Orlando, Fla. -- MenuVantage, a fully customizable, Web-based menu system that integrates with major dealer management systems (DMS), has added new sales tools and feature functionality to its leading menu-selling system. The new features provide dealers with superior F&I tools to ensure compliance and increased per unit profit.

MenuVantage has seen a strong increase in market presence and currently processes more than 60,000 deals per month for 2,300 users at automotive dealerships nationwide; the average deal with MenuVantage produces $903 per unit compared to $633 per unit without the system— a 30 percent increase in revenue.

According to Ernie Boch, president of Norwood, Mass.-based Boch Automotive Enterprises, MenuVantage has helped his stores average $175 more per deal, while ensuring compliance with each deal. Boch conducts approximately 2,500 deals per month using MenuVantage at his eight stores, which include the No. 1 Honda franchise in the country and the No. 1 Toyota franchise on the East Coast.

"MenuVantage ensures compliance, accountability and profitability," Boch said. "It gives a comfortable compliance starting point that is easy for the customer to see and F&I manager to explain. Legally it’ll disclose everything to the customer from the beginning and show base payment, interest rate and term. It makes the F&I manager and general manager feel confident both in compliance and selling. With multiple finance managers, it is important to have everyone on the same page. MenuVantage ensures there is never a discrepancy." Boch is also president of Subaru New England, a Subaru distributorship that sells cars and parts to 60 dealers in New England.

MenuVantage offers F&I departments the most advanced technology available on the market including electronic submission of warranty and F&I products to providers, electronic rating of their products and the dynamic printing of documents on regular paper. The new tools add further feature functionalities that include:

• Dynamic Waiver – A compliance tool for the dealership that clearly states what was selected vs. what was declined. Also a sales tool, it breaks down the monthly cost of the declined products making it that much more attractive to the customer.
  

  
  

  
  

• Gap Benefit Form – MenuVantage’s relationship with a leading provider of residual value information enables it to present the residual values tailored to the customer’s current situation. This tool shows customers their actual GAP in multiple monthly intervals based on the difference between the actual value of their vehicle and the loan payoff amount; helping create awareness of and need for the GAP product.
  

  
  

  
  

• VSC Benefits – A sales tool that takes verifiable information from a third party and displays it in such a way that the customer can financially understand the benefit of paying for tomorrow’s repairs at today’s prices. This is one of the easiest ways to show the need for a service contract.
  

  
  

  
  

• Equity Advantage Program – An exclusive bi-weekly payment option through Wachovia bank. Because MenuVantage can show the customer the estimated residual values for their particular vehicle, it can present the total financial benefit to the consumer by opting to pay their loan bi-weekly. Now dealers are able to retain business that typically went to the local credit union. This helps increase PVR and acts as a competitive advantage for financing with the dealership.
  

  
  

  
  

• Maintenance Benefits Form - Much like the VSC benefits, this form shows the maintenance costs for the particular vehicle.
  

  
  

  According to MenuVantage Chief Marketing Officer Phillip Battista, MenuVantage has developed a system that not only assists dealers on the front end, but also providers on the back end; offering unique benefits to F&I providers. The MenuVantage system incorporates a communication feature that offers the capability to broadcast information directly to their dealer's desktops. With this feature providers can run contests, make announcements and post new product promotions in minutes.

  
  

  "Our goal is to partner with providers rather than turn them into commodities," Battista said. "We have created technology for third-party providers to brand their products. Every time an F&I salesperson logs on, the individual provider’s full color banner, scoreboard or message will appear. Having their message lost in the clutter will become a thing of the past with the MenuVantage system. Now marketing messages and promotions will consistently hit their target."