F&I managers use Facebook for support

In the midst of the recession, finance director Marv Eleazer had more time on his hands than he was used to. The downturn was weighing on vehicle sales nationwide and taking its toll on his dealership.

So, he perused Facebook to make long days go by — and had an idea: Start a page for F&I managers to teach, learn and gripe about the automotive retail industry.

Though new to the social media site, Eleazer, of Langdale Ford Co. in Valdosta, Ga., could see benefits that evaded other forums in which he had participated. For one, members posting questions and comments had trouble hiding behind anonymous usernames, he said. F&I managers may be more likely to think twice before they start certain discussions on Facebook vs. in other forums, according to Eleazer. "Now their face, and ultimately, their dealership, is tied to it."

The Ethical F&I Managers group was launched to help educate the F&I manager in a single-point store, one that was small, with little money and time set aside for compliance training.

The intention to build an online community of experts, educators and comrades was a way to reach those in need of guidance without charging a fee.

The group started with more than 30 members, but expansion was slow. More than 500 members joined within the first two years.

Initially, the conversation on the page was little more than depressing.

"It was gloom and doom, no question. A lot of people were down in the dumps," Eleazer said. "Many, of course, got out of the industry and never returned."

Remaining positive was a challenge, but as unemployment shrank and car sales rose, engagement on the site increased exponentially. Word began to spread, and F&I trainers and publications were invited into the fold.

With the group, Eleazer imagined assisting his younger self, who started in F&I in 1989. All of his early education in F&I was wrong, he said, and formed bad habits that took years to shake.

"I was trained to pack payment. I was trained to juice incomes and power book used-car values and all those sorts of things," he said. "Back in those days, it was pretty common."

Though common then, those practices today would land a dealership in hot water with regulators and potentially attract the attention of lawyers looking to file class-action lawsuits.

With the industry's amped-up scrutiny around behavior, training and compliance in the F&I department, members of the Facebook group have many more resources than Eleazer did in his early days.

Questions asked by members newer to F&I are consistent, often centering on compliance, objection-handling and sales tools.

Some conversations gain more traction than others. Stories and comments about work-life balance — the ever-elusive bid to produce profits and still make it home in time for dinner — always shoot to the top of the list.

While F&I managers make up most of the group, other dealership personnel, F&I trainers, vendors and auto finance publications are among the members.

Sometimes conversations in the group can veer into troubling territory. Members have bragged about deals with markups to interest rates or product prices that are well above industry norms. Some have posted customers' credit scores (without their names) and made fun of their circumstances.

Whenever there's a dust-up, as Eleazer says, one of the group's five administrators can take the reins and counter the comment — but most of the time, that's not necessary, he said. More often than not, group members will police one another.

The size of the group, and the drive for professionalism, means most exchanges on the page are civil and useful. Eleazer estimates about 95 percent of the advice that people give and receive on F&I is compliant.

The page also operates under a code of conduct, penned by Eleazer about a year into the group's life. The list of rules requires users keep cursing, solicitation and political ramblings to a minimum, and it prohibits personal insults, vulgarity, sexist remarks and the disclosure of any proprietary dealer or customer information.

As of early December, there were 12,024 members of the Ethical F&I Managers Facebook group. The name, Eleazer said, was just the first thing that came to his mind.

"Compliance are the rules of the road that take me from point A to point B. Ethical is a description of character — what you do when nobody's paying attention," Eleazer said. "It's easier to do a rolling stop on a stop sign. I try to stop at each stop sign, not just because it's the law, but ... there could be someone crossing."