Mahindra Dealers 1st in Internet Lead Effectiveness Study

Mahindra dealerships ranked highest in the 2024 Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE) Compact Tractor Industry Study, which measured responsiveness to internet leads coming through dealership websites. Following Mahindra were dealers selling Kubota, Kioti, TYM and John Deere.

Pied Piper submitted customer inquiries through the individual websites of 607 dealerships representing all major compact tractor brands in the U.S.A., asking a specific question about a tractor 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. ILE evaluation of a dealership combines more than 20 different measurements to create a total score ranging between zero and 100.

4 out of 10 customers did not receive a personal response to their online inquiry

Pied Piper determined that overall responsiveness industry-wide has plenty of room for improvement. On average, 41% of customers received no personal response by email, text, or phone call when they inquired online about buying a compact tractor. “Improvement is very much worth it,” said Fran O’Hagan, Pied Piper CEO. “Dealers who respond quickly, personally, and completely to website customer inquiries on average sell 50% more units to customers who contact online as opposed to dealers who fail to respond.”

Compact tractor industry average ILE performance was unchanged compared to last year, with an average score of 33. Each brand’s industry study ILE score is an average that includestop-performing dealers as well as poor performers. In a traditional bell curve of performance, 5% of all compact tractor dealerships industrywide scored above 80 (providing a quick and thorough personal response), while 56% of dealerships scored below 40 (failing to personally respond to their website customers).

Mahindra, this year’s top-ranked brand, improved five points over the previous year to achieve the highest ILE score to date for an ag brand. Compared to last year, Mahindra dealers improved most of the behaviors measured by ILE. For example, Mahindra dealers were twice as likely this year to answer a customer’s question within 60 minutes, and twice as likely to respond to the same customer via multiple communication channels. Mahindra dealers also failed to respond in any way less often than dealers for any other brand, 11% of the time on average compared to the industry average of 18% of the time.

John Deere dealers were ranked first in the previous year’s ILE study, with a score of 37, but dropped to fifth in 2024, with a score of 34. John Deere dealers were much more likely to use texting to communicate with customers this year, 29% of the time on average, vs 12% of the time in 2023. However, only 16% of John Deere customers on average received an answer to their question by text message, and dealer replies using email or phone call declined from 2023 to 2024.

Response to customer web inquiries varied by brand:

• How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question?
  • More than 60% of the time on average: Kioti, TYM
  • Less than 40% of the time on average: McCormick, Bobcat, Case

• How often did the brand’s dealerships respond by phone to a website customer’s inquiry?
  • More than 30% of the time on average: Kubota, Case
  • Less than 20% of the time on average: TYM, LS Tractor, McCormick

• “Did at least one” – How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question and/or respond by phone?
  • More than 65% of the time on average: Kioti, Kubota, TYM, John Deere
  • Less than 40% of the time on average: Bobcat, McCormick

• “Did both” – How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question and also respond by phone?
  • More than 15% of the time on average: Kubota, Kioti, Massey Ferguson
  • Less than 10% of the time on average: Yanmar, Bobcat, McCormick

• How often did a website customer fail to receive a response of any type (email, text, or phone call)?
  • Less than 15% of the time on average: Mahindra, Kioti, Kubota
  • More than 20% of the time on average: Massey Ferguson, LS Tractor, McCormick, Case

“Website customers today drive a dealership’s overall sales success,” said O’Hagan, “but website customers are invisible which makes them easy to overlook in day-to-day operations.” The key to driving improvement in website response and sales, according to Pied Piper, is showing dealers what their website customers are really experiencing – which is often a surprise.

Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness Studies have been conducted annually for various industries since 2011. Pied Piper conducted the 2024 ILE Compact Tractor Industry Study between September and December 2023 by submitting personal website inquiries directly to a sample of 607 dealerships nationwide representing all major brands.