I was recently a guest speaker at the Automotive
Forum hosted at the University of Buckingham by Professor Peter
Cooke. I was talking about the broker industry and the fact that I
believe brokers need to get back to some of the old values but
apply them to the new, post-recession, economy.
The days when a broker would source all his or her
business locally are now over, since the arrival of the web and the
ability to market customers nationally.
Go deeper with GlobalData
This has resulted in a very impersonal industry. No
more face to face meetings. No more tailoring of solutions to
customer needs.
The real benefit to using a broker is the advice
that he or she could provide. After listening to the customer a
broker would propose a solution to the problem and maybe offer a
couple of options for good measure.
It was not assumed that the customer knew exactly
what he or she wanted, and in turn the customer was prepared to
take advice.
What has happened to the value of personal service
and the informed product selection made by the broker to meet the
customer needs? What of answers to questions that may be bothering
the customer? They’ve all drifted away and been replaced by
comparison sites.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataSome brokers today make automatic assumptions that
the customer knows what he or she wants when he or she asks to
lease a car or van. Maybe that’s because few brokers are qualified
to answer the questions, or are able to provide accurate advice and
to recommend a product that best suits the customer’s
requirements.
Whatever the reason, we are drifting into a bucket
shop industry where customers simply search for the cheapest rate
they can find on a product that may not be the most suitable
arrangement, through a company that won’t approve the finance
anyway.
This situation needs to be addressed urgently if
brokers are not to become a dying breed, replaced by 20 year-old IT
graduates who understand more about search engine optimisation than
the difference between an operating lease and a finance lease.
We are in the new information generation, which may
sound great, but what are brokers doing to provide it?
The fact is they aren’t doing anything.
Customers are going onto blogs and being
misinformed and misguided by other contributors who are no more
professional than the guys down the pub.
Proper brokers need to embrace the new economy and
get back to providing a true service along with informed advice and
stop scrabbling to advertise cars that don’t exist, at unachievable
rates, using what may be the most inappropriate product on
comparison websites which give professionals a bad name, and have
resulted in many lenders turning their backs on brokers.
I’ll be making an announcement soon on how to
do this.
