Press

Ducati dealerships were rated the best in the U.S. motorcycle industry at how well they deal with potential new customers. The Italian manufacturer earned the highest score out of 17 major brands in the 2014 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, the firs time Ducati topped the annual Index since 2009.

The study was conducted by California-based Pied Piper Management Company which employed 1,885 anonymous “mystery shoppers” to visit different dealerships across the U.S. between July 2013 and April 2014. The “mystery shoppers” pretended to be regular customers and observed how dealerships fared in a number of customer-friendly categories such as offering test rides, asking customers for contact information, or for doing something as straightforward as asking a customer to buy a motorcycle.

Ducati and Harley-Davidson (which topped the 2013 PSI study) combined to earn the top scores in half of the different categories. Another ten brands scored the highest in other categories. The scores were added up to produce an overall index number.

Test rides remain an important category that is underutilized by dealerships. According to the study, dealerships mentioned either an immediate or future opportunity for test rides only 52% of the time. That's an improvement from the 36% rate recorded in the 2011 study, but still rather low considering the results. According to Pied Piper Management, dealerships that offer immediate test rides at least half of the time sell 44% more motorcycles than dealerships that don't.

Ducati, Can-Am, Harley-Davidson and BMW dealers were the best at doing this, mentioning test rides 60% of the time, and it's no surprise they fared well overall. Meanwhile dealers selling Moto Guzzi, KTM, Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda motorcycles mentioned test rides only 30% of the time.