Half of tractor shoppers get no response after submitting online inquiries, study says
Nearly half of all online inquiries submitted to compact tractor dealerships went unanswered in 2026, according to a new industry study that found little improvement in dealer web response performance over the past five years.
Kubota tops dealer web response rankings
Dealerships representing Kubota ranked highest in the 2026 Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness Compact Tractor Industry Study, which measured how quickly and thoroughly dealers responded to online sales inquiries. Kubota dealers averaged an Internet Lead Effectiveness, or ILE, score of 37 out of 100. The overall industry average was 29.
How the study was conducted
The study was conducted by Pied Piper Management Company, which submitted test inquiries to 772 compact tractor dealership websites across all major brands. Each inquiry asked a specific question about inventory and was sent during normal business hours. Dealer responses were evaluated over a 24-hour period using email, phone, chat and text messaging.
Nearly half of inquiries receive no personal response
The study found that 47% of all tractor-related online inquiries received no personal response, a seven-point increase from last year. In 27% of cases, customers received no response at all, including automated replies.
“The tractor industry has not improved in five years, and half of website customers receive no personal response,” said Cameron O’Hagan, vice president of metrics and analytics at Pied Piper. “However, dealers receiving monthly web-response measurement and reporting dramatically outperform the industry, averaging an ILE score of 48, well above all compact tractor brands and also higher than the powersports industry average.”
Industry performance continues to slide
Following Kubota in the 2026 rankings were TYM, Mahindra, John Deere and Yanmar. Despite leading the industry, Kubota’s average score declined five points from the prior year, while the overall industry score dropped four points.
The compact tractor industry’s average ILE score fell to 29, continuing a downward trend that has persisted since 2022. McCormick Tractor and Case were the only brands to show year-over-year improvement, while all other brands were flat or declined by as much as seven points.
Fewer responses and less follow-up
According to the study, several behavioral changes contributed to the lower scores. Dealers were less likely to provide personal responses, answered fewer customer questions and showed reduced follow-through. Only 16% of email responses included next steps or attempted to set an appointment, down six points from last year.
Kubota dealers were more likely than their peers to answer customer questions and to use multiple communication channels when responding to inquiries. Customers contacting Kubota dealerships failed to receive any response 16% of the time, compared with 27% industrywide.
Wide gap between top and bottom performers
Industrywide performance varied significantly. Only 4% of compact tractor dealerships scored above 80 on the 100-point ILE scale, while 61% scored below 40. By comparison, 40% of automotive dealers and 13% of powersports dealers scored above 80.
“With an industry average score of 29, many tractor dealers’ web response behaviors leave a lot on the table, with nearly two thirds of dealers scoring under 40 in this year’s ILE study,” O’Hagan said. “The effort to improve is worth it. Historically, dealers who improve their ILE performance from scoring under 40 to scoring over 80 on average double the number of units sold from the same quantity of internet leads.”
Online response remains a blind spot
Pied Piper has published annual studies measuring dealer response performance for more than 15 years. The firm said its research shows that online inquiry handling remains a critical but often overlooked factor in retail vehicle sales.
“Today’s customers visit dealership websites first, and sales success is driven by how effectively dealerships respond,” O’Hagan said. “The challenge is that website customer experiences are often invisible or distorted by traditional dashboards, making this critical area of performance easy to overlook.”
The 2026 compact tractor study marks the fifth consecutive year Pied Piper has tracked web-response performance in the segment. Results show that while other motor vehicle industries have improved during that time, the compact tractor industry has remained largely unchanged.
