MONTEREY, Calif. -

When it comes to responding to Web inquires, the auto brand whose dealers perform the best is Lexus, followed respectively by Honda and Toyota, according to the Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index Internet Lead Effectiveness Benchmarking Study released Monday.

Pied Piper Management Co.’s rankings — which included all major U.S. brands — were compiled through the Pied Piper PSI process.

The process is designed to connect “mystery shopping” measurement and scoring tie to sales success, officials noted. There are 19 Internet lead effective questions that are used in composite scoring for the following categories: timeliness of response, dealership and salesperson identification, quality of communication and forwarding the sale.

Looking at the rankings in more detail, smart followed the aforementioned brands in fourth place, with Audi and Mercedes-Benz in a tie for fifth.

The complete rankings, along with each brand’s respective score, are as follows:

Lexus 61
Honda 60
Toyota 59
smart 58
Audi 56
Mercedes-Benz 56
Acura 54
Infiniti 54
Porsche 52
Nissan 52
Subaru 51
Cadillac 50
Hyundai 50
Industry Average 50
Lincoln 49
Mini 49
GMC 49
BMW 48
Buick 48
Volkswagen 48
Land Rover 48
Jaguar 48
Kia 47
Volvo 47
Chevrolet 46
Mazda 46
Ram 46
Dodge 45
Ford 45
Chrysler 44
Jeep 41
Scion 40
Suzuki 40
Mitsubishi 40
Saab 38

Discussing the study in more detail, officials noted that four-fifths of auto shoppers go to websites prior to making a stop at a dealership. As such, dealers often have adjusted to the influx in online shopping by added customer relationship management systems, officials noted.

“Today most dealerships use a CRM system which features automated lead responses to generate an immediate pre-chosen e-mail response to a customer inquiry,” Pied Piper indicated.

“Some CRM systems go a step further and automatically customize the message based upon text responses within the customer inquiry,” the company pointed out. “However, while the CRM systems are clearly beneficial when used to introduce the dealership, it is not unusual today for dealership personnel to rely primarily or even solely on the automated response, which often does not adequately answer a customer’s specific inquiries.”

The company went on to point out that even three years ago, dealers were answering just three-fifths of online inquiries within 24 hours.

“In comparison, today dealerships respond within 24 hours nine times out of 10, 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,” Pied Piper shared.

Fran O’Hagan, president and chief executive officer of Pied Piper Management Co., chimed in, saying: “A dealer principal would never accept this sort of poor performance in traditional dealership activities. 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.”

The company suggested that this “disparity in performance” is often driven by a store’s online response performance being “invisible” to dealership leaders. Thus, Pied Piper provides online mystery shopping so dealers won’t be in the dark.

“We find dramatically different industry-wide 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,’” O’Hagan shared.

“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,” O’Hagan added.

Moving along, the company noted that “a third, a third and a third” can be a basic rule of thumb for viewing online response performance. In other words, dealers typically answer an online question a third of the time within 30 minutes; a third of the time they will answer more than 30 minutes and less than 24 hours; and a third of the time, they don’t answer at all.

That said, Pied Piper stressed that certain brands were stronger than their peers, and offered the following sample of brand measurements within the study:

Answered specific customer question within 24 hours:
Best: Answered specific customer questions within 24 hours at least 70 percent of the time: Mini, Smart, Audi,
Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Acura, Hyundai, Buick, Subaru, GMC.
Worst: Answered specific customer questions within 24 hours less than 40 percent of the time: Scion, Saab,
Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Chrysler, Jeep, Chevrolet, Ford, Kia.

Answered specific customer question within 30 minutes:
Best: Answered specific customer questions within 30 minutes at least 50 percent of the time: Lexus, Toyota,
Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Smart.
Worst: Answered specific customer questions within 30 minutes less than 30 percent of the time: Mini,
Mitsubishi, Saab, Suzuki, GMC, Porsche, Scion, Jaguar, Subaru.

Provided a requested price quote:
Best: Provided a requested price quote (of any kind) at least 40 percent of the time: Honda, Acura, Chevrolet,
Infiniti.
Worst: Provided a requested price quote (of any kind) less than 10 percent of the time: Mini, Jeep, Smart,
BMW.

Attempted to contact by telephone:
Best: Attempted to contact by telephone at least 60 percent of the time: Infiniti, Honda, Toyota, Mercedes-
Benz.
Worst: Attempted to contact by telephone less than 30 percent of the time: Chrysler, Ram, Dodge, Jeep.

Attempted to set up an appointment to visit the dealership:
Best: Attempted to set up an appointment to visit the dealership at least 30 percent of the time: Honda, Smart,
Acura, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, BMW.
Worst: Attempted to set up an appointment to visit the dealership less than 15 percent of the time: Mazda,
Chrysler, Jeep, Mini, Ford, Audi, Buick.

Provided compelling reasons to buy from their specific dealership:
Best: Provided compelling reasons to buy from their specific dealership at least 30 percent of the time: Honda,
Lexus, Infiniti, Subaru, Mercedes-Benz.
Worst: Provided compelling reasons to buy from their specific dealership less than 15 percent of the time:
Dodge, Jeep, Mitsubishi, Ford, Chrysler, Scion