J.D. Power’s Chris Sutton and JM&A Group’s Elliot Schor talk new alliance for F&I innovation

J.D. Power and JM&A Group have come together to develop and increase F&I innovation, but it doesn’t end there. The companies will additionally offer F&I training and certification programs. On today’s show, we’re pleased to welcome Chris Sutton, Vice President of Automotive Retail at J.D. Power and we’re also joined by Elliot Schor, Vice President of Sales Operations at JM&A Group to tell us more about this alliance.

Sutton begins the conversation by explaining how the alliance came about. J.D. Power has been capturing customer experience, including F&I for quite a while. Sutton says, as they looked for potential partners, it became very clear to them that JM&A was a great fit for collaboration. They believed the potential for co-branded solutions, would give the dealers an opportunity to help make customers more confident. There’s a benefit for consumers and dealers.

Schor believes this partnership will have a tremendous impact. The F&I transaction process is moving in all different directions. Schor also says this alliance enables them to allow customers to do business, the way they want to do it. He also says, he wants to create that trust and confidence in the transaction for their customers. They are seeing great success with transacting online. He hopes with this partnership they can provide customers more education on what they’re purchasing.

The biggest challenge is the natural rush to the old way of doing business, says Schor. There was a hard trend moving online before COVID hit and that hard trend remains. Dealers have to recognize customers want to do business in a frictionless way. Dealers need to explore F&I innovation, to keep their dealerships relevant. Schor says, anytime you can create trust with the retailer and consumer, that builds retention for later on.

Sutton ends the conversation by sharing his thoughts on the future of electric vehicles. He believes there is more to learn and they are taking a hard look at the data they see with EV products. Overall, Sutton says, customers are going to want to protect EVs the same way they protect ICE vehicles.