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Who's seeing a climb in Online Credit Applications?

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Jeff Kershner

Jeff Kershner

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May 1, 2005
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#1
Most dealership websites have a secure "online credit application. It's one of those metrics we don't pay much attention to, due to the fact that most online credit applications are filled out AFTER the customer has either spoken to sales person on the phone or was sent by link/email communication.

More Specifically, My QUESTION: Have you had a spike in FIRST CONVERSION online credit applications?
 
#6
Jeff Kershner said:
That's a great question.

I'm curious to see how many dealers cancel their DR solution within the next few months. I hope they are prepared for the cancelations.
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Dealer churn on Credit-Last DR solutions is going to continue. As I mentioned in a previous post, DR solutions are now pivoting to blame the dealers' processes for the failure of their DR solution and are trying to get the dealer to dramatically change (Prodigy for example) their process with a realized ROI in 2 years. What !?!?!?!!?

Credit applications are used primarily before sending the structured deal to the appropriate lender AFTER the deal is first pre-qualified using a soft pull.

I'm also seeing certain people (primarily GMs, eCommerce Directors, Marketing Director, etc) attach themselves to various DR solutions in hopes of making a name for themselves or get their 15 minutes of fame. There's going to be a lot of open positions when dealer principles wake up and find out what's going on.
 
#7
Applications are a HUGE metric. Most dealers though (and I didn't realize this until I saw the actual data) don't realize the abandonment rate of the hard app on their site. I built a custom funnel 100% based on credit that drove customers to a soft pull (then we treated it as a finance predicated lead) and we saw hard applications skyrocket and deliveries go up. I tracked the percentage of soft pulls that converted to hard pulls and then the delivery rate on hard pulls. I worked that metric as hard as I could. We saw soft pulls in the 6 to 7 to 1 over hard pulls and then saw deliveries go up as well. We also saw finance penetration at a rural domestic ( a lot of seasonal buyers due to agriculture) go up from low 70's to high 80s on the average. This also drove FI income up drastically.
 
#8
Tarry Shebesta said:
Dealer churn on Credit-Last DR solutions is going to continue. As I mentioned in a previous post, DR solutions are now pivoting to blame the dealers' processes for the failure of their DR solution and are trying to get the dealer to dramatically change (Prodigy for example) their process with a realized ROI in 2 years. What !?!?!?!!?

Credit applications are used primarily before sending the structured deal to the appropriate lender AFTER the deal is first pre-qualified using a soft pull.

I'm also seeing certain people (primarily GMs, eCommerce Directors, Marketing Director, etc) attach themselves to various DR solutions in hopes of making a name for themselves or get their 15 minutes of fame. There's going to be a lot of open positions when dealer principles wake up and find out what's going on.
Click to expand...
I don't think I have heard ANYBODY explain it better. I believe the process has changed very little- serve the customer something to get them to engage (by phone or form), capture their information, use a soft pull, work your deal and then hard app them when you have an agreed upon down and payment. For me, the soft pull is actually another conversion tool on site and on ad copy. Just my opinion
 
#9
Michael Hughes said:
I don't think I have heard ANYBODY explain it better. I believe the process has changed very little- serve the customer something to get them to engage (by phone or form), capture their information, use a soft pull, work your deal and then hard app them when you have an agreed upon down and payment. For me, the soft pull is actually another conversion tool on site and on ad copy. Just my opinion
Click to expand...

Actually, because our soft-pull is a full credit bureau file, there is no reason for the dealer to do a hard-pull and subject themselves to "Trigger Leads" being used vs them.

Once the deal structure is worked, dealers can then submit the deal to the appropriate lender (eliminating credit application shotgunning) and the lender will then do the hard pull.

Federal compliance does NOT differentiate between a hard and soft pull. It's a bureau thing.

In partnership with TransUnion, we, as a lender, created the soft-pull full file in 2010.
 
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