Automotive Website Design

Jul 23, 2007 - Car Dealer Website Features: Credit Application - Good or Bad?

Every car dealer website should have a secure credit application.  It's a given that many people interested in buying a car, especially those with credit challenges, will want a way to get approved for a car loan without having to drive to the dealership.

There are simple in-house forms out there that work well, prompting for people to give a ton of information, but these are normally not optimal because they present the information in a long, exhaustive format that begs for people to give up and move on.

There are super-integrated forms that do everything from walk the people through the process in steps to pulling the credit and delivering it to the dealership, while sending a pre-approval email to the person.  While these are attractive to a dealership, they have many pitfalls.

All it takes is that first person who comes to the dealership, drives a few cars, negotiates, and walks into the finance department, only then pulling out the pre-approval printout and demanding to know why their financing isn't already set up.  In that instance, the sales team gets flustered, the finance department gets more flustered, and the GM or owner gets downright irrate over having to apologize and explain that "pre-approval" doesn't necessarily mean they have the loan.

The best option is one that mixes the best parts of both.  Dealers like Atlantic City Chevrolet Dealers and Harrisburg PA Ford Dealers have a 30-second credit application that walks them through the process, delivers the information to the dealership, but makes no promises to the customer without a contact from the internet department.

This is a much more honest process that collects more credit applications, and thus, more leads, without giving the consumer any false information.

To answer the question of whether credit applications are a good or bad feature for car dealer websites, the answer is "Maybe."  It depends on the credit application itself.

Dealer Websites Blog

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