Recent Press - Fran O'Hagan
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Powersports Business Blog May 2011 Our company applies the term, ‘museum curator' to describe salespeople who are friendly and knowledgeable and will happily answer any customer questions, but don't actively try to turn shoppers into buyers. Be careful, because when customers are asked about their experience with museum curator salespeople, the customers will often describe the experience positively, which can mislead.
When customers visit a dealership they are thinking about all kinds of subjects (Should I buy the Honda or the Yamaha? How much can I get for my trade if I sell it through Cycle Trader? Should I try to finance at the dealership or through my credit union? And so forth.) What customers are NOT thinking about is whether the salesperson is selling effectively. As long as the salesperson is friendly and helpful, it will not bother a customer at all if the salesperson never asks for the sale, never gives reasons to buy from this dealership, never asks for contact information and more. | |
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Press Release: VICTORY MOTORCYCLE DEALERS RANKED HIGHEST BY 2011 PIED PIPER PROSPECT SATISFACTION INDEX(R) May 2011 MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – May 2, 2011 – The Victory Motorcycle brand from Polaris Industries, Inc. maintained its top ranking in the newly released 2011 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index(R) (PSI(R)) U.S. Motorcycle Industry Benchmarking Study.
Harley-Davidson finished second, while Ducati and Triumph tied for third, followed by BMW and Yamaha, all of which scored above the industry average.
2011 marked the fifth year for the independent Pied Piper PSI benchmarking study, which sent 1,967 hired anonymous “mystery shoppers” into motorcycle dealerships nationwide. The study measured how effectively each brand's dealerships helped motorcycle shoppers become motorcycle buyers. Victory defended its top ranking despite a lower PSI score compared to the previous year. Overall motorcycle industry performance also declined across a majority of the sales process activities tracked by the study, which led to lower PSI scores for thirteen of the fourteen major motorcycle brands. | |
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Wards Auto Blog: Steve Finlay April 2011 If auto dealerships respond slowly to Internet sales leads, don't blame customer-relationship management software, says Fran O'Hagan.
He is CEO of Piped Piper, a consultancy that does an annual study using mystery shoppers to gauge Internet lead effectiveness of dealerships by vehicle brand.
CRM systems help dealerships track and manage leads. But the systems only are as good as the people using them – if they use them at all. “CRM is great” and does what it is supposed to do, O'Hagan says. When Internet mystery shoppers encounter a problem, “it isn't a problem with the CRM systems. The dealership process is broken.” | |
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PowerSports Business Blog April 2011 In the auto industry, we recently learned that industry-wide 36 percent of customer inquiries over the Internet remain unanswered after 24 hours. Granted, that is a car business figure, but when we measured the same figure for the motorcycle industry back in 2008, we found that the motorcycle industry responsiveness to Internet inquiries was roughly one-half of the auto industry's performance.
Think about what that means. … Imagine if your salespeople paid absolutely no attention to every third customer who walked through the door of your showroom, or if your service writer ignored every third service customer. A dealer principal would never knowingly accept that sort of performance for “in-person” activities, yet it happens every day to customers reaching out through dealership websites. | |
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Wards Auto March 2011 Fran O'Hagan recalls when his vice president of operations, Miles Stearman, phoned him with a sudden realization about selling cars in the digital age.
“Miles called from a dealership he was visiting and said, ‘The Internet is no longer incremental business at dealerships; it is the business,' and that's so true today,” says O'Hagan, president and CEO of Pied Piper Management, a firm that consults with dealers on boosting sales. | |
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Automotive News March 2011 Ninety percent of internet customers received some sort of response, but usually it's the e-mail equivalent of a form letter, according to a survey by Pied Piper Management Company of Monterey, California.
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Automotive News First Shift March 2011 Lexus, Honda and Toyota dealerships ranked highest in a study to measure how dealerships treat car customers online.
Pied Piper tracks dealerships' performance with mystery shoppers, but in this case, online mystery shoppers.
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AutoGuide.com March 2011 A new study, released by Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (try saying that with a full mouth) turned up some interesting findings, specifically when it came to what's called Internet Lead Effectiveness rankings.
The study measured average dealership performance for all brands selling vehicles in the US and discovered that it varied widely depending on the brand. Toyota, Lexus and Honda dealerships were shown to rank highest in terms of responding to customer inquiries over the internet. Pied Piper's study uses a patent pending process to tie ‘mystery shopping' measurement and scoring to actual sales success; with 19 different ‘Internet Lead Effectiveness' questions that generate scores on aspects such as Timeliness in response to customer inquiries, dealership and sales person identification, quality of communication and forwarding the sale. | |
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Media Post March 2011 Lexus, Honda and Toyota dealerships ranked highest in a newly released Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index Internet Lead Effectiveness study, which measures dealership responsiveness to customer inquiries over the internet.
But industry wide, dealers' internet efforts lag their in-person customer service.
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Press Release: 2011 Pied Piper PSI(R) Internet Lead Effectiveness(™) Benchmarking Study (U.S. Auto Industry) March 2011 Industrywide: 36% of customer internet inquiries remain unanswered after 24 hours
Lexus, Honda and Toyota dealerships ranked highest in a newly released Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index(R) (PSI(R)) Internet Lead Effectiveness(™) Benchmarking Study to measure dealership responsiveness to customer inquiries over the internet. The study measured average dealership performance for all major U.S. automotive brands, showing a wide variety in performance by brand. Pied Piper conducted the study as an independent benchmarking service to its Internet Lead Effectiveness clients, who receive monthly internet "mystery shops" to measure and improve dealership response to internet inquiries. | |
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