You have probably heard how effective consumer financing can be for making more sales and boosting your retail business’s bottom line. Perhaps you even already have a consumer financing program in place, and you’re seeing strong results. But could you be losing substantial revenue without even knowing it? Is it possible that potential sales are walking out the door of your business, and you don’t even have a way to track it?
It’s entirely possible, because it happens to far too many business owners every day. But before we can discuss a solution to this problem, we need to identify some of the common issues that cause a retail consumer financing program to falter.
Common Pitfalls of Consumer Financing
First up on the list of problems that could be holding back your consumer financing program is a lack of data. If you don’t have the analytics you need to determine how well your program is performing, then you’re basically shooting in the dark. You can look at your revenue prior to implementing your program and see how you’re performing now by comparison, but you have no idea how much you’re missing out on in the way of potential sales. Too many retailers lack awareness of the basics of financing reporting, such as employee close rate.
Second, there’s the issue of lender performance. How do you know if your lender lineup is up to par? Are you tracking the performance of each lender? Do you know which lenders get you the most approvals? If you don’t, then you could be losing significant revenue due merely to the lenders you’ve chosen.
Third, there’s the fact that many retailers lack an efficient reporting process. Let’s say you do keep track of the metrics outlined above. Are you doing that manually? How much time are you or your employees spending on that? What is the cost in terms of your time or your team members’ time spent off the floor? A weak reporting process can be a big detriment to your business.
Get the Insights You Need to Succeed
By now, you probably see the need for clear, easily-accessed reporting that gives you insights into the day-to-day performance of your consumer finance program. Fortunately, FormPiper delivers on that front and more.
With a comprehensive suite of managed services, FormPiper is your complete consumer finance automation solution, and it also provides detailed reporting from one convenient dashboard. You’ll be able to review employee and lender performance in detail, so you can assist your employees with remedial training on an employee-by-employee basis, even across multiple locations, and also establish the best lender lineup for your business.
It’s essential that you have this information at the ready and in a format that is easy to review, so you can create action items that actually make a difference for your business. A consumer financing program helps you generate more revenue, so make sure it’s running right by getting the key insights you need, and keep sales from walking out the door.