Press

Monterey, California, USA – March 8, 2021 – Infiniti dealerships ranked highest in the 2021 Pied Piper PSI^® Internet Lead Effectiveness^® Benchmarking Study, which answers the question, “What happens when customers visit a dealer website and inquire about a vehicle?” Dealerships selling Subaru vehicles were ranked second, followed by dealerships selling Acura.

Brands with the greatest improvement from 2020 to 2021 were Infiniti, Subaru, Acura, BMW and Land Rover. Twelve brands improved their performance from 2020 to 2021, while the performance for eighteen brands, and the industry overall, declined.

Pied Piper submitted customer inquiries through the individual websites of 4,356 dealerships, asking a 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.

Now in its eleventh year, the ILE^® study for 2021 implemented a modification to scoring which required answering a customer’s question by email or text as the only way to “stop the timeliness clock.” The industry average ILE score was unchanged by the modified scoring, but the change moved average scores for individual brands by as much as four points. In general, brands whose dealers are more likely to personally respond to customers benefited from this change, in contrast to brands whose dealers rely more on auto-responses and fixed email templates.

The appearance of COVID 19 has generated much more interest in digital retail tools, which allow website customers to complete more of their purchase path from home. Feedback from most dealers suggests that customers using the digital retail process still benefit from “assisted selling,” where dealership personnel are easy to reach throughout the process. However, the 2021 ILE study results show that dealers whose websites featured a “buy now” button failed to quickly respond to customer attempts to “chat” 44% of the time on average. “Digital retail technology promises to improve the car shopping experience,” said Fran O’Hagan, President & CEO of Pied Piper, “On the other hand, we can’t allow the presence of digital retail tools to excuse ignoring website customers who reach out for help.”

PSI^® Internet Lead Effectiveness^® (ILE^®) Benchmarking Studies have been conducted annually since 2011.  The 2021 Pied Piper PSI-ILE Benchmarking Study (U.S.A. Auto) was conducted between April 2020 and January 2021 by submitting website inquiries directly to a sample of 4,356 dealerships nationwide representing all major brands.  Examples of other recent Pied Piper PSI studies are the 2020 PSI-ILE U.S. Motorcycle/UTV Industry Study (Harley-Davidson brand was ranked first), and the 2019 “PSI for EVs” U.S. Auto Industry Study (Tesla brand was ranked first for selling EVs in-person).  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.