Press

Monterey, California – May 6, 2024 – Napleton Auto Group dealerships were ranked highest out of eighteen of the largest auto dealer groups for the third year in a row according to the 2024 Pied Piper PSI^® Internet Lead Effectiveness^® (ILE^®) Study, which measured responsiveness to internet leads coming though dealer websites. Following Napleton were Berkshire Hathaway, Herb Chambers, Ken Garff, and Ganley dealer groups. 

Pied Piper submitted mystery-shopper customer inquiries to all dealerships owned by each of the eighteen dealer groups, asking a specific question about a vehicle in inventory, and providing a unique 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. ILE evaluation of a dealership combines over 20 different measurements to create a total score ranging between 0 and 100.

In this year’s study, 42% of dealerships scored above 80, providing a quick and thorough personal response, while 18% scored below 40, failing to personally respond to their website customers. Napleton, the top performing dealer group, significantly outperformed the industry average, with 84% of their dealerships scoring over 80, and only 6% scoring less than 40. “Top performing dealerships focus on their behaviors, but they also carefully track what their website customers are really experiencing – which is often a surprise,” said Fran O’Hagan, CEO of Pied Piper. “Without this step, dealership reports can encourage employees to pretend to respond, with automated responses to quickly ‘stop the clock,’ instead of the personal replies needed by customers.”