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BMW, Honda dealers respond quickly to internet inquiries
September 2016
Pied Piper’s inaugural internet study finds 6 in 10 shoppers received no answer
BMW and Honda dealerships ranked highest in the 2016 Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness Motorcycle Industry Study, which measured how motorcycle dealerships responded to customer inquiries received through dealership websites. Study rankings by brand were determined by the Pied Piper PSI process, which ties mystery shopping measurement and scoring to dealership sales success.
Pied Piper sent customer inquiries through the individual websites of 1,757 motorcycle dealerships, asking a question about a vehicle in inventory and providing a contact name, email address and local telephone number. Pied Piper then evaluated how the dealerships responded over the next 24 hours. Nineteen different measurements generated a dealership’s PSI-ILE score.
Motorcycle industry average performance has improved compared to previous years. For example, in 2008, Pied Piper found that motorcycle dealerships on average responded in any way within 24 hours only 30 percent of the time. Response increased to 72 percent of the time in 2013 and 89 percent of the time in 2016, as “auto responder” ustomer
relationship management (CRM) software has become more common. CRM software is only the first step though, since acknowledging a customer inquiry with an automated response fails to answer customer questions.
Despite acknowledging customer inquiries 89 percent of the time in 2016, motorcycle dealerships answered customer questions only 41 percent of the time. “Imagine ignoring 60 percent of the customers who walk into a dealership,” said Fran O’Hagan, president and CEO of Pied Piper Management Company LLC. “A dealer principal would never accept such poor performance, yet that is exactly what’s happening today to customers who reach out through a dealer website.”
