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BMW motorcycle dealerships ranked highest in the 2018 Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE) Industry Study, which measured how motorcycle and UTV dealerships responded to customer inquiries received through dealership websites. Study rankings by brand were determined by the Pied Piper PSI process, which ties “mystery shopping” measurement and scoring to dealership sales success.

Dealerships selling Polaris’ Indian motorcycle brand were ranked second, followed by Ducati, Husqvarna, Triumph, Kawasaki and Yanmar. Brands which improved the most from year to year were Ducati, Kawasaki, Triumph, Indian and BMW. Brands suffering a decline from year to year were Harley-Davidson and Yamaha.

Pied Piper sent customer inquiries through the individual websites of 3,175 dealerships, asking a question about a vehicle in inventory, and providing a contact name, email address and local telephone number. Pied Piper then evaluated how the dealerships responded over the next 24 hours. A total of 19 different measurements generated a dealership’s PSI-ILE score.

The year 2018 marks the first time that Outdoor Power Equipment brands selling UTVs were included as part of this study. In contrast, Powersports brands selling motorcycles have been measured annually for each of the past three years, and most Powersports brands improved their performance substantially from 2017 to 2018. For 2018, Powersports brands captured nine of the ten highest rankings, with seven brands achieving double-digit percentage improvement in their PSI-ILE score from 2017 to 2018.

Response to customer web inquiries varied substantially by brand, and by dealership within each brand. For example, on average only 45% of customers received a personal reply within 24 hours. But more than 60% of Indian, BMW, Ducati and Yanmar customers received a personal reply on average, while less than 30 percent of HISUN, CFMOTO or Toro customers received a personal reply on average.