MONTEREY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Napleton Auto Group was ranked highest among fifteen national dealer groups evaluated in the 2022 Pied Piper PSI® Internet Lead Effectiveness® (ILE®) Study, which measured responsiveness to Internet leads coming though dealership websites. Ranked second and third were Penske Automotive Group and Berkshire Hathaway Automotive.
Pied Piper has been measuring and ranking ILE performance annually for all major auto brands since 2011, but 2022 marked the first time the same criteria was used to measure and rank the national dealer groups. The top three national dealer groups all achieved higher ILE average scores than the highest scoring auto brand, and twelve of the fifteen national dealer groups achieved higher ILE average scores than the overall auto industry average score.
Nearly all car shoppers today begin their shopping online, and quick and effective response to those shoppers directly drives sales. “Our measurements show that dealers who respond quickly, personally, and completely to website customer inquiries on average sell 50% more vehicles to the same quantity of website customers as opposed to dealers who fail to respond,” said Fran O’Hagan, President of Pied Piper. “We also found that customers of a top performing dealer group were three times more likely to get a speedy reply to their website inquiry than customers of a poor performer.”
Pied Piper submitted mystery-shopper customer inquiries through the individual websites of 1,631 dealerships, asking a specific question about a vehicle in inventory, and providing a customer name, email address and local telephone number. Pied Piper then evaluated how the dealerships responded by email, telephone and text message over the next 24 hours. All dealerships for each of the fifteen dealer groups were evaluated, except for Automotive Management Services, for which a sample of 50 dealerships were evaluated.
Twenty different measurements generate dealership ILE scores, which range from zero to 100. Dealerships which score above 80 provide a quick and thorough personal response by email and phone, and often text too. In contrast, dealerships which score below 40 fail to personally respond in any way to their website customers. For the top scoring dealer group, Napleton Auto Group, 63% of their dealerships scored over 80, while only 11% scored under 40. In contrast, measurement of the overall auto industry showed that only 26% of dealerships scored over 80 while 35% scored under 40.
Response to customer web inquiries varied by dealer group, and the following are examples of performance variation by company:
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How often did the company’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question within 30 minutes?
- More than 50% of the time on average: Napleton, Penske, Morgan, Serra
- Less than 35% of the time on average: Ken Garff, AutoNation, Lithia, Victory
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How often did the company’s dealerships use a text message to answer a website customer’s inquiry?
- More than 35% of the time on average: Asbury, Automotive Management Services, Napleton, Morgan
- Less than 20% of the time on average: Ken Garff, Penske, Greenway, Berkshire Hathaway, Victory
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How often did the company’s dealerships phone the web customer within 60 minutes?
- More than 75% of the time on average: Napleton
- Less than 30% of the time on average: Victory, Greenway
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Although not part of ILE scoring, Pied Piper also measured dealer-website responsiveness to a site’s chat function (if offered). How often did a “human” respond to a customer question within 30 seconds?
- More than 80% of the time on average: Berkshire Hathaway, Sonic, Penske
- Less than 40% of the time on average: Napleton
The Pied Piper PSI® Internet Lead Effectiveness® (ILE®) Studies have been conducted annually since 2011. The 2022 Pied Piper PSI® Dealer Group Internet Lead Effectiveness® (ILE®) Study was conducted between June 2022 and August 2022 by submitting website inquiries directly to a sample of 1,631 dealerships nationwide representing fifteen national dealer groups.
About Pied Piper Management Company, LLC
Founded in 2003, Pied Piper Management Company, LLC is a Monterey, California, company that provides process measurement and reporting to improve the omnichannel sales & service performance of retail networks. Examples of other recent Pied Piper PSI studies are the 2022 PSI-ILE U.S. Auto Industry Study (Nissan’s Infiniti brand was ranked first), 2022 PSI-ILE U.S. Motorcycle/UTV Industry Study (Harley-Davidson brand was ranked first), and the 2022 Premium Auto Omnichannel PSI Industry Study (General Motors’ Cadillac brand was ranked first.) Complete Pied Piper PSI industry study results are provided to vehicle manufacturers and national dealer groups. Manufacturers, national dealer groups and individual dealerships also order PSI evaluations—in-person, internet or telephone—as tools to measure and improve the omnichannel sales effectiveness of their dealerships. For more information about the Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, and the fact-based PSI process, go to www.piedpiperpsi.com.
