MONTEREY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–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.
Response to customer web inquiries varied by brand and dealership, and the following are examples of performance variation by brand:
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How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question within 30 minutes?
- More than 45% of the time on average: Infiniti, Volvo, Subaru, Acura, Jaguar
- Less than 25% of the time on average: Buick, Genesis, Ford, Mitsubishi, GMC
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How often did the brand’s dealerships send a text message reply to a website customer’s inquiry?
- More than 57% of the time on…
