When it comes to running a successful business – and establishing an effective consumer finance program as part of that successful business – there is no substitute for effective team members who have fully bought into your business vision. Getting the right crew in place, and getting them to buy in all the way, will be a pillar of your success in any field.
And yet, even if your team has fully bought into your business vision, you still need to ensure they have the training necessary to deliver on it, specifically in the area of financing for your customers. You probably already know how important the success of your consumer finance program is to your overall business outcomes, and that means training your team to deliver on the key tenets of your program is critical.
With that in mind, here are a few quick tips for upskilling your team on consumer financing to develop stronger customer relationships, boost team morale, and put more money in your pocket.
Tip #1 – Trust your gut.
You hired your team members for a reason, and you built your business a certain way for a reason, too. If you’re in a successful position with your business, then it’s OK to trust your gut when it comes to training your team members on consumer financing. You know instinctively what is working and what isn’t when it comes to your consumer finance program, and you can sense where the gaps are that are costing your revenue.
Trust your instincts as a business owner or decision maker and deliver training that is targeted with one key objective in mind: improving your consumer finance program to boost revenue and increase customer loyalty and retention. Loyalty and retention aren’t exactly the same thing, by the way; a retained customer may still be dissatisfied with your business in certain respects, and may not provide you with the same kind of glowing recommendation as a truly loyal customer. Upskilling your team members to refine your consumer finance program to the utmost can help you build loyalty among customers that goes beyond retention and becomes a tool for marketing.
Tip #2 – Aim your training.
If your consumer finance program is running right, not every team member will need finance training. In many cases, training related to your consumer finance program will be remedial, and based on observations of employee behavior that you want to correct (e.g., not offering financing as an option to every customer, every time). It is to your benefit to keep the employees who are already doing well on the floor, and devote training time only to those who need a little help.
In many cases, you will know from experience who needs the training. But to get really precise, especially across larger teams and multiple locations, you’ll need a strong reporting structure. You’ll find more on that under tip #5.
Tip #3 – Refresh with regularity.
It’s important to keep your training materials and best practices up to date as the needs of your business and those of your customers evolve. When is your busiest sales season? When is your slowest? You want to use the latter to prepare your staff for the former. Consider updating your training materials two to three months prior to your slowest season so you can have your training ready to go when things start to slow down a bit.
Don’t be afraid to update your training on the fly, either. Both employee feedback and revenue results can be great indicators that it might be time to make some changes to your consumer finance-related training to ensure that your team members are delivering the right messaging to customers when it comes to financing, and closing those sales.
Tip #4 – Solicit feedback.
Your employees and your customers both have valuable things to share about their experiences with regard to your consumer finance program. Issue simple surveys to both to ask them their thoughts. You’ll be surprised at how many of your questions may end up being similar between the two surveys. After all, both your customers and your employees deal with the same tools, processes, and systems when it comes to processing finance applications.
Once you’ve gathered the feedback, add it to a spreadsheet and try to roughly classify it or group it into categories of feedback. Several items falling into the same class or category may represent a trend. Prioritize those bunches of feedback, make changes accordingly, and report on those changes to your employees or customers through direct conversations, in-store posters advertising a process has been updated based on feedback, or in marketing materials. Showing your work in this regard will help you build trust with customers and employees alike.
Tip #5 – Use the right tools for the job.
One of the most important steps in rolling out a consumer finance training program is identifying problem areas and employees who need a little remedial instruction. FormPiper can help with that. With in-depth reporting for single or multi-location businesses, FormPiper helps you gather the data you need to make informed decisions about which employee to train and what to train them on. With convenient reporting via an easy-to-use dashboard at your fingertips, you’ll be able to maximize the benefit of your training sessions while minimizing employee downtime.
Ultimately, a strong consumer finance program relies on effective, well-trained employees. A tailored training program built on reporting from FormPiper can help you start upskilling your team members right away.
