(March 14, 2011) MONTEREY, Calif. (PRNewswire) — Lexus, Honda and Toyota dealerships ranked highest in a newly released study to measure dealership responsiveness to customer inquiries over the internet. The study measured average dealership performance for all major U.S. automotive brands, showing a wide variety in performance by brand. 

The Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) Internet Lead Effectiveness Benchmarking Study was conducted as an independent benchmarking service to its Internet Lead Effectiveness clients, who receive monthly internet "mystery shops" to measure and improve dealership response to internet inquiries. 

Internet Lead Effectiveness rankings by brand are determined by the Pied Piper PSI process, which ties "mystery shopping" measurement and scoring to actual industry sales success.  Nineteen different Internet Lead Effectiveness questions generate composite scores for Timeliness of Response, Dealership and Salesperson Identification, Quality of Communication and Forwarding the Sale.

The top 10 companies and their Pied Piper scores were: Lexus, 61; Honda, 60; Toyota, 59; Smart, 58; Mercedes-Benz and Audi, 56; Acura and Infiniti, 54; and Porsche and Nissan, 52. Next was Subaru, 51; and Cadillac and Hyundai scored at the industry average of 50. The lowest scoring company was Saab at 38.

As recently as three years ago, only six in ten dealership internet inquiries were answered in any way within 24 hours.  In comparison, today dealerships respond within 24 hours nine times out of ten, but often with an automated, impersonal response. 

However, despite the increase in responses driven by automated CRM systems, today a customer's specific question is answered within 24 hours only 64 percent of the time.  Or in other words, 36 percent of today's internet inquiries remain unanswered after 24 hours.

"A dealer principal would never accept this sort of poor performance in traditional dealership activities," said Fran O'Hagan, president and CEO of Pied Piper Management Company.  "Imagine ignoring 36 percent of sales customers who walk through the door, or ignoring 36 percent of customers who bring their car in for service." 

A reason cited for this disparity in performance is that a dealership's internet response performance is often invisible to dealership management, which is why Pied Piper offers internet mystery shopping to shine a light on dealership performance. 

O'Hagan noted, "We find dramatically different industrywide results for Pied Piper internet mystery shops when compared to in-person mystery shops.  When we break-out the auto industry average results into simple letter grades, we find that 64 percent of in-person mystery shops are either "A" or "B" performances, while only 16 percent earn a "D" or "F."  In comparison, only 17 percent of internet mystery shops earn an "A" or "B" grade, while 60 percent perform at a "D" or "F" level."     

The 2011 Pied Piper study was conducted between September 2010 and March 2011 by submitting internet inquiries to a sample of 2,816 dealerships nationwide representing all major brands.