Press - automotive mystery shopping

There are a lot of ways to measure customer satisfaction. J.D. Power talks to recent buyers. Polk looks at sales stats and customer retention. But the folks at Pied Piper do it the old-fashioned way: with secret shoppers.

Between July 2011 and June 2012, Pied Piper hired 4,419 secret shoppers to visit dealerships across the U.S. The shoppers scored each sales pitch on 60 different criteria: were they offered a brochure? Were they given a walkaround demo of the vehicle? Did the salesperson discuss financing options? And so on.

Now, Pied Piper's data has been tallied, and the firm has released its 2012 Prospect Satisfaction Index (aka the "PSI"). Overall scores soared, proving that dealers and their teams have taken previous critiques to heart. Fran O'Hagan, Pied Piper's President and CEO, said that “This year's record high PSI results show that today's dealership employees work harder than ever to be helpful to car shoppers”.

Mercedes-Benz is still topping out in the U.S. when it comes to how its dealers treat shoppers. The Montvale, N.J.-based automaker, which was in the top five of the J.D. Power & Associates dealership experience survey last year behind Lexus and Cadillac, takes the top position in the latest Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI).

The PSI is a mystery shopper-based study that the firm conducted between July last year and June this year, using 4,419 hired anonymous people to shop at dealerships. Mercedes has been number one in the study for the past four years, based on a process that ties mystery shopping measurement and scoring to industry sales success. Acura, Infiniti and Lexus dealerships tied for second.

This is a good news/bad news, glass is half empty/half full type of situation. On the one hand, dealing with unscrupulous car dealers remains among the top consumer complaints, on the other hand a recent study reports that dealers are treating today's car shoppers better than ever on the showroom floor.

Especially if they're interested in buying a luxury-branded model.

Mercedes-Benz dealers can boast having the most satisfied shoppers in the auto industry according to the 2012 Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) U.S. Auto Industry Benchmarking Study conducted by Pied Piper Management Company in Monterey, Calif. Meanwhile, Acura, Infiniti and Lexus followed closely in a three-way tie for second place. Overall, twenty-four of thirty-four auto brands improved their prospect satisfaction scores from 2011 to 2012. Those at the bottom of the pack include Audi, Jeep, Kia, Porsche, Suzuki and Mitsubishi.

Tim Mayhew, the ringleader of Pashnit Motorcycle Tours in Northern California, reports that business is booming, and this year's tours are nearly all sold out. Demand from repeat customers is so strong that Mayhew has had to increase the number of annual tours just to meet demand from repeat customers. Mayhew's customers clearly have the time of their life on these tours, which they enjoy not only for the motorcycle riding but also for the adventure and the camaraderie.

How can your dealership turn that “time of their life” motorcycle customer experience into dealership revenues and profitability? Play dealership tour guide for your customers, enticing them to use their motorcycles not only for riding but also for adventure and camaraderie.

LOS ANGELES – Internet leads are crucial to every dealership's sales success, but a new study shows that most dealerships still drop the ball when contacted on-line by shoppers.

The survey was conducted by mystery shopping consultant Pied Piper of Monterey, Calif. The consultancy submitted internet inquiries to 4,331 dealerships nationwide representing all major brands. The inquiries included specific questions to verify whether the answer was from a person or an automated responder.

The most common dealership reply—the response to 16 percent of inquiries—was a simple automated response promising that a salesperson would be in touch soon, followed by a personal e-mail from a salesperson. But nearly one in four queries went unanswered in the first 24 hours. Pied Piper CEO Fran O'Hagan said that is little different from ignoring a customer who walks in the front door of a dealership.

Lexus, Infiniti and Acura ranked highest in Pied Piper's annual study to measure dealership responsiveness to buyers' questions over the internet.

Japanese luxury-brand U.S. dealerships rank best in fielding customer Internet inquiries, according to the latest results of an annual study by consulting firm Pied Piper Management.

Toyota's Lexus and Nissan's Infiniti tie for first place with 62% online-lead effectiveness, followed by Honda's Acura with 59%.
In contrast, two other Japanese nameplates score the worst, Toyota's Scion with 39% effectiveness and Suzuki, dead last with 23%.

Ford and Chrysler brands showed the most improvement from last year. In a 3-way tie for fourth place are Ford, Lincoln and Honda, each with 58% Internet effectiveness.

Pied Piper bases its rankings on a scoring index using “mystery shopping” measurements and sales success.

• Industry-wide improvement from previous year led by Ford and Chrysler
• However, 22% of customer internet inquiries remain unanswered after 24 hours

Monterey, California – March 12, 2012 – Lexus, Infiniti and Acura dealerships ranked highest in the 2012 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index(R) (PSI(R)) Internet Lead Effectiveness(™) (ILE™) Benchmarking Study, which measured auto dealership responsiveness to customer inquiries received over the internet. Study rankings by brand were determined by the patent-pending Pied Piper PSI process, which ties “mystery shopping” measurement and scoring to actual industry sales success.

Industry-wide performance improved substantially from 2011 to 2012, with two-thirds of the 34 auto brands recording higher scores, but despite the higher scores there remains plenty of room for improvement. In 2011, dealerships on average responded to customer inquiries within 24 hours 64% of the time, improving to 78% of the time on average in 2012. However, the 2012 results suggest that nearly one-in-four of today's customer internet inquiries remain unanswered after 24 hours.

In 2005, more than 275,000 dirt bikes were sold in the U.S., but over the next six years dirt bike retails plummeted 75 percent – more of a drop than any other motorcycle category. Most of those dirt bike customers are still around, but do they still ride? Are they riding, but just not replacing their bikes as often? Is it possible to coax these dirt riders out of “new-bike-purchase-hibernation” to get them interested in buying a new dirt bike again?

Hollister Hills is a 4,000-plus acre off road riding state park in Northern California. According to the park's director, Jeff Gaffney, visitor attendance grew steadily from about 150,000 annually in 2000 to about 200,000 visitors annually in 2006, which also happened to coincide with the peak of U.S. motorcycle sales. We know what happened to motorcycle retails after 2006, but what happened to dirt rider attendance at Hollister Hills between 2006 and today? Did the dirt bikers who stopped buying also stop riding?

Can your dealership sell more motorcycles and accessories simply by improving your showroom lighting? Some dealerships make no change to the standard fluorescent fixtures that came with the building, while others install bright ambient lighting as well as spotlights on motorcycles and on accessory displays. All that specialized lighting costs money to install and the ongoing electric bill may be higher too, so where are the facts proving that specialized lighting is worth the expense?

We dealership folks may be experts when it comes to motor vehicles, but other industries have been paying very close attention to lighting for many years, and we may be able to learn from their experience. Visit any mall and look at the lighting used by jewelry stores, clothing stores and for that matter, nearly any major retailer.

The reason you see such consistency, with plenty of bright but neutral ambient light as well as spotlighting, is that retail stores must achieve retail sales per square foot targets. These retailers learned years ago that the only way to hit their targets was to pay close attention to lighting.

How about some facts? Ten years ago General Nutrition Center (GNC) and its lighting supplier had an argument. GNC and the lighting supplier agreed that the prototype of a new GNC store design looked great, but GNC noticed that they could save a lot of money by cutting the display lighting from the design. The lighting supplier was not happy with that idea, but neither side had facts to back up their conviction, so they agreed to research it...