Green Car Reports
Study: EV startup brands aren't doing well in connecting with prospective customers
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August 2022
Startup EV brands Tesla, Lucid, Rivian, and Polestar have touted desirable products and a direct-sales business model that avoids dealership hassles. But they may not be connecting as well with prospective customers as traditional luxury brands, according to a recent study from consultancy Pied Piper. In a ranking of 25 brands, Rivian came in last place, with Polestar and Lucid just ahead. Tesla was ranked 21st. Established luxury brands ...
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Kelley Blue Book
Secret Shoppers: Traditional Dealers Better at Selling EVs
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July 2022
Traditional automakers who sell both electric vehicles (EVs) and gasoline-powered cars provide a better shopping experience than EV-only startups, according to a new study. Pied Piper Management Company is a research firm that uses secret shoppers to evaluate customer satisfaction at car dealerships. The company inquired about 1,657 luxury cars online between July 2021 and June 2022 for its annual Prospect Satisfaction Index study. It followed ...
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InsideEVs
EV-Only Brands Lag Behind Rival Brands' Customer Service: Survey
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July 2022
A recent survey by Pied Piper - a retail service tracking company - suggests that electric-exclusive automakers are lagging behind rival premium brands when it comes to customers' overall experience. The Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PVI) takes into account 70 "best-practice behaviors" to get a handle on the retail service performance of automotive brands. According to Pied Piper, 60 percent of a brand's score comes from categories ...
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Car & Driver
Electric-Car Companies Are Less Responsive to Customer Questions: Survey
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July 2022
Electric-vehicle advocates and early adopters have long maintained the experience of learning about EVs, shopping for them, and buying them is better at those few brands that sell directly to buyers—Tesla foremost, now also Lucid and Rivian—than at conventional third-party franchised dealers of the sort used by Toyota, GM, Honda, Ford, and other established carmakers. Now a study from the research firm Pied Piper appears to turn that ...
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Automotive News
Plugging EVs just wasn't enough
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March 2019
Some of the most effective advocates for plug-in vehicles are being unplugged from the business. This month, Tesla said it would close most of its factory-owned stores as a cost-cutting move and switch entirely to online sales. Many employees of those stores and investors were pretty surprised to hear the news, Bloomberg reported, especially as it came just weeks after Tesla affirmed the value of its showrooms in a public filing, talking up its ...
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Auto Remarketing
Tesla salespeople rank highest in EV ‘prospect satisfaction'
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March 2019
Electric vehicle technologies are often new to many customers visiting an auto dealership, so the salesperson must also be able to introduce and explain the operation of EVs and the features and benefits of EV technology, such as understanding garage-charging options, according to Pied Piper Management Co. Success selling EVs depends on many of the same salesperson behaviors that customers find helpful when shopping for traditional automobiles, ...
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Automotive News First Shift
Tesla tops EV mystery-shopper study
March 2019
Pied Piper ranked 19 brands to measure how effectively each brand’s retailers helped EV shoppers become buyers.
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INSIDE EVs
Tesla, BMW & Nissan Stores Top Ranked As Most Helpful To EV Buyers
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March 2019
According to the latest 2019 Pied Piper “PSI® for EVs” U.S. Auto Industry Benchmarking Study, Tesla‘s dealerships (in the case of Tesla there are no dealers but stores/galleries) were ranked highest in terms of being most helpful to customers interested in plug-in electric cars. Tesla scored 118 points (18 over industry average), which is interesting especially because the brand was last in the general 2018 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction ...
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Press Release: TESLA, BMW AND NISSAN DEALERSHIPS RANKED HIGHEST BY PIED PIPER “PSI(R) FOR EVs” STUDY
Industry Benchmarking Study Measured Treatment of Electric Vehicle Shoppers
March 2019
Monterey, California – March 4, 2019 – Tesla dealerships were ranked highest in the newly released 2019 Pied Piper “PSI® for EVs” U.S. Auto Industry Benchmarking Study, which measured treatment of electric vehicle (EV) shoppers. BMW and Nissan dealerships were ranked second and third respectively. For 13 years Pied Piper has used the Prospect Satisfaction Index® (PSI®) process, which ties “mystery shopping” measurement and scoring to industry ...
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CARBUZZ
Audi Ranks As Top Dealer Experience While Tesla Fares Poorly
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August 2018
Dealership experience is a big part of buying a new car. When it comes to buying a car, there are lots of annoyances that can make for a painful experience. The way a dealership treats you can sometimes make or break the car buying experience, either enticing you to purchase a vehicle you may otherwise not have, or turning customers off of a brand completely. For the 12th year in a row, a company called Pied Piper has conducted its US Auto ...
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