Recent Press - dealership responsiveness

All but one motorcycle brand's dealers declined in their year-over-year Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) as measured in a benchmarking study by independent company, Pied Piper Management Co., LLC. Overall motorcycle industry performance declined across a majority of the sales process activities tracked by the study, which led to lower PSI scores for 13 of the 14 major brands. Only Husqvarna didn't decline, as it maintained its PSI score of 90 it had achieved in last year's study.

“What I find very interesting is that from 2009 to 2010, the industry PSI scores went up,” explains Fran O'Hagan, President and CEO of Pied Piper Management Co., LLC. “If you think about it, in that time period, the motorcycle industry was hating life, but the industry's scores went up. Why did the scores go up so much last year and then go back down this year?”

The drop, O'Hagan suggests, is likely due to staffing issues at dealerships. Throughout the recession, dealerships cut back on staffing, including in the sales department. Indeed, in a recent study conducted by Powersports Business, 50 percent of the dealership respondents suggested they reduced staff levels in 2010.

American and European motorcycle brands are very good at something the import brands are still struggling with: creating a strong brand affinity and satisfaction at the retail level.

For the second year in a row, Polaris' Victory Motorcycle brand is the top-ranking motorcycle maker in prospect satisfaction in the new Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI). Victory led the pack in areas such as providing a product walk-around demonstration, mentioning the availability of financing options, mentioning the availability of accessories, and pointing out features that are unique from the competition.

Victory Motorcycle has again earned the top spot in the Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) U.S. Benchmarking Study. Victory is followed by Harley-Davidson in second place, and Ducati and Triumph, which tied for third, with BMW and Yamaha rounding out the top five spots. According to the report, all of these brands scored above the industry average.

The independent Pied Piper PSI study employed 1,967 anonymous “mystery shoppers” to visit motorcycle dealerships across the nation in order to “measure how effectively each brand's dealerships helped motorcycle shoppers become motorcycle buyers,” according to Pied Piper. The study is now in its fifth year.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.