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Did You Know That Credit Unions Are Less Responsive Than Banks When It Comes to Indirect Auto Loans?

by Dave

Credit unions are member-focused and excel at being more responsive than banks, right? Commitment to service is a critical attribute of the credit union brand, and represents a key differentiator versus banks. Not so fast-at least when it comes to indirect lending programs. Arecent surveyof auto dealers from Automotive News showed that credit unions are the slowest in responding to lending inquiries.

Who did the survey show is the fastest to respond to indirect lending inquiries among the financial institutions? All banks-Ally, Chase, and Capital One. While you might argue that their national brands and national footprint garnered them enough responses to rank as the top three, this is not the only nugget gleamed from this survey.

When asked who were the slowest, credit unions werespecificallycited by 26% of the respondents as being slow to respond. For those of you ‘glass-is-half-full’ readers, yes, this does mean that 74% did not specifically cite credit unions as slow. But when viewed in conjunction with the fact that credit unions werenotsingled out anywhere on the ‘fastest’ list, it is at least cause for a renewed focus.

Anybody who has been in sales knows the risk of injecting delay into the sales process. In this regard, it truly is like fishing-the longer a fish is on the hook, the more time they have to wriggle off. And that risk is real in this case, given the ultra-competitive market for car finance, where offers from competing lenders and captive finance arms of auto dealers are coming in as they wait on yours. The longer you delay, the more money you’re leaving on the table from your members and from prospective members.

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Randall Smith