Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 8

10 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 8 showcasing products and making it easy to purchase. Measurements from the following four subcategories were combined into a brand score out of 1,000 points: • Brand Website – Useful Digital Retail Tools Provided (11% total score): Were useful online digital retail tools provided for the customer? Top brands: Jeep, Chrysler, Nissan, Mini, Subaru • Brand Website – Ease of Transition to Local Dealership (7% total score): Could customers on the brand website easily transition from viewing a desired vehicle over to communicating with a local dealership to take the next step? Top brands: Hyundai, Ford, Mitsubishi, Kia, Porsche • Dealership Response to Website Customer Inquiries (38% total score): Did the local dealership quickly respond to website customer inquiries? Top brands: Subaru, Chrysler, Toyota, Porsche, Volvo • Dealership Sales Effectiveness In-Person at Dealership (44% total score): Did the dealership employees and in-dealership processes build upon what the customer has already accomplished online, to provide a seamless, consistent, efficient, and effective customer experience in-person at the dealership? Top brands: Audi, Tesla, Chevrolet, Porsche, BMW Pied Piper measured dealer response to EV website customers by submitting customer inquiries through a combination of brand websites and local dealership websites, 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. Pied Piper also sent in-person “mystery shoppers” into EV dealerships nationwide, measuring how effectively the dealership interacted in-person, as well as whether the dealership acknowledged and built upon the online shopping that the customer had already completed. “The shopping path from website to dealership plays an even more critical role for EV customers,” said Fran O’Hagan, President & CEO of Pied Piper. “EV customers need to understand how they can benefit from EV ownership, and two-thirds of these customers are first-time EV buyers.” Pied Piper’s Omnichannel PSI for EVs study shows that EV customers today find much variation in helpfulness between brands along their shopping path. Only by paying careful attention to all four subcategories of omnichannel selling will auto brands and their dealers be able to sell effectively to today’s customers. 2021 is the first year for the Omnichannel PSI® for EVs Auto Industry Study, but Pied Piper has been providing other motor vehicle industry benchmarking studies since 2007. The 2021 Omnichannel PSI for EVs Auto Industry Study (U.S.A.) was conducted between January 2021 and May 2021 by completing a combination of website inquiries and in-person sales effectiveness measurements for a sample of 3,101 dealerships nationwide representing all major EV brands. www.piedpipermc.com . The shopping path from website to dealership plays an even more critical role for EV customers