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Press Release: LEXUS IMPROVES TOP RANKING FOR RESPONSE TO CUSTOMER INTERNET INQUIRIES, REPORTS PIED PIPER PSI®
March 2015
• Industrywide every 12th customer received no response of any type
• Less than half of customers received answer to question within 24 hours
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – March 9, 2015 – Lexus dealerships improved their top ranking in the 2015 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index® (PSI®) Internet Lead Effectiveness(™) (ILE™) Benchmarking Study, which measured auto dealership responsiveness to customer inquiries received over the internet. Study rankings by brand were determined by the patent-pending Pied Piper PSI process, which ties “mystery shopping” measurement and scoring to dealership sales success.
Industry average performance improved slightly from 2014 to 2015, but the performance of seventeen brands declined. Brands achieving the greatest improvement were Infiniti, Mini, Mitsubishi, Dodge, Acura and Toyota. Five non-luxury brands were included within the ranking of top ten brands: Fiat, Dodge, Toyota, Honda and Ford.
2015 marks the fifth consecutive year that Pied Piper has released the PSI-ILE “Internet” Study, and there are marked differences in how the performance of auto brands have changed over time. For example, Lexus is the only brand that has remained in the top one-third of all brands during all five years. Among mainstream brands, both Honda and Toyota have changed little in five years, remaining in the top half of all brands. In contrast, the performance of both Ford and FCA (Chrysler) brands have improved substantially, from well-below the industry average to above the industry average. For the most part, GM brands have remained consistently below the industry average.
The success of Lexus is based upon consistent sales processes and a greater quantity of top-performing dealerships as a percentage of all dealerships. PSI-ILE reports dealership scores, and also assigns letter grades: A – B – C – D – F for each evaluation. In the 2015 study the percentage of industrywide evaluations that scored an A grade was 5%, compared to the Lexus percentage of 22%. Similarly, 30% of industrywide evaluations scored an F, compared to the Lexus percentage of 16%. Measurements where Lexus dealerships led the industry include responding in any way to customer internet inquiries (99% of the time), giving reasons to act quickly (29% of the time), and giving reasons to buy from their specific dealership (66% of the time.)
Industrywide, much room remains for improvement. In the 2015 study, every 12th customer (8%) received no response of any type—not even an automated email response; a level that has not improved over the past five years. During the 2015 study, only Lexus dealerships managed to respond to 98% or more of customer internet inquiries. In contrast, during the 2015 study the following brands failed to respond in any way to one-in-ten or more of their customer internet inquiries: BMW, Cadillac, Honda, Hyundai, Lincoln, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Scion, Subaru, and Volvo.
“Few areas within the auto industry reward effort so immediately with incremental sales,” said Fran O'Hagan, President and CEO of Pied Piper Management Company LLC, talking about how dealerships handle customer internet inquiries. “Yet at too many dealerships, internet follow-up performance remains largely invisible.”
• Less than half of customers received answer to question within 24 hours
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – March 9, 2015 – Lexus dealerships improved their top ranking in the 2015 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index® (PSI®) Internet Lead Effectiveness(™) (ILE™) Benchmarking Study, which measured auto dealership responsiveness to customer inquiries received over the internet. Study rankings by brand were determined by the patent-pending Pied Piper PSI process, which ties “mystery shopping” measurement and scoring to dealership sales success.
Industry average performance improved slightly from 2014 to 2015, but the performance of seventeen brands declined. Brands achieving the greatest improvement were Infiniti, Mini, Mitsubishi, Dodge, Acura and Toyota. Five non-luxury brands were included within the ranking of top ten brands: Fiat, Dodge, Toyota, Honda and Ford.
2015 marks the fifth consecutive year that Pied Piper has released the PSI-ILE “Internet” Study, and there are marked differences in how the performance of auto brands have changed over time. For example, Lexus is the only brand that has remained in the top one-third of all brands during all five years. Among mainstream brands, both Honda and Toyota have changed little in five years, remaining in the top half of all brands. In contrast, the performance of both Ford and FCA (Chrysler) brands have improved substantially, from well-below the industry average to above the industry average. For the most part, GM brands have remained consistently below the industry average.
The success of Lexus is based upon consistent sales processes and a greater quantity of top-performing dealerships as a percentage of all dealerships. PSI-ILE reports dealership scores, and also assigns letter grades: A – B – C – D – F for each evaluation. In the 2015 study the percentage of industrywide evaluations that scored an A grade was 5%, compared to the Lexus percentage of 22%. Similarly, 30% of industrywide evaluations scored an F, compared to the Lexus percentage of 16%. Measurements where Lexus dealerships led the industry include responding in any way to customer internet inquiries (99% of the time), giving reasons to act quickly (29% of the time), and giving reasons to buy from their specific dealership (66% of the time.)
Industrywide, much room remains for improvement. In the 2015 study, every 12th customer (8%) received no response of any type—not even an automated email response; a level that has not improved over the past five years. During the 2015 study, only Lexus dealerships managed to respond to 98% or more of customer internet inquiries. In contrast, during the 2015 study the following brands failed to respond in any way to one-in-ten or more of their customer internet inquiries: BMW, Cadillac, Honda, Hyundai, Lincoln, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Scion, Subaru, and Volvo.
“Few areas within the auto industry reward effort so immediately with incremental sales,” said Fran O'Hagan, President and CEO of Pied Piper Management Company LLC, talking about how dealerships handle customer internet inquiries. “Yet at too many dealerships, internet follow-up performance remains largely invisible.”
