FormPiper Blog

Is Your Consumer Financing Program Where It Should Be?

Written by FormPiper | Mar 7, 2022 8:51:00 PM

Offering consumer financing is a great way to boost your revenue, build stronger customer relationships, and keep sales from walking out the door. If you have a consumer financing program in place, you no doubt have already seen the potential benefit for your business, and you may have already had some success with it. But is your program where it should be? Are you making the most of your consumer finance offerings, or are you missing out on potential sales due to a deficiency in your application process?

To find out, start by asking yourself the following questions.

Is financing an important part of your sales process, or is it an afterthought?

There is sometimes a tendency to think of financing as something you offer to a customer as a last resort, to save a sale or prevent a customer from walking out the door. But the truth is that many types of customers are interested in financing, across the credit spectrum. To ensure your consumer finance program is a success, the financing offer should be a core part of your sales pitch.

Think about it from this perspective. When a customer walks into your store, they are there for a reason. They have at least some interest in your product or service. You want to remove roadblocks between them and that purchase, and provide as many ways as possible for them to reach their purchase destination. Offering financing provides another avenue by which they can get to that endpoint. Even customers who would be comfortable paying upfront may prefer to finance because of the additional flexibility it offers. You should make a point of working with your sales staff to make financing a core part of your sales process, rather than an afterthought.

Is your application process a help or a hindrance?

Let's continue with that theme of making the purchasing process as easy as possible for the customer. Once they decide that they do want to make a financed purchase, the last thing you want is for a roadblock to pop up during the application step. Unfortunately, the consumer financing application process is often a major bottleneck and can become an obstacle between customer interest and actually closing the sale.

The traditional application process is time consuming and difficult. When you or your staff run multiple applications for a customer, you have to enter them separately for every lender. That adds a lot of time to the process and the customer can begin to feel impatient or even embarrassed when they don't get an approval quickly.

With FormPiper, you don't have to worry about that. FormPiper streamlines the application process and allows you to transmit your customer's application details to all applications with a single click of a button.

Are you getting as many applications as you like?

If not, perhaps the problem is with your application process. In our case studies, FormPiper increased finance applications for our clients by 76%, and helped our clients boost their revenue and get 20% more financed sales. We work with your preferred lenders, rather than trying to force lenders on you, and we make it quick and easy to add lenders as needed. That, combined with the immense convenience of our managed and self-managed services enables you to boost your applications and, subsequently, your revenue.

Do you have the reporting you need to substantially improve your consumer finance program?

You have a lot on your plate as a business owner, and it can be hard to find the time to compile reporting regarding your consumer finance process, review it, and implement solutions. FormPiper simplifies this process by putting an easy-to-use reporting dashboard at your fingertips. You'll be able to quickly access all the data you need, saving you time and giving you the insights necessary to meaningfully improve your consumer financing program.

Is your close percentage where you want it to be?

Few things are more frustrating than gaining a customer's interest and then failing to close the sale. Often, that comes down to the application process and employee performance in the sales process. The former issue is something FormPiper addresses, but it can also help with the latter. Leveraging the reporting functionality mentioned above, you'll be able to identify which employees need remedial training to improve their close percentage and target training to those employees only, rather than taking your high performers off the sales floor as well.

The Answer is Clear

The answer to questions about improving your consumer finance process is simple: FormPiper makes things easier for you, boosts your applications and revenue, and helps you build stronger customer relationships. Schedule a demo today and start exploring all that FormPiper has to offer.