Wards Auto
Some Dealership Effectiveness Gets Lost in the Email
March 2015
Lexus dealerships respond best to customer Internet inquiries, even though Toyota's luxury brand shows imperfections here and there. That's according to consultancy Pied Piper's annual by-brand mystery-shopping study for its Internet Lead Effectiveness Index. Lexus ranks first with a score of 70 (out of a possible 100), followed by Porsche at 65, Fiat at 62, Dodge and Infiniti both at 61 and Acura, Honda Jaguar and Toyota at 60. Low scorers ...
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Automotive News
Infiniti, Mini, Mitsubishi stores most-improved in responding to Internet leads
Lexus stays No. 1; Buick, Land Rover and Volvo have biggest declines
March 2015
Infiniti, Mini and Mitsubishi dealerships had the industry's biggest improvements in responsiveness to customer inquiries on the Internet, while Lexus stores led the way for the second consecutive year, according to a newly released study. Buick, Land Rover and Volvo had the largest drops in performance. The fifth annual Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index Internet Lead Effectiveness Benchmarking Study measured the responsiveness of 13,637 ...
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Wards Auto
Lexus Best, Mini Worst at Handling Customer Internet Leads
March 2014
March 2014 In a perfect world, every dealership would act on every Internet lead, responding quickly and following all the right steps leading to a sale. Some individual dealers currently do all that all the time, and their high Internet-related sales serve as evidence. But when it comes to groups of dealers representing particular auto brands, it's an imperfect world, according to a Pied Piper annual mystery-shopping study measuring dealership ...
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Automotive News
Lexus, Subaru rank high for responding to internet leads
March 2014
March 2014 LOS ANGELES -- Automakers whose dealers respond quickly to Internet leads with a personalized contact have tended to gain market share over those who treat those leads more casually with auto-response emails or salesman form letters. The 2014 Pied Piper's Internet Lead Effectiveness Benchmarking Study, found that although the industry-average performance was unchanged over last year, 21 of 33 brands improved their responsiveness. But ...
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TIME: Business & Money
Whodathunkit? Auto Dealerships Realize Responding to Customer E-mails Helps to Sell Cars
March 2013
For a while, some car dealerships have seemed somewhat ambivalent about e-mail inquiries from consumers. Sure, they represented potential sales leads. But it was assumed that online shoppers were even less serious about buying than on-site looky-loos. How commissions are usually doled out to dealership staffers further complicates matters. Nonetheless, because modern-day consumers demand info via the Web—and more importantly, because answering ...
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WardsAuto
Study Says Dealers Handling Internet Customers Better
March 2013
Dealerships are getting better at responding to online customers, and the reason seems clear to Fran O'Hagan. “Dealers who handle Internet leads effectively sell a lot more vehicles than dealers who do not,” says the president of consultancy Pied Piper Management. “That is why manufacturers and individual dealers are so interested in this.” Dealer behavior can change slowly in some respects, he says. “It is like changing the direction of a ship ...
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Automotive News
Study: Dealerships respond better to Internet leads
March 2013
LOS ANGELES – Car dealerships are doing better at responding to Internet leads, but the quality of the responses still leaves something to be desired, according to a new study. Mystery-shopping consultant Pied Piper Management Co. found that most of the 11,353 dealerships it submitted Internet inquires to in the past year now use customer relationship management software. And although the software usually automatically responds immediately to an ...
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