Latest news with #AutoDealerGroupStudy
Business Wire
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Business Wire
Group 1 Tops Pied Piper's 2025 Service Appointment Rankings; Industrywide A.I. Often Beats Human Staff
MONTEREY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Group 1 Automotive dealerships ranked highest in Pied Piper's 2025 PSI ® Service Telephone Effectiveness ® (STE ®) Auto Dealer Group Study, which measured efficiency and quality when attempting to schedule service appointments by telephone. Following Group 1 Automotive were Napleton Automotive Group, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, and Ed Morse Automotive Group. 'A.I. now often outperforms human staff on service calls, but handoffs to people frequently fall apart; Dealers must use A.I. as a tool—not a crutch—and stay committed to staffing and smooth transitions." Share Pied Piper submitted service calls to 2,105 dealerships representing 26 of the largest U.S. auto dealer groups, as well as to 200 independent service centers. Each location received an STE score ranging from 0-100 based on their performance in over 30 differently weighted measurements tied to best practices most likely to drive service revenue and customer loyalty. Each dealer group's average STE Score is a combined average of their individual dealership performances. Industrywide - Telephone Service Behaviors Improve Industrywide average service telephone performance continues to steadily improve, with a 2025 average STE score of 64, up four points since last year and six points since 2023. The improvement in average STE score was in large part due to a reduced rate of negative behaviors compared to the previous year. Less Time Spent on Hold – Service customers were placed on hold for more than two minutes only 2% of the time on average in 2025 compared to 13% of the time last year. Fewer 'Mission Failure' – The share of service customers who hung up without having been offered an appointment dropped to 9% this year, down from 13% last year. Group 1 Automotive Leads the Pack – Group 1 dealerships improved their average STE score by 12 points over the past year, achieving a record average STE score of 76. More Service Appointments Scheduled – Only 4% of Group 1 service callers weren't offered an appointment—down from 10% last year and less than half this year's dealer group average. Less Downtime on the Phone – The average Group 1 caller reached a service associate in 51 seconds—8 seconds faster than Group 1's performance last year, and 9 seconds quicker than this year's dealer group average. Group 1 callers were also half as likely to be placed on hold compared to the industry and 9% less likely to experience hold times exceeding two minutes. Rise of A.I. in Service Calls Use of artificial intelligence to interact with service customer calls continues to grow, and for the study Pied Piper collected data comparing the experience of service phone customers who interacted with A.I. vs those who interacted with a human. Today's A.I. Can Handle Most Service Calls – For dealerships using A.I. to answer service calls, those calls were handled successfully by the A.I. 91% of the time, including addressing the customer's request to schedule an appointment, without any reliance on a human service employee. Overall, customers successfully scheduled a service appointment 86% of the time at dealerships that rely on A.I., compared to 90% of the time at dealerships that rely on humans to interact with customers. ' Full Capability' Service A.I. Outperforms Majority of Human Associates – the average STE score when A.I. successfully handled the entire service call was 72, 8 points higher than the 2025 national dealer group average, and nearly as high as the STE average scores of top performing dealer groups. 84% of these successful A.I. interactions achieved STE scores equal to or better than this year's dealer group average STE score. When A.I. Cannot Handle Service Calls, The Transfer Often Fumbles – While some customer requests are very simple, such as oil changes or standard maintenance, other customers call about recalls or a combination of issues, which today usually requires a transfer to a human. A.I. was unable to handle the customer request 9% of the time, and when attempting to transfer to a human associate, those handoffs failed 56% of the time. Typical issues include requiring the customer to call back later, sending to voicemail, endless hold, and call dropped when transferred. Note that the average A.I. transfer occurs 88 seconds into the call, meaning that the failure may leave the customer disgruntled over having wasted their time, compared to the alternative of having to leave a voicemail at the start of a call. When Transferred from A.I. to Human Associate, Average Human STE Performance is Worse – At dealerships using A.I., when the A.I. transfers customers to a human service associate, whether by customer request or reaching the limit of A.I. capability, the average STE score was 50, 14 points lower than the dealer group average and 22 points below the current 'full capability' A.I. average score. At dealerships using A.I., only 28% of transferred customers interacted with service staff whose performance achieved an STE score higher than the average A.I. STE score. 'A.I. now often outperforms human staff on service calls, but handoffs to people frequently fall apart,' said Cameron O'Hagan, Pied Piper's Vice President of Metrics and Analytics. 'Dealers must use A.I. as a tool—not a crutch—and stay committed to staffing and smooth transitions.' Independent Service Centers: Competitive Threat New for 2025, the study also included measurement of independent service center STE performance. The findings show that independent service center performance was mixed, but for some important measurements their performance exceeded the dealer group average. The Independent Service Centers at a Glance – the locations of four different independent service center brands were studied. Average STE scores for each independent were as follows: Midas (65), Firestone (62), Meineke (57), Pep Boys (56), with an overall independent service center industry average STE score of 60, compared to the dealer group average STE score of 64. While 51% of independent service centers outperformed dealers, the independent service centers offered an appointment only 79% of the time on average, compared to 90% of the time on average for the dealer groups. Advantages in some key behaviors – While the average dealer group STE score is higher, independent service centers excel in some individual behaviors: They are twice as likely to offer a cost estimate over the phone and most notably, the average days out until the earliest available appointment hovered around 1 day on average, compared to 4 days out for the dealer groups nationally. 'Failure to schedule an appointment quickly may be all it takes for a dealership's service customer to choose an independent shop,' said O'Hagan. 'Dealerships work hard to avoid losing service customers, and the faster availability and greater price transparency of independents can be a real threat.' 2025 Dealer Group Performance Compared 'Quickly Reach Associate' - How often did customers of the group's dealerships reach a service associate within one minute? More than 80% of the time on average: Zeigler Auto Group, Greenway Automotive, Serra Automotive, Bergstrom Automotive Less than 40% of the time on average: Ken Garff Automotive Group, Ciocca Auto Group, Penske Automotive Group 'Set an Appointment' - How often did the group's dealerships offer an appointment for a specific date and time? More than 95% of the time on average: Napleton Automotive Group, Ed Morse Automotive Group, Group 1 Automotive, Bergstrom Automotive, Morgan Auto Group Less than 80% of the time on average: West Herr Automotive Group, Fox Motors 'Average Days Out' – What was the group's dealerships' average number of days out until the earliest available appointment? Less than 2 days on average: Napleton Automotive Group, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, Group 1 Automotive, Ourisman Automotive Group, Greenway Automotive More than 7 days on average: West Herr Automotive Group, Fox Motors 'Communication Failure' - How often would calling a group's dealerships for service result in an issue that prevented communication (placed on hold indefinitely, straight to voicemail, stuck in phone tree, etc.)? Less than 3% of the time on average: Ed Morse Automotive Group, Napleton Automotive Group, Zeigler Auto Group, Group 1 Automotive More than 15% of the time on average: Penske Automotive Group, West Herr Automotive Group, Fox Motors Why This Study Matters 'A service customer's initial phone call is a dealership's first step toward building loyalty and generating revenue,' said O'Hagan. 'Yet because these calls often go unnoticed in daily operations, problems are easily overlooked. Increasing visibility leads directly to improvement.' For more than 15 years, Pied Piper has independently published annual industry studies that rank the omnichannel performance of brands and dealer groups. These studies track how industry performance changes over time and let clients understand how their own performance compares. Pied Piper clients order ongoing Prospect Satisfaction Index ® (PSI ®) measurement and reporting – internet, telephone or in-person – for their dealerships, as tools to improve and maintain omnichannel sales and service effectiveness. A.I.-powered insights are delivered directly to clients' phones—providing concise, actionable guidance to boost omnichannel sales and service. About Pied Piper Management Company, LLC Monterey, California - based Pied Piper helps brands and national retailer groups improve the omnichannel sales & service performance of their retailers. Pied Piper's PSI ® process applies data science analytics to determine the omnichannel sales and service best practices most likely to drive unit sales and loyalty. PSI ® then uses a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning and human actors to measure and report how effectively retail locations follow those best practices. Other recent Pied Piper PSI ® industry studies include: 2025 Internet Lead Effectiveness ® (ILE ®) Auto Industry Study (Subaru was ranked first) 2024 Service Telephone Effectiveness ® (STE ®) Auto Industry Study (Acura was ranked first) 2024 Telephone Lead Effectiveness ™ (TLE ™) Pontoon Boat Industry Study (BRP's Sea-Doo brand ranked first) Learn more, request a presentation of industry study results, or request PSI ® measurement and reporting at This press release is provided for editorial use only, and information contained in this release may not be used for advertising or otherwise promoting brands mentioned in this release without specific, written permission from Pied Piper Management Co., LLC.
Associated Press
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Associated Press
Napleton Auto Group Achieves Record Score in 2025 Dealer Group Study Measuring Response to Website Customers
MONTEREY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 2025-- Napleton Automotive Group dealerships ranked highest in the 2025 Pied Piper PSI ® Internet Lead Effectiveness ® (ILE ® ) Auto Dealer Group Study, which measured responsiveness to internet sales leads coming through dealership websites. Following Napleton were Ciocca Automotive, Herb Chambers Auto Group, and Berkshire Hathaway Automotive. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: Source: 2025 Pied Piper Auto Dealer Group Internet Lead Effectiveness Study (USA) Pied Piper submitted customer inquiries through 2,105 automobile dealership websites representing 26 of the largest USA auto dealer groups. Each inquiry asked a specific question about a vehicle in inventory and included a new customer name, email address, and local telephone number. Pied Piper then evaluated the speed and quality of dealership responses sent by email, telephone, text, and chat over the next 24 hours. Each group's overall ILE Score is a combined average of their individual dealership ILE performances. ILE evaluations consist of over 20 differently weighted measurements, based on best practices that are mathematically most likely to generate sales, combining into an overall ILE score ranging from 0 to 100. Napleton Achieved Highest Score on Record, What Behaviors Drove This Accomplishment? 2025 marks the fourth year in a row that Napleton Automotive Group achieved the top score in the annual ILE Auto Dealer Group study. Napleton improved their average score by four points for 2025, reaching an average ILE score of 91, the highest average ILE score on record and becoming the first brand or group to achieve an average ILE score in the 90s. How Did the Industry Perform Over the Past Year? Average dealer group performance increased only slightly – up one point - over last year, but performance has improved substantially over the past three years. Nine groups achieved average ILE scores over 70 in 2025, while three years ago in 2022 only two groups achieved ILE scores over 70. Despite the improvement, there remains a large 50-point spread in ILE score performance in the 2025 study, with nine dealer groups improving their ILE score over the past year and seven groups declining in overall score. Dealer Groups that Improved: Nine of the 26 dealer groups studied in 2025 improved their ILE scores over the past year, on average increasing by 5 points, with two groups improving by 10 points. The most notable improved behaviors of these nine dealer groups were more appointments offered, more questions answered by texting, and answering questions faster on average than last year. Dealer Groups that Declined: Seven of the 26 dealer groups in the 2025 study had lower ILE scores than the previous year, with an average decrease of -4 points and two groups declining -8 or more points. Dealer groups that scored lower in 2025 were less likely, compared to 2024, to 'do both fast,' less likely to respond by phone, and less likely to use texting to answer questions. Comparing Top Dealer Groups to the Overall Auto Industry Using the '80/40' Rule: Compared to the overall auto industry, top performing dealer groups tend to be much quicker and more effective at responding to online customers. In this year's ILE studies, 73% of the dealerships from the top five highest scoring dealer groups scored above 80 (providing quick and thorough personal responses), compared to only 40% of the dealerships for the auto industry overall. Similarly, only 6% of the dealerships from the top five dealer groups scored under 40 (failing to personally respond to website customers), compared to 19% of the dealerships throughout the total auto industry. 'Identifying a brand or group's dealerships scoring under 40 and over 80 is an efficient way to determine where improvement efforts should be focused,' said Cameron O'Hagan, Pied Piper's Vice President of Metrics and Analytics. 'Historically, we have found that dealerships that improve their ILE performance from scoring under 40 to scoring over 80 on average sell 50% more units from the same quantity of website customer leads.' 2025 Dealer Group Performance Compared: Response to customer web inquiries in the 2025 study had large variations by group, as shown by these examples: Why Was This Study Conducted? 'Modern customers visit dealership websites first, and today's sales success is driven by how the dealerships respond,' said O'Hagan. 'The difficulty is that the website customer experiences are often invisible or distorted by traditional dashboards, which makes this portion of dealership performance easy to overlook.' For more than 15 years, Pied Piper has independently published annual industry studies that rank the omnichannel performance of brands and dealer groups. These studies track how industry performance changes over time and let clients understand how their own performance compares. Pied Piper clients order ongoing Prospect Satisfaction Index ® (PSI ® ) measurement and reporting – internet, telephone or in-person – for their dealerships, as tools to improve and maintain omnichannel sales and service effectiveness. Pied Piper clients have found that the key to driving dealership improvement is showing what sales and service customers are really experiencing – which is often a surprise. About Pied Piper Management Company, LLC Monterey, California - based Pied Piper helps brands and national retailer groups improve the omnichannel sales & service performance of their retailers. Pied Piper's PSI process applies data science analytics to determine the omnichannel sales and service best practices most likely to drive unit sales and loyalty. PSI then uses a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning and human actors to measure and report how effectively retail locations follow those best practices. Examples of other recent Pied Piper PSI studies include the 2025 Internet Lead Effectiveness ® (ILE ® ) Auto Industry Study (Subaru was ranked first), the 2024 Service Telephone Effectiveness ® (STE®) Auto Industry Study (Honda's Acura brand was ranked first), and the 2024 Telephone Lead Effectiveness ™ (TLE ™ ) Pontoon Boat Industry Study (BRP's Sea-Doo brand ranked first). For more information about Prospect Satisfaction Index ® study results or to apply ongoing PSI measurement and reporting to improve performance, go to View source version on CONTACT: Pied Piper Ryan Scott [email protected] (831) 648-1075 KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: MARKETING ONLINE RETAIL RETAIL COMMUNICATIONS AUTOMOTIVE GENERAL AUTOMOTIVE SOURCE: Pied Piper Management Company, LLC Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 05/05/2025 12:01 AM/DISC: 05/05/2025 12:01 AM
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Napleton Auto Group Achieves Record Score in 2025 Dealer Group Study Measuring Response to Website Customers
Overall industry average score improved: faster email and phone responses and more use of texts to answer customer questions Large variance in dealer group performance: 50-point spread in average scores, with 9 groups improving and 7 declining from the previous year MONTEREY, Calif., May 05, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Napleton Automotive Group dealerships ranked highest in the 2025 Pied Piper PSI® Internet Lead Effectiveness® (ILE®) Auto Dealer Group Study, which measured responsiveness to internet sales leads coming through dealership websites. Following Napleton were Ciocca Automotive, Herb Chambers Auto Group, and Berkshire Hathaway Automotive. Pied Piper submitted customer inquiries through 2,105 automobile dealership websites representing 26 of the largest USA auto dealer groups. Each inquiry asked a specific question about a vehicle in inventory and included a new customer name, email address, and local telephone number. Pied Piper then evaluated the speed and quality of dealership responses sent by email, telephone, text, and chat over the next 24 hours. Each group's overall ILE Score is a combined average of their individual dealership ILE performances. ILE evaluations consist of over 20 differently weighted measurements, based on best practices that are mathematically most likely to generate sales, combining into an overall ILE score ranging from 0 to 100. Napleton Achieved Highest Score on Record, What Behaviors Drove This Accomplishment? 2025 marks the fourth year in a row that Napleton Automotive Group achieved the top score in the annual ILE Auto Dealer Group study. Napleton improved their average score by four points for 2025, reaching an average ILE score of 91, the highest average ILE score on record and becoming the first brand or group to achieve an average ILE score in the 90s. Reliably Answering Customer Questions Fast: In this year's study, 90% of Napleton customers received an answer to their question by email/text within one hour; a five-point improvement over last year and 30 points higher than the 2025 dealer group industry average. Large Increase in Use of Texting to Answer Questions: Napleton in the 2025 study answered website customer inquiries by text 73% of the time on average, a large 19-point increase over their performance last year that significantly outpaced the overall industry's 3-point improvement in texting behaviors in 2025. Quicker Average Phone Response: 96% of Napleton website customers in the 2025 study received a phone call within 24 hours, with 3 out of 4 receiving a call within 15 minutes. "Did Both Fast" for More Inquiries: Answering an inquiry by email/text and also phoning, all within one hour, greatly improves the odds of reaching customers. Emails can land in spam/junk and be missed, customers often ignore calls from an unknown number and don't listen to voicemail, and even texts can be lost or ignored among the large volume of messages many people receive per day. Napleton "Did Both Fast" 82% of the time on average, three points higher than last year and 42 points higher than the total dealer group average. How Did the Industry Perform Over the Past Year? Average dealer group performance increased only slightly – up one point - over last year, but performance has improved substantially over the past three years. Nine groups achieved average ILE scores over 70 in 2025, while three years ago in 2022 only two groups achieved ILE scores over 70. Despite the improvement, there remains a large 50-point spread in ILE score performance in the 2025 study, with nine dealer groups improving their ILE score over the past year and seven groups declining in overall score. Dealer Groups that Improved: Nine of the 26 dealer groups studied in 2025 improved their ILE scores over the past year, on average increasing by 5 points, with two groups improving by 10 points. The most notable improved behaviors of these nine dealer groups were more appointments offered, more questions answered by texting, and answering questions faster on average than last year. Offered More Appointments: Dealer groups that improved in 2025 attempted to set an appointment 7% more often than in 2024 on average. More Effective Use of Texting: Texts sent by dealer groups with higher scores in 2025 were on average 6% more likely to answer a customer's online inquiry. Answered Questions Quicker: On average, dealer groups that improved over the past year had a 9% increase in the rate of answering internet customer questions within 1 hour. Dealer Groups that Declined: Seven of the 26 dealer groups in the 2025 study had lower ILE scores than the previous year, with an average decrease of -4 points and two groups declining -8 or more points. Dealer groups that scored lower in 2025 were less likely, compared to 2024, to "do both fast," less likely to respond by phone, and less likely to use texting to answer questions. "Did Both Fast" Less Frequently: Inquiries sent to the dealer groups in decline this year were on average 5% less likely to receive a "did both fast" response, where both their question is answered, and they receive a phone call within the first hour. Responded by Phone Less Often: Dealer groups in decline on average were 5% less likely in 2025 to respond to an online inquiry by phone, with the rates of three dealer groups declining by more than 10%. Reduced Use of Texting: Dealer groups that declined in 2025 were on average 12% less likely to send a text, and their texts answered the customers question 6% less often than last year. Comparing Top Dealer Groups to the Overall Auto Industry Using the "80/40" Rule: Compared to the overall auto industry, top performing dealer groups tend to be much quicker and more effective at responding to online customers. In this year's ILE studies, 73% of the dealerships from the top five highest scoring dealer groups scored above 80 (providing quick and thorough personal responses), compared to only 40% of the dealerships for the auto industry overall. Similarly, only 6% of the dealerships from the top five dealer groups scored under 40 (failing to personally respond to website customers), compared to 19% of the dealerships throughout the total auto industry. "Identifying a brand or group's dealerships scoring under 40 and over 80 is an efficient way to determine where improvement efforts should be focused," said Cameron O'Hagan, Pied Piper's Vice President of Metrics and Analytics. "Historically, we have found that dealerships that improve their ILE performance from scoring under 40 to scoring over 80 on average sell 50% more units from the same quantity of website customer leads." 2025 Dealer Group Performance Compared: Response to customer web inquiries in the 2025 study had large variations by group, as shown by these examples: "Answered Question" - How often did the group's dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer's question? More than 90% of the time on average: Ciocca Automotive, Herb Chambers Auto Group, Napleton Automotive Group Less than 60% of the time on average: Ed Morse Automotive Group, Bergstrom Automotive "Phoned Customer" - How often did the group's dealerships respond by phone to a website customer's inquiry? More than 90% of the time on average: Napleton Automotive Group, Ciocca Automotive, Holman Automotive Less than 45% of the time on average: West Herr Automotive Group, Greenway Automotive, Premier Automotive, Bergstrom Automotive "Offered an Appointment" - How often did the group's dealerships offer to set an appointment for specific date/time? More than 50% of the time on average: Napleton Automotive Group, AutoNation, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, West Herr Automotive Group Less than 20% of the time on average: Serra Automotive, Premier Automotive, Asbury Automotive Group, Greenway Automotive, Bergstrom Automotive "Did Both" - How often did the group's dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer's question and also phone the customer? More than 80% of the time on average: Napleton Automotive Group, Ciocca Automotive, Herb Chambers Auto Group Less than 30% of the time on average: Greenway Automotive, Premier Automotive, Bergstrom Automotive Why Was This Study Conducted? "Modern customers visit dealership websites first, and today's sales success is driven by how the dealerships respond," said O'Hagan. "The difficulty is that the website customer experiences are often invisible or distorted by traditional dashboards, which makes this portion of dealership performance easy to overlook." For more than 15 years, Pied Piper has independently published annual industry studies that rank the omnichannel performance of brands and dealer groups. These studies track how industry performance changes over time and let clients understand how their own performance compares. Pied Piper clients order ongoing Prospect Satisfaction Index® (PSI®) measurement and reporting – internet, telephone or in-person – for their dealerships, as tools to improve and maintain omnichannel sales and service effectiveness. Pied Piper clients have found that the key to driving dealership improvement is showing what sales and service customers are really experiencing – which is often a surprise. About Pied Piper Management Company, LLC Monterey, California - based Pied Piper helps brands and national retailer groups improve the omnichannel sales & service performance of their retailers. Pied Piper's PSI process applies data science analytics to determine the omnichannel sales and service best practices most likely to drive unit sales and loyalty. PSI then uses a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning and human actors to measure and report how effectively retail locations follow those best practices. Examples of other recent Pied Piper PSI studies include the 2025 Internet Lead Effectiveness® (ILE®) Auto Industry Study (Subaru was ranked first), the 2024 Service Telephone Effectiveness® (STE®) Auto Industry Study (Honda's Acura brand was ranked first), and the 2024 Telephone Lead Effectiveness™ (TLE™) Pontoon Boat Industry Study (BRP's Sea-Doo brand ranked first). For more information about Prospect Satisfaction Index® study results or to apply ongoing PSI measurement and reporting to improve performance, go to This press release is provided for editorial use only, and information contained in this release may not be used for advertising or otherwise promoting brands mentioned in this release without specific, written permission from Pied Piper Management Co., LLC. View source version on Contacts Pied PiperRyan Scottrscott@ (831) 648-1075 Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Wire
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Business Wire
Napleton Auto Group Achieves Record Score in 2025 Dealer Group Study Measuring Response to Website Customers
MONTEREY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Napleton Automotive Group dealerships ranked highest in the 2025 Pied Piper PSI ® Internet Lead Effectiveness ® (ILE ®) Auto Dealer Group Study, which measured responsiveness to internet sales leads coming through dealership websites. Following Napleton were Ciocca Automotive, Herb Chambers Auto Group, and Berkshire Hathaway Automotive. 'Modern customers visit dealership websites first, and today's sales success is driven by how the dealerships respond.' Pied Piper submitted customer inquiries through 2,105 automobile dealership websites representing 26 of the largest USA auto dealer groups. Each inquiry asked a specific question about a vehicle in inventory and included a new customer name, email address, and local telephone number. Pied Piper then evaluated the speed and quality of dealership responses sent by email, telephone, text, and chat over the next 24 hours. Each group's overall ILE Score is a combined average of their individual dealership ILE performances. ILE evaluations consist of over 20 differently weighted measurements, based on best practices that are mathematically most likely to generate sales, combining into an overall ILE score ranging from 0 to 100. Napleton Achieved Highest Score on Record, What Behaviors Drove This Accomplishment? 2025 marks the fourth year in a row that Napleton Automotive Group achieved the top score in the annual ILE Auto Dealer Group study. Napleton improved their average score by four points for 2025, reaching an average ILE score of 91, the highest average ILE score on record and becoming the first brand or group to achieve an average ILE score in the 90s. Reliably Answering Customer Questions Fast: In this year's study, 90% of Napleton customers received an answer to their question by email/text within one hour; a five-point improvement over last year and 30 points higher than the 2025 dealer group industry average. Large Increase in Use of Texting to Answer Questions: Napleton in the 2025 study answered website customer inquiries by text 73% of the time on average, a large 19-point increase over their performance last year that significantly outpaced the overall industry's 3-point improvement in texting behaviors in 2025. Quicker Average Phone Response: 96% of Napleton website customers in the 2025 study received a phone call within 24 hours, with 3 out of 4 receiving a call within 15 minutes. 'Did Both Fast' for More Inquiries: Answering an inquiry by email/text and also phoning, all within one hour, greatly improves the odds of reaching customers. Emails can land in spam/junk and be missed, customers often ignore calls from an unknown number and don't listen to voicemail, and even texts can be lost or ignored among the large volume of messages many people receive per day. Napleton 'Did Both Fast' 82% of the time on average, three points higher than last year and 42 points higher than the total dealer group average. How Did the Industry Perform Over the Past Year? Average dealer group performance increased only slightly – up one point - over last year, but performance has improved substantially over the past three years. Nine groups achieved average ILE scores over 70 in 2025, while three years ago in 2022 only two groups achieved ILE scores over 70. Despite the improvement, there remains a large 50-point spread in ILE score performance in the 2025 study, with nine dealer groups improving their ILE score over the past year and seven groups declining in overall score. Dealer Groups that Improved: Nine of the 26 dealer groups studied in 2025 improved their ILE scores over the past year, on average increasing by 5 points, with two groups improving by 10 points. The most notable improved behaviors of these nine dealer groups were more appointments offered, more questions answered by texting, and answering questions faster on average than last year. Offered More Appointments: Dealer groups that improved in 2025 attempted to set an appointment 7% more often than in 2024 on average. More Effective Use of Texting: Texts sent by dealer groups with higher scores in 2025 were on average 6% more likely to answer a customer's online inquiry. Answered Questions Quicker: On average, dealer groups that improved over the past year had a 9% increase in the rate of answering internet customer questions within 1 hour. Dealer Groups that Declined: Seven of the 26 dealer groups in the 2025 study had lower ILE scores than the previous year, with an average decrease of -4 points and two groups declining -8 or more points. Dealer groups that scored lower in 2025 were less likely, compared to 2024, to 'do both fast,' less likely to respond by phone, and less likely to use texting to answer questions. 'Did Both Fast' Less Frequently: Inquiries sent to the dealer groups in decline this year were on average 5% less likely to receive a 'did both fast' response, where both their question is answered, and they receive a phone call within the first hour. Responded by Phone Less Often: Dealer groups in decline on average were 5% less likely in 2025 to respond to an online inquiry by phone, with the rates of three dealer groups declining by more than 10%. Reduced Use of Texting: Dealer groups that declined in 2025 were on average 12% less likely to send a text, and their texts answered the customers question 6% less often than last year. Comparing Top Dealer Groups to the Overall Auto Industry Using the '80/40' Rule: Compared to the overall auto industry, top performing dealer groups tend to be much quicker and more effective at responding to online customers. In this year's ILE studies, 73% of the dealerships from the top five highest scoring dealer groups scored above 80 (providing quick and thorough personal responses), compared to only 40% of the dealerships for the auto industry overall. Similarly, only 6% of the dealerships from the top five dealer groups scored under 40 (failing to personally respond to website customers), compared to 19% of the dealerships throughout the total auto industry. 'Identifying a brand or group's dealerships scoring under 40 and over 80 is an efficient way to determine where improvement efforts should be focused,' said Cameron O'Hagan, Pied Piper's Vice President of Metrics and Analytics. 'Historically, we have found that dealerships that improve their ILE performance from scoring under 40 to scoring over 80 on average sell 50% more units from the same quantity of website customer leads.' 2025 Dealer Group Performance Compared: Response to customer web inquiries in the 2025 study had large variations by group, as shown by these examples: 'Answered Question' - How often did the group's dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer's question? More than 90% of the time on average: Ciocca Automotive, Herb Chambers Auto Group, Napleton Automotive Group Less than 60% of the time on average: Ed Morse Automotive Group, Bergstrom Automotive 'Phoned Customer' - How often did the group's dealerships respond by phone to a website customer's inquiry? More than 90% of the time on average: Napleton Automotive Group, Ciocca Automotive, Holman Automotive Less than 45% of the time on average: West Herr Automotive Group, Greenway Automotive, Premier Automotive, Bergstrom Automotive 'Offered an Appointment' - How often did the group's dealerships offer to set an appointment for specific date/time? More than 50% of the time on average: Napleton Automotive Group, AutoNation, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, West Herr Automotive Group Less than 20% of the time on average: Serra Automotive, Premier Automotive, Asbury Automotive Group, Greenway Automotive, Bergstrom Automotive 'Did Both' - How often did the group's dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer's question and also phone the customer? More than 80% of the time on average: Napleton Automotive Group, Ciocca Automotive, Herb Chambers Auto Group Less than 30% of the time on average: Greenway Automotive, Premier Automotive, Bergstrom Automotive Why Was This Study Conducted? 'Modern customers visit dealership websites first, and today's sales success is driven by how the dealerships respond,' said O'Hagan. 'The difficulty is that the website customer experiences are often invisible or distorted by traditional dashboards, which makes this portion of dealership performance easy to overlook.' For more than 15 years, Pied Piper has independently published annual industry studies that rank the omnichannel performance of brands and dealer groups. These studies track how industry performance changes over time and let clients understand how their own performance compares. Pied Piper clients order ongoing Prospect Satisfaction Index ® (PSI ®) measurement and reporting – internet, telephone or in-person – for their dealerships, as tools to improve and maintain omnichannel sales and service effectiveness. Pied Piper clients have found that the key to driving dealership improvement is showing what sales and service customers are really experiencing – which is often a surprise. About Pied Piper Management Company, LLC Monterey, California - based Pied Piper helps brands and national retailer groups improve the omnichannel sales & service performance of their retailers. Pied Piper's PSI process applies data science analytics to determine the omnichannel sales and service best practices most likely to drive unit sales and loyalty. PSI then uses a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning and human actors to measure and report how effectively retail locations follow those best practices. Examples of other recent Pied Piper PSI studies include the 2025 Internet Lead Effectiveness ® (ILE ®) Auto Industry Study (Subaru was ranked first), the 2024 Service Telephone Effectiveness ® (STE®) Auto Industry Study (Honda's Acura brand was ranked first), and the 2024 Telephone Lead Effectiveness ™ (TLE ™) Pontoon Boat Industry Study (BRP's Sea-Doo brand ranked first). For more information about Prospect Satisfaction Index ® study results or to apply ongoing PSI measurement and reporting to improve performance, go to
