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Harley-Davidson dealers top PSI scores for second year in a row

Harley-Davidson dealerships received the highest score in the 2013 Pied Piper Satisfaction Index (PSI) released this week. However, Suzuki dealers ranked No. 1 in the PSI-Internet Lead Effectiveness study.

Look for more on the PSI results in the May 27 issue of Powersports Business. The following is the news release from Pied Piper Management Company, LLC:

Harley-Davidson dealerships were top-ranked in the newly released 2013 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) U.S. Motorcycle Industry Benchmarking Study, which measured dealership treatment of motorcycle shoppers. Study rankings by brand were determined by the patent-pending Pied Piper PSI process, which ties “mystery shopping” measurement and scoring to industry sales success.

For the first time since 2008, Pied Piper also separately measured how effectively motorcycle dealerships responded to customer inquiries received on-line through dealership websites.

Harley-Davidson dealerships led all brands in eighteen different sales activities, such as encouraging shoppers to sit on a motorcycle, asking for contact information, and helping the shopper overcome obstacles to the purchase. Eleven different brands led at least one sales process category, and brand performance varied considerably from brand to brand. For example, Ducati salespeople offered a brochure to approximately nine shoppers out of ten, while less than half Suzuki, Honda or Kawasaki salespeople offered a brochure. BMW, Triumph and Harley-Davidson salespeople were more than twice as likely to offer a demo ride as the salespeople at Ducati, Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha dealerships. Victory salespeople were most likely to suggest arranging a demo ride in the future.

Industry average dealership performance was mixed when comparing 2013 with the previous year.

Salesperson behaviors more likely in 2013 than 2012 include the following:

  • Offering demo rides (now 19% of the time)
  • Discussing features unique from competitors (now 49% of the time)
  • Encouraging going through the numbers or writing up a deal (now 33% of the time)

Salesperson behaviors less likely in 2013 than 2012 include the following:

  • Conducting a walk-around demonstration (now 70% of the time)
  • Overcoming shopper objections (now 74% of the time)
  • Giving compelling reasons to buy now (now 39% of the time)

2013 marks the seventh consecutive year of Pied Piper PSI motorcycle industry benchmarking studies. With seven years of data gathered from tens of thousands of motorcycle PSI evaluations nationwide, Pied Piper was able to fine-tune the study questions, weightings and scoring for 2013. As a result, Pied Piper reset the 2013 motorcycle industry average PSI score to “100.”

The resulting “second generation” PSI scoring is now even more closely correlated to motorcycle dealership sales success. Pied Piper has found that on average, when motorcycle dealerships are ranked by their PSI score, dealerships in the top quarter sell 22% more motorcycles than dealerships in the bottom quarter. “Any motorcycle dealership faces plenty of challenges that are difficult, if not impossible, to change,” said Fran O’Hagan, President and CEO of Pied Piper Management Co., LLC. “In contrast, how a sales team sells is something a dealership can improve immediately.”

The 2013 Pied Piper PSIU.S. Motorcycle Industry Study was conducted between July 2012 and April 2013 using 2,503 hired anonymous “mystery shoppers” at dealerships representing all major brands, located throughout the U.S.

2013 Pied Piper PSI® Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE) U.S. Motorcycle Study

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Much has changed over the five years since 2008, when Pied Piper last measured how effectively U.S. motorcycle dealerships handled customer inquiries received over the internet. Back then, Pied Piper found that motorcycle dealerships responded within 24 hours—in any way—only 30% of the time. The comparable number in 2008 for the auto industry was 64% of the time, and auto-response CRM software in 2008 was uncommon.

Fast forward to 2013, and Pied Piper found that motorcycle dealerships respond within 24 hours 72% of the time, while the same 2013 figure for the auto industry is 93% of the time. Unlike 2008, today auto-response CRM systems are common. Today the first response to a motorcycle customer internet inquiry is an auto response 56% of the time, a personal response 16% of the time, and no response of any type 28% of the time.

When ranked by PSI-ILE, Suzuki dealerships finished first, followed by Triumph, Star, Ducati, BMW and Husqvarna. PSI-ILE measures nineteen different criteria, and two criteria of particular interest are whether the dealership answered a specific question posed by the customer, and whether the dealership attempted to follow-up by telephone. The brands whose dealerships were most likely to answer the customer’s specific question were BMW, Star, Husqvarna, Suzuki and Ducati. The brands whose dealerships were most likely to attempt to contact the customer by telephone were Harley-Davidson, Suzuki, Triumph, BMW and Victory.

The 2013 Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE) U.S. Motorcycle Study was conducted between September 2012 and April 2013 by submitting internet inquiries to a sample of 1,117 dealerships nationwide representing all major brands.

2013 PSI Rankings

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One Comment

  1. Ok…I’d like to be one of these so-called mystery shoppers here in Fresno CA…most of the sales people here are as cold as ice….I can’t recall even one of them encouraging me to take a demo ride, much less even barely suggest I take one…..they make you feel very small for even asking about it. I understand they have certain protections to make, for instance, if you have a lot of 20 somethings coming in to ride Ninjas all day, that might be a problem….but for someone like me 45+ looking for a bike, a few brief test rides would be helpful to me, but it’s sure no comfortable process in trying to demo a bike here.

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