11:57 am, February 15, 2024
The next 12 months present a ‘very good opportunity’ for dealers to up their sales and improve customer service, one finance company has said.
Oxford-based Oodle Car Finance believes dealers will be able to take advantage of a predicted uplift in consumer confidence off the back of widely anticipated tax cuts, while also focusing on doing the basics right such as offering great customer service.
‘2024 is going to be interesting,’ Phil Williams, Oodle Car Finance managing director and co-founder, told Car Dealer.
‘We’ve probably seen peak interest rates and I think the government is now starting to realise that it has to stimulate growth.
‘We are all hearing a lot about tax cuts, and I think interest rates will start to ease. That will bring back consumer confidence and we will see that demand for used cars come back again.’
He added: ‘I think there’s going to be a very good opportunity for dealers in 2024. As I’ve said, more money is likely to be going into consumers’ pockets, and some of the demands consumers have had during 2023 are likely to dissipate.
‘So, it’s a good time for dealers to be thinking hard about how they stock going forwards – what they buy, but also making sure they maintain their advertising so that when the upturn comes they’re ready to take advantage of it.’
Founded in 2016, Oodle Car Finance prides itself on offering the right products at the right rates for dealers and giving the right support, especially when the finance industry is under scrutiny from new regulatory framework.
‘We are always talking to our partners to make sure that they have got robust policies and complaints procedures in place, because there will always be bumps in the road when things don’t go to plan for customers. We really have to step up and look after customers, because if we do that they will come back time and time again.
‘We make sure we have the right rates for dealers to help them sell cars and to make car finance deals affordable; helping dealers to put customers into the right cars.
‘I can only see a good year ahead as long as dealers are focussed and they stay doing what they’ve always done – which is to sell the right cars to the right customers at the right prices.’
Click the video at the top of this story to watch the full interview with Phil Williams
