A Better F&I Culture Starts with Correcting These Common Issues

07 Dec A Better F&I Culture Starts with Correcting These Common Issues

Creating a better F&I culture is important for your bottom line and for the synergy with the sales floor. Having a toxic or tense environment can have a cascading negative effect that can also increase turnover and impact the CSI scores from your buyers.  

What does your dealership do now to ensure a positive and supportive F&I culture? Is it something that is at the forefront of hiring decisions or is it ignored until there is an actual problem or incident that must be dealt with?

Here are some things to consider when doing a ‘culture inventory’ in your F&I department:

• Ego – Is it running wild with some on staff? Do you have managers that boast too much or throw their PVR stats around to make others feel bad about their own performance. Confidence is one thing, too much bragging can be deflating to others.
• Office Politics – No, not actual politics. But the kind that can set up adversarial relationships with others in the department. Leveraging relationships with other managers to get ahead, manipulation, etc.  Never a good thing.
• Lack of Transparency – Management not communication well can stifle performance and cause problems. Make sure everyone knows the expectations and rules…and that they apply to everyone. Don’t hide critical information.
• Micromanaging Nightmare – No one likes feeling that they work under a microscope. You can manage the F&I staff from a safe distance. GIve them room to do their job but be available when either support or correction is needed. 
• Unresolved Issues – Never let problems fester. Handle them right away by working through conflict management steps either one-on-one or with both parties if there are two managers not getting along. If you see a problem, handle it right away. The longer it goes on, the more it hurts morale and the department PVR/CSI…because at some point, the buyers will notice glaring issues between staff.