PSI® Omnichannel Fact-Based Mystery Shopping®
Recent Press - Tesla (Page 2)
L.A. Times
Survey finds big gap in quality of sales approach at Tesla from store to store
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July 2018
One in four Tesla retail stores are among the best in the auto industry at treating prospective buyers with respect and turning them into paying customers, according to a market research firm. But many other Tesla retail stores are the worst at doing those things — in such numbers that Tesla stores as a whole scored at the bottom of 35 auto brands on the Prospect Satisfaction Index released recently by Pied Piper, a service that sells data to ... Read More >
INSIDE EVs
Volkswagen Group's Audi brand dealerships ranked highest in the newly released 2018 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index
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July 2018
In a dealership study published by the Pied Piper Management Company, covering the rankings of particular car dealerships from a customer’s standpoint, Tesla didn’t fare so well. The U.S based car company ranked dead last (34th out of 34) out of the auto brands included in the survey. Rankings are made by evaluating how helpful each company’s salespeople are to customers and at closing deals, something Tesla doesn’t try to actively do. Tesla also ... Read More >
Wall Street Journal
Hello, This is Stark Industries. No, We Do Not Make Iron Man Suits
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August 2017
Companies that share names with fictional firms from cult movies and shows can get into some stupefying situations. ‘Yeah, great latex salesman.’ Pied Piper, a Pacific Grove, Calif., firm that rates the effectiveness of car dealer networks, was founded 10 years earlier and located 90 miles to the south of the fictional technology startup of the same name in the HBO show “Silicon Valley.” Founder Fran O’Hagan said he was recently “presenting to a ... Read More >
Wards Auto
Why Dealership Showroom Staffers Should Follow Sales Process
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July 2017
Successful car salespeople regularly follow established sales processes, says Fran O’Hagan, president and CEO of Pied Piper Management, a consulting firm that mystery shops dealerships to determine showroom effectiveness. Dealers themselves, not automakers, should establish those processes. And it shouldn’t be optional for staffers to follow them or not, he says. For the second year, Nissan’s Infiniti brand dealerships ranked highest in the 2017 ... Read More >
Automotive World
Dealership Insights: ‘Helpful' sells cars, ‘Ambivalent' doesn't
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July 2016
Pied Piper Management Company has been looking into dealership performance over the past decade. Megan Lampinen speaks to its CEO about what makes a successful sales approach Competition on the US new car market is fierce, and treatment at the dealership level can make all the difference. For the past decade, the Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) US Auto Benchmarking Study has been taking a closer look every year at which brands are ... Read More >
Auto Blog
Mystery shoppers love Infiniti, hate Tesla; The study shows "huge variation" in the Tesla purchasing experience.
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July 2016
Infiniti, followed by Lexus tied with Mercedes-Benz took the top two spots for best sales experience according to mystery shoppers from the latest Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, while EV manufacturer Tesla recorded the lowest overall score. Not surprisingly, premium brands dominated the top ranks. Including the three already mentioned, luxury brands occupied seven of the top ten spots and included Audi, BMW, Porsche, and the only ... Read More >
Wards Auto
Mystery Shoppers Put Tesla Dealerships in Cellar – Again
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July 2016
Fran O’Hagan is a methodical guy who’s baffled as to why Tesla stores year after year score so low in an annual mystery-shopping study of dealership sales effectiveness. The electric-car maker, which has skirted the traditional dealership franchise system in favor of owning its own sales outlets, ranked dead last on this year’s Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index. The study by brand measures how well dealerships follow sales processes, such ... Read More >
Truth About Cars
Tesla Dead Last in Dealer Experience, First in PR
July 2015
We have opined in these pages before about how for every Tesla sold in America, there are two or three glowing stories written about the electric automaker. There are days when over 50 percent of the pieces on auto industry news feeds are about Tesla, which is not bad for a company capturing 0.1 percent of the U.S. automobile market. Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is truly a marketing and public relations genius. Given that, it is fascinating when a ... Read More >
Wards Auto
Luxury Brands Have Great Cars, and Great Salespeople
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July 2015
Why do Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus rank 1-2-3 in U.S. luxury-brand sales? Reasons vary. But one of them is that their dealership salespeople are real pros. And a reason for that is their staff retention rates are high, meaning good people stick around. And they do so because they're earning a good living from healthy margins on premium cars. “It boils down to profitability,” says Fran O'Hagan, head of Piped Piper Management, a consulting company ... Read More >
The Detroit Bureau
Turning Shoppers into Customers: Mercedes Tops the Chart in New Study
Tesla turns its showrooms into museums.
July 2015
When Linda Brightman started out to buy a new car she had her heart set on a new BMW 3-Series. The suburban Los Angeles mother of two made one concession to her husband, agreeing to at least visit a few other showrooms to see what the competitors had to offer. He was nonetheless surprised when she drove home in a new Mercedes-Benz C-Class. She liked a lot of the safety features, Brightman explained. But what had clinched the deal was the way the ... Read More >
