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Edmunds
Porsche Dealerships Are Tops in Fielding Online Customer Queries, Study Says
March 2016
MONTEREY, California— Porsche dealerships grabbed the top spot in a new study that measured how auto dealerships responded to online queries by car shoppers. Lexus dealerships took the 2nd spot in the study, followed by BMW.
The annual Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index Internet Lead Effectiveness Benchmarking Study looked at online responsiveness of 18,551 dealerships nationwide. The study was conducted between September 2015 and March 2016.
Mystery shoppers made inquiries online to gauge dealership response. "For 2016, dealers responded to half of the customer inquiries within 30 minutes, but one customer in eleven failed to receive a response of any type within 24 hours," the study said.
The study noted six brands have improved their performance every year for the past three years. They are Acura, BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Mini and Mitsubishi. Ford is the top-scoring non-luxury brand in 2016 and has performed above the industry average for the past three years, the study said. Toyota has finished at or above the industry average for the past three years. Nissan and Infiniti finished above average in 2016. Fiat-Chrysler brands fell below the industry average this year after performing above average in 2014 and 2015. "All General Motors brands performed below the industry average in 2016 as all have done for the past two years," the study said.
BMW, Lexus, Mini and Infiniti dealerships answered the customer's specific question more than 60 percent of the time. Ford, Fiat, Lincoln, Ram, Subaru and Jeep answered the question less than 33 percent of the time.
Edmunds says: This study underscores the importance of responding to customer Internet inquiries. Congratulations to Porsche and the other top dealerships for their stellar performance.
