Customers trust the F&I office more than any other part of the dealership visit, even as long wait times and duplicated paperwork continue to frustrate them. That’s according to CDK Global’s 2026 State of F&I at the Dealership study.
Jason Swiech, F&I Product Marketing Manager at CDK Global, joins us on this episode of Inside Automotive for a closer look at the survey’s findings. Swiech oversees CDK Global’s annual F&I Survey, which tracks how dealerships and customers experience the finance office.
Survey says: F&I is most trusted
For the second year in a row, CDK’s annual F&I Survey found that customers rank the F&I office as the most trusted part of the dealership workflow. That trust comes down to the F&I manager’s role in finalizing the deal, Swiech said. Customers see them as the ones who will give it to them straight, even when upselling is part of the job.
"This is two years in a row now that the F&I industry has been looked at as the most trusted source in the entire workflow by customers."
Despite that high level of trust, customers pointed to several pain points, including long wait times, duplicated paperwork and a disconnect between what they experience online and what they’re asked to redo once they reach the F&I office, Swiech said.
According to the survey, 90% of customers reported satisfaction with the F&I office, but 46% said they waited longer than 20 minutes to get in. Much of that delay comes from duplicated work earlier in the process. Dealerships often collect the same documents twice, including credit applications signed both outside and inside the F&I office, as well as repeated requests for a driver’s license. Those small inefficiencies add up and frustrate customers who already completed similar steps online.
The fix doesn’t require blowing up the entire process, Swiech said, but dealerships can address these issues with targeted changes to documentation, timing and communication. Those changes can rebuild trust and cut wait times.
Should F&I remain a separate office?
As dealerships continue to shift to more streamlined, paperless processes, some question whether F&I needs to be a separate office at all. Swiech said there wasn’t a single clear answer and that it comes down to each dealership’s situation and needs.
Dealerships considering the shift need to weigh what they could lose in the process, including compliance safeguards, documentation accuracy and per-vehicle revenue, Swiech said.
Some dealers have already begun merging the sales manager and F&I manager roles, while still keeping the sales manager involved in the initial greeting to maintain a clear handoff point for the customer. The right structure ultimately depends on the dealership, its market and its customer base, Swiech said.
What the affordability crisis means for F&I
Affordability has become a bigger concern for buyers these days, and F&I managers play a key role in helping customers work through it. But Swiech said that interest rate and budget conversations need to happen earlier in the process, rather than waiting until customers reach F&I.
"Having those really deep discussions around rates and things like that in the very beginning are going to be important."
Running credit earlier in the process helps lock in a payment that won’t shift once the customer sits down in F&I, Swiech said. He added that many of today’s buyers have never experienced an extended period of high interest rates, creating an education gap dealerships need to account for.
The same goes for product presentations. Introducing products earlier in the sales process, rather than saving them for F&I, helps avoid what Swiech called a wall between the customer and the finance office. Swiech also recommended customized menus. A generic, good-better-best, presentation can overwhelm customers who are already focused on the total cost of their purchase.
The common thread running through all of these changes is trust. Whether it’s cutting wait times, offering flexible documentation or moving product conversations earlier, dealerships that treat the F&I office as a place for honest guidance, rather than a final sales push, are the ones most likely to keep that trust intact.
