre-qualify with no hit. We’ll see what is there. And then move on from there once you know what’s going on.”
This is such a brilliant way of tackling the Automotive Industry problems and I tell LeeAnn that there’s two things that happen when you say a lot of our clients really appreciate this. One is, it makes it seem like it’s something that’s popular that a lot of people are doing and that has a tremendous effect on people because most people are sheep followers and then the second thing is if they’re struggling financially, it takes away the shame and that’s a big part of it, it is taking away the shame.
This has been an awesome show and we will forever be grateful that LeeAnn Radonski was able to make it on our show. I believe the skills she taught us today is a huge tool to have in your back pocket and this works because we’re helping people that might not be able to financially afford these services. We’re helping the single mom that can afford it, but needs a reliable car to just get to work or pick up the kids. Lastly, we’re also helping people during this pandemic to be able to enjoy motor sports or whatever it is, to get their minds off of all the negativity and things that are going on right now.
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For special deals on our books and training, head over to HERE and I’ll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution!
If you have any questions about DigniFi, we recommend looking them up and exploring your options!
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We are going to talk to this guest that found this tool on social media that will help you increase your sales, your retention, and morale of your customers. She helps people live better lives if they do it correctly. She’s a great guest that’s really sweet. We’re going to talk to her and go in depth with her findings so we can improve our life and the lives around us.
For special deals on our books and training, head over to HERE and I’ll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution!
Operating your business for more than ten years will definitely require Fixed Operations Consultant (also Fixed Ops Consultant), who will help improve the process and
Automotive consultants are employed by dealerships and other car companies to help in developing their businesses and, in turn, increase profits. They also might work
“I FIND TELEVISION TO BE VERY EDUCATING. EVERY TIME SOMEBODY TURNS ON THE SET, I GO IN THE OTHER ROOM AND READ A BOOK.” -GROUCHO MARX
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