June: A Conversation with Steve Levine of Ignite Consulting

Music is: "Twisted" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Used Car News Podcast. Used Car News is your top source for fast and reliable news that car dealers can rely on for this evolving industry.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Hello everyone, and welcome to the newest edition of the Used Car News Podcast. My name is Jeff Blunt, your host and managing editor of Used Car News. And this month we got an old friend here, Mr. Steve Levine of Ignite. Steve, welcome. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be back. Yeah, Steve was fresh off the by your United conference. But I understand you guys have some news there. Ignite you kind of rebranded. What is what has been the rebranding?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yeah, it is our 10th anniversary this year, and we decided to freshen things up a little bit. So we are now known as Ignite Dealer Compliance Group.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

First of all, congratulations on the 10-year anniversary. That's fantastic. And it sounds like actually that's a great rebranding because that's really what you guys do. And I think you I think of compliance. So that's really good. So tell us here, just fresh off the buy here, pay here united uh conference. In the past, there was like you guys had a separate thing. Now you're now you joined with them. Um, how did that work out this year?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

It was really exciting. Uh so this was our eighth year doing compliance unleashed. And last year we moved it to Las Vegas and joined it with uh buyer pay united. And this year we also added uh the LHPH Capital Summit. So it was really three things going on at once, and it worked out fantastic. I think it was a huge value for the attendees. So uh I'm really excited about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Yeah, just looking at the agenda, I think value is really the word because it was shockful. It didn't it didn't look like there was a lot of downtime for that that was challenging for you, but it was probably good for the people who attended.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yeah, we we've got four of what five tracks going on at one time for for uh two days. We got a lot going on, but but it's a ton of education, it's really one-stop shopping for dealers that want to get a lot of great information in the short period of time.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Now, for you, Steve, obviously, you're on this all the time. I'm I'm usually I usually check out your webinars and uh and your emails as well. That even we're gonna touch on what you talked about, you what your email today today you set out for. But um, for you, what was the big issues that you wanted to get across to your attendees and your dealers at this conference?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

So we had a couple that were kind of our priorities. I I think a lot of folks still really struggle with compliance and how to implement compliance. So that was one class. It was about winning with compliance and and how you have to get out of the mindset that that uh that this is uh like insurance, and you have to have it, you really have to embrace it and make it part of your winning formula and and use it to help manage your reputation and and help you become more efficient and give your team operational discipline. And if you approach it like that, it's not a burden, it's actually part of your profits.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Boy, that is a great way to describe embracing it and promise it. That's really good because you're right. I mean, not just it'll help you make money, but it'll prevent you from losing money. Um, for you guys, what were some of the things on the compliance? Because there's always something going on. What were some of the what are some of the things in the forefront for this conference? Things that dealers should be looking out for, things that you guys are looking out for, because you guys are always one step ahead of the dealers.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

So we've noticed a big change in how consumers are using AI, and they're really using it as a sword to uh attack dealers and challenge what's going on at the dealership. So we actually hosted a class on that. Fantastic conversation. That was probably the best feedback we got uh that the entire conference. People love that class and want more of it because they weren't aware what consumers are doing with it. What are they doing? Using a store, how in what way? So on the front end, uh that they are using it to comparison shop, they're they're using it to challenge what's going on with the dealership, they're feeding their recently closed paperwork into AI and basically asking AI to tell me how the dealership took advantage of me. Tell me how uh this is unfair. Uh if they have buyers who worse and want to get out of a deal, uh that they ask AI, give me five talking points how I can get out of this contract. Uh and and then on if you're in buyer pay here or if you if you're a finance company, you're seeing a lot on the collection and servicing side where they're using AI, uh, they they've called me this many times, uh, they've sent me this many messages, find me violations. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

It's funny because you you guys who do work in this business, like you you kind of try to, you've always tried to anticipate stuff like that, anyways. But it does probably sharpen you as much as uh you know helping you sharpen dealers.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

It it's really it's an eye-opener. And and last summer, I I thought that AI became much more uh plevalent on the consumer end. And throughout the year, AI learned the business and got smarter and smarter, and and in my January timeframe, I noticed uh a distinct change, we're really understood what's going on at the dealership and the finance companies, and the the level of detail really picked it up enough. I was speaking to one lady recently, and she said, I have the best law firm in the world representing me. I said, Oh, yeah, who's that? She said, AI.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yeah, well, you're right. I guess it works both ways if you want to use it. But that was my next question. I know AI is like basically learns and learns is supposed to get better, but we know in cases where you use it, it doesn't always get it right. So on and obviously for the dealer side, that's a scary thing if that's what you're trusting in. But how do you how do you combat if uh customers using it and maybe AI is giving them the wrong answer? I mean, how do you deal with that?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

So so very often it's it's wrong, and and and I'll put quotes around wrong, right? Based on what the consumer is asking it to do. And and for instance, that that one lady that I was referring to, uh I said to her, I said, I bet your query to AI was this, and and I explained to her, it should have been this because you're not taking into account these state-specific uh motor vehicle laws. And and sure enough, I got her there to understand that that it wasn't a dealership issue, but but it took about 30 minutes on the phone with her because she just was convinced she was absolutely right because she had the best law firm in the world.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

You know what's funny as a reporter and not as good as lawyers as reporters, that's that's always the key. Sometimes you have to frame you have to phrase and frame the question correctly to get the answer you want, you know. So that's really good.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

And and very often now what I'm seeing is the consumers are are either either they don't know or they're being a lay a little lazy on how they frame the question. Yeah, and really have to go through decipher uh the letter and and and pick it apart and figure out okay, is there any truth in here? You know, objectively, could we have done something better? Right, and and separate that from a lot of noise.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Yeah, very good. You know what's funny. I like one of the things about attending conferences is good when you have these feedback, and for you, it's probably even better. Like you mentioned, the AI, you get dealers with real life situations, you know what they're dealing with. So that gives you guys an idea of how to look at something or how to respond. And it also gives you like information for you to know what your clients are going to be dealing with.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Again, and I'll tell you something that's really scary. It is so fast now. So, so for instance, Elizabeth Warren on February 4th sent the those letters out about uh buyer payer repossessions right by February 6th. Uh I was seeing that quoted in in the consumer complaints. Uh FTC uh announced the new guidance uh on vehicle pricing, the advertised price. Right immediately, consumers started putting that in their letters.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

That's interesting. Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask you about the deceptive advertising thing. Well, um, for you guys, I mean, obviously, uh this is probably funny because you guys tell this all the time, this is your business, and now it's not just consumer, uh uh consumer advocates or lawyers or whatever, or you know, people trying to uh trying to get the trying to find some mistakes that they can expose or or um attack the dealers with. Now you have it's more broad-based. Um, so do you feel like at least the one thing this does is does a lot make dealers ready or be more concerned about being prepared on the compliance end?

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Oh, I I think it's putting them to the test. And and one of the things I also mentioned at this conference, I'm actually going to start an initiative on this. Uh, I really want dealers to think about having their their own AI policies. And by that I mean, what are you willing to let your employees do when it comes to AI? What tools do you want them to use? What type of issues are you comfortable with them using AI, and which ones do you not want them touching? But because I actually have a client right now that that has a situation, the owner very, very uh informed on AI and uses it well. Well, he just assumed this is great for me, so I'm gonna turn it loose to my entire team. So and they were using AI to make some decisions that they shouldn't be making using AI.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Boy, I was gonna say, yeah, there's one thing where you're really kind of ahead of where the law is, because at some point you can see um all these um uh complex regulatory firms are gonna have to look at that in terms of um how to deal with uh regulating AI in your space, financing and F and I, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

You're correct. And you know, look, even on the front end, that these sales folks that are using AI to create uh Facebook or other social media marketing, they're taking a big risk. And I tell all my clients, you need to have an advertising policy, you need to have a social media policy. You really have to give your team templates on what you will and won't allow.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Yes. That's great. And you guys, what obviously AI, that was uh some great feedback. What other issues are are your clients' concerns, or maybe they have a blind spot spot they have in addition to AI that you've wanted to alert them to during this conference?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

We spoke a lot about uh I think there is a dangerous misconception out there that they think that there is federal deregulation, they hear about the CFPB being drastically cut, they think they're in the clear. And and what we actually uh I brought two dealers up on stage with me that that had undergone uh AG investigations. And we had a very honest conversation uh about the investigations, about the entire experience. And we had another class just talking about the climate that's going on, and for all the federal deregulation, you have increased uh at the state level. And there's a lot of scrutiny right now. The the consumer advocate groups are very angry uh about the lack of power in Washington, so so they've gone to the state level. And you know, even my experience last summer I dealt with a lot of of state examination type issues, and some of those blue states, especially, that they were not as willing to discuss issues as they used to be. That they they took a much more hard-line approach. I think some of it had to do with the fact that they felt that uh at the federal level things were going the wrong way, so so they wanted more power.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

So when you say they weren't willing to deal with it, are you saying like stattle issues or work with dealers? Or what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_01 12:40

So, you know, a lot of times during the examination process, you have a dialogue uh with the regulator. You know, what are you really looking for here? You know, this question doesn't really address it. Maybe we can get you know get get rid of these couple of requests. Let's focus on this. They weren't really willing to do that as much uh the the last year. Uh it's a lot more of in my experience, it's more adversarial than it used to be.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Wow, that's saying something too, yeah. And it does make sense. I mean it does make sense because I'm seeing a lot of that too, where you see more stuff at the attorney general level. And you always have the attorney generals, some of it's politics because you we always joke the attorney general is always the future governor, gubernatorial candidate, so they have to get you know pressed and whatnot. Not saying that they're not consumer advocates, but they do get do uh do put that out there. So, what are the things? I mean, obviously, that's uh the statewide regulations issue. What are the things that you hear, or that you're not maybe dealers aren't aware of?

SPEAKER_01 13:42

I I I would hope everybody by now is is aware of the FTC's uh guidance on on uh pricing and advertising. I think that that is a big one, and I'm I'm anxiously anticipating uh FTC is going to issue some FAQs to provide more guidance on that because a lot of the feedback I get from dealers is okay, I know what you're telling me to do, but it puts me at a tremendous competitive disadvantage on on cargures or or or other websites. So so I don't want to be first. So I'm hoping the FTC basically says, you know, look, we acknowledge this issue. Look, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Yeah, these conferences are always in education. So, folks, this again, this is Steve Levine, Ignite Dealer Compliance Group. Look him up in the information he gave you there on the podcast. And thanks for joining us, Steve. I appreciate it.