Today I want to discuss 5 things the software you use to operate your Buy Here – Pay Here dealership must do. Now, I could take the easy road and tell you it needs to list your vehicles, keep customer information, process sales, print paperwork and collect payments but you already know that. Instead, I want to talk about 5 things some DMS software programs will do that can make
It always comes as a surprise to a dealer when they discover that an employee has stolen from them. And yet, when we ask what they do to monitor their employees and try to deter internal theft, we always get the “deer in the headlights” look. It happened again this past week. One of our client dealers couldn’t figure out why his profits were basically non-existent and he asked for
I ran across an interesting article last week in Business Insider. It was about a survey released in December of last year concerning financial services done by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The survey found that roughly 1 in every 12 US households, or some 17 million adult Americans, are “unbanked”. That means they lack a current checking or savings account. The survey also found that 1 in every 5
Collections are the most exciting activity at a Dealer Controlled Financing dealership. If your employees have properly worked the other processes at your dealership, then collections can be easy. The dealership can maintain a larger portfolio without increasing personnel expense. If your dealership is charging the highest interest rates allowed, extending contracts beyond the expected life of the vehicle, or treats customers like they are doing them a favor by
Collections during the upcoming holiday season always become just a little tougher. We know our Buy Here – Pay Here customers live paycheck to paycheck and, during this time of the year, there are more demands on those paychecks than ever. The cost of holiday meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas or Hanukkah plus Christmas presents and even preparations for New Year require extra money when our customers have very little
Charging late fees is a practice some Buy Here – Pay Here dealers choose to do but an approximately equal number consider to be a bad practice. Those who charge fees when their customers pay late typically look at it as another source of revenue. Those who believe that it is a poor practice will, more often than not, site one or more of the following reasons. 1. Your customers
A month or so ago, I wrote a blog about accepting credit and debit cards for payments at BHPH dealerships. The response to that blog has been overwhelming. I am grateful for the comments, calls and emails I have received. The questions I have been asked have been very good ones and, since I’m sure there are other readers who share those questions, I have decided to respond to them here. The
I got a call from one of our clients who we provide consulting for. “Al”, she said, “I’ve got a problem”. She continued, “I just had a payment rejected for a customer we have set up on an automatic payment plan. I tried to call his cell phone and now the number is no good. We did a field call to the residence address we have on file and the
I wrote a blog post about a week ago on the growing use of alternative payment methods in Buy Here – Pay Here. My good friend Ken Shilson, president and founder of the National Alliance of Buy Here Pay Here Dealers, just wrote an article on the subject, as well. He has granted me permission to republish it here. It Should Be Called, “Buy Here, Pay There”! by Kenneth B. Shilson,
Managing a Buy Here – Pay Here dealership can be like walking a tightrope. A manager needs to balance creating a friendly atmosphere against the need to maintain a business relationship. Potential customers should feel welcome when they come in to purchase a new vehicle and current customers should feel like the dealership cares out about them and what is going on in their lives as they make their payments.
