CrossCheck Blog

In 1962, ABC broadcasted its first program ever in color. The show was called The Jetsons. As remarkable as that achievement was for the times, the animated sitcom was cancelled after only 24 episodes. In the 1980s, The Jetsons was revived for two short years before being shelved decades ahead of technologies such as digital cameras, cell phones, and virtual auto dealer options. Thankfully through syndication, reruns aired for a generation. Hanna-Barbera Productions cartooned unthinkable technology in each futuristic episode. Below is a short list of “FAR OUT” technology available only to George Jetson (and in the imagination of the writers) a half century ago that actually exists today. And with the recent successful takeoff and landing of an automobile on August 25, 2020 in Japan, the list just got a little longer.

“Dealers need to provide customers with a consistent, relevant, seamless experience throughout each stage of purchasing, including the dealership website.” – David Boice Recently, I attended a webinar given by David Boice, CEO and founder of a company called Advid. It was titled, “Lessons from Amazon Prime: evolving the consumer experience in the digital era.” I thought Mr. Boice had some important things to say about what consumers think and feel when they start their search for a new car, and I wanted to share this with our readers. To understand his message, we have to start at the beginning of the consumer buying experience.

What do Formula One auto racing and CrossCheck have in common? The answer is, “quite a bit.” Some explanation is in order. Formula One (aka “Formula 1” and “F1”) auto racing is one of the most exciting sports in modern Western civilization, with all the ingredients for a fabulous experience embedded into it. Article Summary Why is Formula One a fabulous experience? Who owns Formula One? What are the common denominators between F1 and CrossCheck? Why do auto dealerships prefer CrossCheck?

Recently, some of our merchant dealers have been asking us about artificial intelligence – what is it, how does it work, and most importantly, can artificial intelligence help auto dealerships increase revenue? To answer those questions, let’s start with some background. In 1950, Alan Turing wrote a paper titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” His idea was: “Humans use available information as well as reason to solve problems and make decisions, so why can’t machines do the same thing?” The problem back then was that computers could not store enough information, or process it fast enough, to add value to the procedure. We needed more processing power, new software, and ultimately putting the GPU in the cloud. This took a few more decades, plus the power of Moore’s Law, to be viable.

The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) is the trade group for new auto dealerships in the U.S. NADA provides many valuable services for their members, including training programs, weeklong seminars, an academy, and setting up “Twenty Groups,” where a dealer will meet regularly with 19 other dealers in their area to get advice and guidance from their peers on current developments in their store. Another valuable service is developing research reports on the retail automotive industry.

Recently, Experian released their Q3 2019 “State of the Automotive Finance Market” report. The authors made a couple of important points — mostly about changes in the used car market — that automotive retailers should take note of. The good news is that used vehicles are generating a larger share of the U.S. automotive finance market. Used car financing increased 2.4% in 2019. It reached 55.15% of total financing. Why did this happen, and why is it good news for a dealer?

Two of the most frequent questions asked by consumers at auto dealerships are: “Can you help me get a loan to buy this car?” and “How much of a down payment will I need to make?” As a dealer, you had better have the answers accurately and quickly, or you might lose the sale. It turns out that these are not always easy questions to answer because, well, they are complicated. In this short article, we are going to address both questions and take a further exploration of the customer credit journey at your store. More importantly, we are going to answer the question: “How can auto dealerships help consumers with down payments?” You will learn how to provide a good customer experience, get the taillights over the curb, and inspire good reviews on social media.

Recently, I saw a survey taken by CrediCards.com showing that large retailers offering new store credit cards have increased the interest rates on those cards substantially in the last few months. The article noted that this is particularly ironic as the Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates during this same period. This article demonstrates how merchants using CrossCheck services help consumers avoid debt traps. This is what the survey found: The average APR on store-only credit cards has increased to 27.52%. The average APR for new co-branded store cards (that can be used at other stores) has risen to 23.39%. The average APR for all retail store cards is 26.01%. Like other things in life, these store cards have a good side and a bad side. First, the good.

Here at CrossCheck, we have been “all eyes and ears” in recent years over news about electric cars because our primary customer base is new car dealerships. Since we maintain an active dialogue with dealerships, we are well aware that CrossCheck and dealerships are fielding a lot questions about how we see the future of electric vehicles (EVs). Consequently, we thought it would be helpful to share a few opinions about how EVs will unfold over the next few years. First, we pay close attention to the developments in this space, which is obviously critical to our business. Second, we want to “think like a customer” – our dealer merchants – and the dealers want to think like their customers – the car-buying consumers.

CrossCheck, Inc. opened for business in 1983. In those days, almost every merchant accepted checks at the point of sale. Merchants that took credit cards were using a “knuckle-buster” with multi-part carbon forms to process a transaction. They put the card in the holder, ran the imprinter back and forth over it, extracted the forms, sorted them, and sent some to the bank and others to the processor. Two years earlier, the card associations announced that transactions over $50 which were processed with a point-of-sale system would get discounted pricing. Early POS systems were priced at $900, which the average merchant could not afford. But something happened in 1982: Verifone rocked the merchant world with a POS terminal that cost only $125, the ZON. This changed everything.