Monterey, California, USA – April 18, 2022 – Harley-Davidson dealerships ranked highest in the 2022 Pied Piper PSI® Internet Lead Effectiveness® (ILE®) Motorcycle/UTV Industry Study, which measured responsiveness to Internet leads coming through dealership websites – behaviors tied directly to retail sales success. Dealers selling Polaris Inc’s Indian motorcycles were ranked second, followed by Polaris Side-by-Side/UTV dealers.
“Quick response to web customers is critical to selling, placing an order, or building the foundation for future sales,” said Fran O’Hagan, CEO of Pied Piper. “Dealers who respond quickly, personally, and completely to website customer inquiries on average sell 50% more vehicles to their web customers as opposed to dealers who fail to respond.”
Dealers for four of the top scoring brands, Harley-Davidson, Indian, Polaris and BRP’s Can-Am not only scored well in 2022, but also have dramatically improved their web response behaviors over time. Over the past five years, dealers for those four brands have on average more than doubled how often they answer web customer questions by email or text, from 27% of the time in 2018 to 59% of the time in 2022.
Industry average ILE performance increased three points to 43, the industry’s highest average score to date. This year for the first time, dealers for two brands, Harley-Davidson and Indian, performed better, on average, than typical car dealers, who in general began focusing on web customers years before powersports and ag dealers.