SCHAUMBURG, Ill., and WAYNE, Pa. -

Along with an integration with MaximTrak Technologies, Zurich North America also recently expanded its menu of services for dealers by adding service adviser training resources.

One of the largest providers of F&I products and consultative training for dealerships in the United States, Zurich is collaborating with Steve Shaw, a premier service adviser trainer, to deliver the training.

“We are very excited to expand into the service adviser training arena,” said Vince Santivasi, head of direct markets for Zurich North America. “The service adviser plays a vital role within an auto dealership, and Zurich has recognized a growing demand for consistent service training among our customers.

“This new collaboration with Steve Shaw offers service advisers a consistent process and the necessary tools to help dealerships maximize their profits in the service lane,” Santivasi continued.

Zurich’s service adviser training is designed to help enhance processes, improve repair order performance and motivate service advisers. Training topics to be presented include why customers buy, multipoint inspections selling system, creating presentations and menu selling, among others.

“Working hand-in-hand with Zurich, we are creating more opportunities for dealers to increase the bottom lines of their service centers,” Shaw said. “Dealerships that have fully implemented my training and selling system have seen a typical increase of .2-.5 labor hours per repair order.”

Shaw, author of Master of the Waiting Room, is a professional speaker and trainer to the automotive industry having trained thousands of service personnel over the past 23 years. His service adviser training program is in use by dealerships around the world and has proven to increase service selling power from the entry-level express adviser to the veteran consultant.

The new collaboration provides dealerships a variety of training options including:

— Full day, Zurich-hosted seminars. More than 40 events are already scheduled for 2018 in cities across the U.S.

— One-on-one sessions available in-store and via Skype

— Access to online training modules

While all franchised dealers are able to take advantage of Zurich’s full day seminars and one-on-one sessions, only Zurich F&I customers enrolled in its online training program are able to access the online service adviser modules.

Zurich F&I customers also enjoy reduced pricing on full day, Zurich-hosted seminars and the one-on-one sessions.

“Zurich’s expansion into service adviser training is just the latest offering in our training curriculum,” Santivasi said. “Our customers have asked for multiple training platforms, and we are delivering with in person seminars, on-site in dealership, and online opportunities to add value for our automotive dealer customers.”

To learn the locations and dates of the Zurich-hosted seminars near you, contact your Zurich representative or call (888) 884-7377.

Zurich is one of the largest insurance providers for franchised dealers in the United States and one of the top providers of F&I products and services. Learn more at http://zurichna.com/en/industries/auto/dealerships.

MaximTrak finalizes Zurich North America Integration

In related news, F&I platform provider MaximTrak Technologies recently announced an integration with Zurich North America.

This integration imports Zurich’s F&I product rates and forms into MaximTrak’s ETrak platform to digitize more of the F&I sales process. With this integration, Zurich dealer customers now have access to MaximTrak’s advanced sales systems, MenuTrak and FLITE.

The company explained ETrak is a secure and reliable solution for both the F&I department and customers. It can streamline the contracting process and can eliminate the time, cost and errors associated with paper contracts.

Dealers can now harness the power of Zurich’s interactive sales process while leveraging MaximTrak’s proprietary consumer risk analyzer and intelligent product scoring models. For dealers marketing Zurich’s vehicle protection products, this integration can help F&I managers close deals quickly and efficiently, while also improving the quality of the customer experience.

“The goal of our award-winning digital retail sales and F&I platform is always to bring greater transparency, flexibility, convenience and productivity to the F&I office and, by extension, to dealers’ customers,” said Jim Maxim Jr., president of MaximTrak, a RouteOne company, and chief digital officer for RouteOne. “This new integration with Zurich North America continues our relationship with leading industry technology and service providers to bring more value to auto retailers.”

The MaximTrak platform is deployed domestically and internationally as a turnkey solution for creating engaging selling experiences that yield robust results. The company’s new FLITE ENGAGE, FLITE and a suite of solutions, can interface with RouteOne’s unified, comprehensive digital retailing suite of services that drive state-of-the-art consumer transactional experiences across a broad array of digital properties.

“As digital ecosystems transform the way auto dealers present, sell, and transact, it is imperative that we offer them access to leading F&I digital retail platforms,” said Marie Knight, head of direct markets and programs strategic services for Zurich North America.

“Our integration with MaximTrak will provide our auto dealer customers with advanced systems and interactive sales processes to improve the quality of the F&I customer experience,” Knight continued.

MaximTrak ETrak ca provide an electronic ecosystem that can combine direct provider integrations, indirect provider integrations, and fully managed rates, tables and business rules. These solutions enable dealers to digitize the workflow inside of their F&I office across providers, systems and processes.

The ETrak platform can build complex integration and business layer logic from many product providers into one rating and contracting interface that standardizes the workflow from the point of sale through registration and remittance.

“Now, dealers offering Zurich’s vehicle protection products — who choose to activate MaximTrak’s ETrak under this integration — will reduce customers’ time in F&I by as much as 15 minutes and benefit from an array of new presentation tools,” the company said.