Christian Crane, VP of Operations at Crane Family Companies, shares how his dealership group is tackling the evolving car buying experience by focusing on frictionless operations and customer affordability. They emphasize streamlining the buying process to under 45 minutes, integrating AI for better communication, and offering flexible financing without excessively long loan terms. Christian also discusses the limits of fully online car purchases, the importance of customer retention, and even shares his optimistic Razorbacks playoff prediction. The conversation blends industry insights with a personal touch, highlighting the future of dealership operations.
Topics:frictionless car buyingcustomer affordabilityAI in customer communicationfinancing optionsonline vehicle purchasingcustomer retentiondealership operationsused car return policiesautomotive industry trendsarkansas razorbacks football
Christian Crain, VP of Crain Automotive Holdings, discusses leading a 23-store dealer group, their focus on seamless operations and how they are addressing the affordability challenges their guests are facing now.
Episode Breakdown
00:00 - Meet Christian Crain
02:15 - How Crain Automotive is addressing customer affordability
05:24 - Creating a frictionless process
07:45 - Best Bets with Christian Crain
08:31 - Will AI handle more than 30% of your store’s customer communications?
10:32 - Will 100% online purchase happen without in-person viewing of the car?
11:28 - Razorbacks & college football: will the playoffs happen?
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- Meet Christian Crain
- How Crain Automotive is addressing customer affordability
- Creating a frictionless process
- Best Bets with Christian Crain
- Will AI handle more than 30% of your store’s customer communications?
- Will 100% online purchase happen without in-person viewing of the car?
- Razorbacks & college football: will the playoffs happen?
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I truly believe that the business is shifting in a way that a lot of dealers aren't prepared for.
All of our customers from 18 and up are used to the Amazon experience and the Carvana experience.
Customers want to go into video ship, but they don't want to sit there for four hours.
If we can get as much done up front, that process should only take about 30 to 45 minutes.
It's everyone's dream to grow, to be a bigger dealer, to be a better dealer,
or even get your first dealership. Car buying is about the people.
Everybody wants to know what's a car business like and they like to see it under the hood.
Welcome to the Walkaround Podcast. I am one of your hosts, Mark Spoto, joined by my co-host,
Heather Wilkinson. Good to be here, Mark. Heather, we are back trying to deliver
insights, trends, information that's going to help everyone out there in the automotive industry.
It's such a dynamic place to be and we're trying to do our best to bring stories to the market.
I think we definitely hit it out of the park with Christian Crane, the VP of Operations
from Crane Family Companies, who provide us incredible insight on how they're seeing how to
address a frictionless process when you're buying a vehicle or servicing it at Crane Automotive Group
and addressing the affordability and how we can find ways for consumers to get into new and used
vehicles. That's right. Christian has a lot of perspective. They have 23 stores across the
state of Arkansas and we also get into the future of the Arkansas RazorMax. That's right. He had
some frictionless predictions on who we'll see in the championships. Apparently, that's the word
of the year. That's the word of the year. Well, let's hear more from Christian and take a walk
around. Well, we are happy to have Christian Crane with us from the Crane Family Companies.
Christian, thank you so much for taking time to join us on the walk around podcast.
Absolutely. Thanks for having me. We are so excited to have you here today. Talk a little
bit about automotive. Maybe we'll talk a little football as well. Talk about those Razorbacks.
Love to get into this conversation. You want to hop right in, Mark?
Yeah, let's do it. We hear a lot in the industry about affordability, that being a crisis and
opportunity. What is your perspective on customer affordability and what are some things you guys
are doing to address it? I think the affordability issue started from what we're seeing in the
COVID years. When we were guilty of this and selling over MSRP on a lot of new vehicles,
which turns into this trade cycle of where you're seeing customers with
pretty high negative equity going into the car deal. Then you throw on top a really expensive
vehicle, more expensive than it should be, and you've got a really big problem. What we're doing is
with that is we're just trying to honestly give them the best financing options. We're using
companies like Upstart that claim to approve your mid-tier credit score people,
that buyers that wouldn't otherwise get approved. This bank is able to pretty much
offer a higher advance on MSRP and bookouts and stuff like that. That'll help us, I believe,
roll all this negative equity into expensive vehicles that they're purchasing into the car
deal and hopefully reset the market a little bit. Christian, are you seeing these lenders that
you're working with also giving longer terms? Our consumers have heard that consumers are now
looking at loans from anywhere. You think 84 months was long, but you're buying a $100,000
vehicle. You've got customers who are financing for 120 months. Are you seeing any of that in
your market? Not really. I think 120 is ridiculous. We do see a lot of 84. I don't like to put a
customer in the street higher than that. It's bad for everybody. It's bad for the markets,
it's bad for the customer, it's bad for our brand, our look as an industry. That is an option.
We really just try to fight for the right. A lot of the time we try not to have a big reserve bump
and really if we sell product and really try to just sell the customer at the buy rate
to help with the affordability on the monthly payments. I'm hearing value is what you're
building there for the customer because ultimately you want them to come back.
We look at it and this is something that I've really tried to instill in our salespeople and
managers and everything on the variable side is this is a long-term play for us. I'm pretty young.
We've got 22, 23 stores. I want to keep expanding. Our brand is worth a lot more than an extra $500
to $1000 on the front end of a deal. The customer is the most important and the retention of that
customer is going to be a huge player for us going in the future. Tying it to retention,
you did share with us that you all are focused on having a frictionless process for the Crane
Automotive Group consumers when they come in. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
We started this year Words of the Year and this word of this year is frictionless.
I truly believe that the business is shifting in a way that a lot of dealers aren't prepared for.
I see a lot of go to 20 group meetings, go to these events and people are capable of understanding
that all of our customers from 18 and up are used to the Amazon experience and the
Caravano experience. What we are really focusing on is how can we make it as easy as possible
for the customer? How can we make it to where they can do a full car deal online without even
talking to a human being? We think now that's not the whole market, but that is where the market
is going. We are trying to be the leaders in that change and it's hard to do really.
Very easy to talk about. There are so many different good vendors out there for those
softwares to put on your websites. It's something that is going to take a lot of work for the
industry in general in order to push us in that right direction. Are you hearing more and more
customers ask for an experience like that? Is that something that's relevant to them?
It's funny. We talk about it all the time is how we want to make it like that and we want to get
ready for the change, but customers still want to go into the dealership. What we look at is
customers want to go into the dealership, but they don't want to sit there for four hours.
They don't want to sit there for two hours. If we can get as much done up front,
that process should only take about 30 to 45 minutes. Let's find the car. Let's get your
financing. Let's even sell you the product that you are on the back end and let's get it all done.
You can make sure you like the car and we'll do the deal.
It's the second largest purchase that consumers make and the average vehicle,
new car price, now we're looking at well over $50,000. They still want to see it.
Absolutely. But they want to come in and not be there all day. Great point.
So, Christian, we heard you're a bit of a betting man. Is that true? Are our sources correct?
Wait, I like it. I like a gamble every now and then. Every now and then. Why not?
Okay. Who doesn't like a little action here and there?
And, you know, graduating from University of Arkansas and being a razor bash. So,
you gambled a little bit. A little bit. The football teams are going to be doing and basketball,
I'm sure. So, we have two automotive industry related ones and then we're going to end on
somewhat of a fun one. Not that this all isn't fun. We love this business.
Christian, Mark, and Heather, I see fun all over this.
That's right. We're a party. We want to hang out with us.
Okay. This is a good time.
Okay. So, you talked a little bit about frictionless. We hear often how much AI is playing a role
in sales process and customer outreach. Here's a hot take. AI is going to handle
more than 30% of your store's customer communications in the next two years.
Are you going to bet that or forget it?
I'd bet that. I'd bet that.
Wow. Does that seem like a attainable goal? Are you seeing positive results
in incorporating AI into customer communications?
AI has been around for a lot longer than people talk about. I'm a big... I told my girl from
this yesterday, I'm so tired of people talking about AI because no one even knows what AI is.
It feels like when people were talking about autonomous cars.
That's right.
Right? And that was going to take over the industry. No one would be driving their own car
anymore. It's a little bit of a hype curve.
Absolutely. I think we tend to get really freaked out in this business about the smallest
things, right? And it's going to completely change the business. I believe that AI can help
with the communication with the customer. I think communication within any business,
especially the car business, is the number one problem that we face. You've got a lot of...
We use DriveCentric and they have a good AI tool that responds to our customers.
Is it the best? No. But does it immediately respond? And can it actually take a question
that the customer has and provide the right answer? Yes. And so it's getting better and
better. And there's a lot of really good companies out there outside of the car business that's
mastered it. And so, yeah, I believe it'll be out in our house.
And if your focus this year is frictionless, these are steps that are going to help get
there. Absolutely. Because communication is where a lot of friction occurs in your sales
and service departments and dealerships. Yeah. All right. Number two. You talked a little bit
about this already in terms of the buying process, but I'm curious if you feel this
strongly about it one way or the other. The average used car buyer will embrace 100%
online purchasing without ever seeing the car in person. Bet it or forget it?
I forget that. Yeah, I don't. So this goes back to wanting that experience and talking with
something. Yeah. I think everybody wants to look at the car. And I think the companies like Carvana
that have that model, it's not sustainable. I don't believe. Yeah. Without that money back
guarantee, which a lot of the used car operations have that, where a consumer buys a used car.
Do you all have that option? Absolutely. You do. How long is the return policy?
100 hours. All right, Christian. You talked about going to the University of Arkansas.
Yeah. The Razorbacks will see the college football playoff in the next three years.
I'll bet that. I'll bet that. Okay. All right.
So you're feeling optimistic about where they're headed. I mean, all you got to do is be top 12.
That's right. Or maybe he's top 16, depending on what happened.
Yeah. I mean, I hope Razorback fans are way over optimistic. And so every year,
I'm like, well, this is our year. This is our year. We'll go to and to like we did last year.
But I will bet that we will make it to a college football playoff.
I felt the same way about the Seminoles. And boy, was that a disaster.
Oh, gosh. Well, I won't talk about the bison.
That's not Christian. Thank you so much for sharing your time, your insights.
Best of luck on a really successful 2026. Thank you so much, guys.
We really appreciate you joining us today on The Walkaround and we hope you enjoyed the episode.
Please be sure to like, share, subscribe and follow us. We look forward to seeing you next time on The Walkaround.
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