American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 239 June 2019 | Page 24

Survey Names Harley Dealers Best for
Internet Sales Lead Responsiveness
Monterey, California based Pied Piper has
rated Harley dealerships top for Internet
Lead Effectiveness (ILE) in its 2019
Powersports and Outdoor Power
Equipment industry study.
Seeking to answer the question, "What
happens when UTV or motorcycle
customers visit a dealer website and
inquire about a vehicle?", scores ranged
from zero to 100, with 21% of
dealerships nationwide scoring above
60, demonstrating an effective website-
response process.
However, 58% of dealerships scored
below 40, "struggling to respond
effectively to today's website customers.
Customers nationally received a personal
reply to their website inquiry within 24
hours only 47% of the time on average."
Dealerships selling BMW or Ducati
motorcycles were tied for second,
followed by Indian and Kawasaki. Brands
which improved the most from year to
year were Harley-Davidson, BRP's Can-
Am brand, and Mahindra tractor dealers.
Brands suffering the greatest decline
from year to year were Bobcat, Kubota
and Husqvarna.
Pied Piper sent customer inquiries
through the individual websites of 4,208
dealerships, 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 and telephone over
the next 24 hours - twenty different
measurements generated a dealership's
PSI-ILE score.
The most basic measurement is whether
a customer received an email response
of any type, even an automated reply,
within 24 hours. Industrywide, on
average 18% of customers received no
email reply of any type. A more
meaningful measurement is whether the
customer received a personal email
response within 24 hours. Ducati and
BMW dealerships were the most likely to
provide a personal email response within
24 hours, more than 60% of the time on
average. In contrast, Bobcat, Toro, Zero,
Kubota and HiSun dealerships provided
a personal email response within 24
hours less than 35% of the time on
average.
"Consider how dramatically retailing has
changed over the past 15 years," said
Pied Piper Management Company LLC
President and CEO Fran O'Hagan. "If you
wonder where all the traditional
customers have gone, look instead for
customers attempting to interact
through dealer websites. Today
customers visit dealer websites before
visiting in person, and today the
opportunity for dealers to 'meet' first-
time customers often happens on-line."
Motorcycle Industry to Get Hit Again by
Next Stage of US-EU Trade War?
Brussels based FEMA, the European
Federation of Motorcyclist
Associations, is lobbying the European
Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia
Malmström, to take motorcycle parts
off a list of American made products
that could attract up to 100% tariffs
when exported into the EU.
At the time of writing it is unclear
whether Malmström's proposal is to
hit parts for American made
motorcycle parts specifically, as FEMA
suggests or, as appears to be
suggested by the inclusion of parts for
mopeds as well as larger displacement
machines, American made parts for
any motorcycle brand.
This latest spat stems from the end
March 2019 World Trade Organisation
(WTO) ruling that the USA had given
benefits to their airplane industry
(Boeing), with an estimated damage
to the EU airplane industry (Airbus) of
$12 billion.
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European Commissioner for Trade,
Cecilia Malmström
The EU is therefore now considering
countermeasures to the USA for the
same sum and has published a list with
products that will be charged with
extra custom duties of up to 100%.
The list contains (amongst many
others) several motorcycle parts
categories:
87141010 brakes and parts thereof, of
motorcycles “incl. mopeds”
87141020 gearboxes and parts
thereof, of motorcycles “incl. mopeds”
87141030 road wheels and parts and
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - JUNE 2019
accessories thereof, of motorcycles “incl.
mopeds”
87141040 silencers “mufflers” and
exhaust pipes, and their parts, of
motorcycles “incl. mopeds”
87141050 clutches and parts thereof,
of motorcycles “incl. mopeds”
87141090 parts and accessories of
motorcycles, incl. mopeds, n.e.s. (excl.
brakes, gearboxes, road wheels,
silencers, exhaust pipes, clutches, and
their parts)
The European Commission has been
holding a public consultation, slated to
end 31 May 2019.
FEMA's position is that "trade wars
should not be fought at the expense of
motorcyclists and those who are
working in the motorcycle market. In
this particular case there are enough
possibilities to charge other products
in the aircraft sector with extra
customs. As before, we will inform
Commissioner Malmström of our
position and demand that motorcycle
parts will be stricken of the list."
Dolf Willigers, FEMA General
Secretary, said: "Again the European
Commission is involving motorcyclists
in their disputes with the US
administration. We have no part in this
and we see no reason why European
motorcyclists and people working in
the motorcycle trade should be
punished in a dispute about support to
the aircraft industry.
"Owners of US brand motorcycles
have no choice when they have to
replace parts of their motorcycle and
will this way be forced to pay a much
higher price. This measure really goes
beyond all limits."
www.AMDchampionship.com