US study: Ducati dealers the best
That’s based how they interact with potential new customers, with the Italian make beating 16 other major brands, including US giant Harley-DavidsonDucati dealerships have been rated the best in the American motorcycle industry at how well they deal with potential new customers, coming out on top ahead of Harley-Davidson (the 2013 winner), Can-Am (a new entrant), Victory Motorcycles and Triumph.
It’s the first time Ducati has topped the annual index since 2009.
The study was conducted by the Californian-based Pied Piper Management Company, which employed 1885 anonymous “mystery shoppers” to visit different dealerships across America between July 2013 and April 2014. The “mystery shoppers” pretended to be regular customers and observed how dealerships fared in a number of customer-friendly categories such as offering test rides, asking customers for contact information, or for doing something as straightforward as asking a customer to buy a motorcycle.
Ducati and Harley-Davidson scored the top scores in half of the different categories. Another 10 brands scored the highest in other categories. The scores were added up to produce an overall index number.
Test rides remain an important category that is underutilised by dealerships. According to the study, dealerships mentioned either an immediate or future opportunity for test rides only 52 per cent of the time. That's an improvement from the 36 per cent rate recorded in the 2011 study, but still rather low considering the results. According to Pied Piper, dealerships that offer immediate test rides at least half of the time sell 44 per cent more motorcycles than dealerships that don't.
The industry average index score in the study was 104, with the aforementioned top five brands all above that, and those ‘below the line’ were Star (a standalone name for Yamaha cruisers in America), Indian, Suzuki, BMW Motorrad, MV Agusta, Kawasaki, Husqvarna, Moto Guzzi, Honda and Yamaha and Aprilia, with KTM holding up the list.
KTM, Yamaha, Moto Guzzi and Honda were among the dealerships which mentioned test rides the least in the study, as well as Suzuki.
What’s your experience in Australia? Does it correlate with the American study?
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