Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Dealers Ranked Highest By 2012 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index®

Harley-Davidson dealerships returned to the top ranking in the newly released 2012 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index® (PSI®) U.S. Motorcycle Industry Benchmarking Study. The study measures dealership treatment of motorcycle shoppers.

Study rankings by brand were determined by the patent-pending Pied Piper PSI process after measuring “Sales Effectiveness” three different ways: 1- when a shopper walks through the door (In-Person Mystery Shopping) 2- when an Internet Lead is received (Internet Mystery Shopping) 3- when a Telephone Lead is received (Telephone Mystery Shopping)

BMW and Ducati finished in a tie for second, followed by Triumph and the Victory and Indian brands from Polaris Industries, in a three-way tie for fourth. Industry-wide performance improved substantially from 2011 to 2012, with only three of sixteen motorcycle brands failing to achieve higher scores.

Harley-Davidson dealerships led all brands in sixteen different sales activities such as offering test rides, obtaining contact information and asking for the sale. Brand performance varied considerably from brand to brand, with twelve different brands leading at least one sales process category. For example, Ducati, Husqvarna and Triumph dealerships were twice as likely to offer a brochure to shoppers than dealerships selling Suzuki, Honda or Kawasaki. Similarly, Harley-Davidson, BMW and Ducati dealerships were twice as likely to ask for contact information than dealerships selling Husqvarna, MV Augusta or Moto Guzzi.

Industry improvement was widespread throughout the sales process, with over 80% of the individual sales process factors improving on average. Compared to the previous year’s results, the 2012 study showed that motorcycle salespeople were 14% more likely to provide compelling reasons to buy from their dealership, 13% more likely to ask for the sale and 11% more likely to provide compelling reasons to buy now. The 2012 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index U.S. Motorcycle Industry Study was conducted between July 2011 and April 2012 using 1,653 hired anonymous “mystery shoppers” at dealerships located throughout the U.S.

14 Responses to “Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Dealers Ranked Highest By 2012 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index®”


  1. 1 Doc Robinson May 8th, 2012 at 6:45 am

    Cool! Way to go H-D.

  2. 2 GuitarSlinger May 8th, 2012 at 7:37 am

    First off … who in the ____ is the Pied Piper Prospect and why should any of us care ?

    Whats their demographic – how many are they surveying – what are the actual numbers ?

    And again WTH are they ? No one that shows up on any of the Financial or Business radars … I can tell you that much

    Second – regardless as to the veracity of PPP’s claims I can tell you mine and many more that I know of’s experience does not live up to PPP’s so called ‘ Study ‘ Fact is some of the worst vehicle purchase and service experiences I’ve ever had have been with H-D dealerships .

  3. 3 Ray May 8th, 2012 at 7:44 am

    GuitarSlinger. Instead of bitching, you should go to school and learn about quantitative and qualitative studies. Then go to the Piper Prospect Website and try to understand their methodology…if you can,

  4. 4 GuitarSlinger May 8th, 2012 at 8:29 am

    @ Ray

    Gee , didn’t know having two graduate degrees , owning several successful businesses as well as having family etc deep in the banking industry didn’t qualify me as able to give a solid and reasonable opinion on a survey as well as a company ( PPP ) that barely rates notice in the BUSINESS world .

    Mia culpa !

    Or ….. perhaps …… you’re the one in need of a bit of an education as to the manipulation of statistics and numbers in order to validate false conclusions by companies with possible agendas other than disseminating the facts ?

    Hmmmn ……

  5. 5 Shifter May 8th, 2012 at 8:35 am

    GuitarSlinger. And what authorize you to state that these results are manipulated? By who? Why? Facts, please.

  6. 6 Matt May 8th, 2012 at 9:12 am

    The part of these stats that confuse me the most are the fact that a large majority of dealerships sell & service multiple brands of motorcycle. It seems then rather arbitrary to attempt to break up scores by brand then when comparing manufacturers other then maybe Harley, BMW, Ducati, that franchise most of their own sole dealerships.

    Also the fact that Star is listed as it’s own separate manufacturer makes me question how familiar with the motorcycle market the people behind this survey actually are.

  7. 7 Brandon May 8th, 2012 at 9:15 am

    Matt. They study brands. Not companies.

  8. 8 Lyle May 8th, 2012 at 10:01 am

    Interesting to note that Indian is up there with Triumph and Victory. Exactly how many Indian dealerships are there and how many parts do they actually stock? MotoGuzzi, which has been around longer and is a far better MC is listed lower but they don’t have many dealerships. I can see why HD is on the top, they have dealers and service pretty much everywhere and I’ve always had good luck with any of them.

  9. 9 Toby May 8th, 2012 at 10:49 am

    Their website gives no indication of the “weight” afford each score. With an industry average of 103, is HD’s score of 108 that good? It’s less than 5% better than the average. Relative ranking may be more important here, but it really just means that HD may be the “least worst” of all of them. These scores remind me of the “trophies” given out to the kids at the end of T-Ball season. Everyone gets one, and everyone is “best” at something.

  10. 10 richard May 8th, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    All of a suden, there are statistical “experts” out there that have a pre-conceived notion of how this survey is “flawed”; and then there are the HDH (Harley Davidson Haters) who find fault with anything/everything that the company accompolishes. Those of us who have been in busuness understand that these kinds of awards don’t just happen. They are the result of good policy (from the top) and great execution at the dealership level. Congratulations to the HD Dealer network.

  11. 11 BobS May 8th, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    I don’t need to have preconceived notions, or be a Harley hater, to see how flawed this survey is. It basically just measures how pushy a salesman is. It does nothing to determine how well a job a salesperson does determining my interest and finding a product that will best meet my expectations as a customer. This survey measures how soon a customer was “greeted”, wether or not the salesperson got my email and phone number, etc. Just because a salesperson asks what bike I want to buy in the first 30 seconds I enter the building, asks for my phone number, email, and address, etc…not too many of us will say ” oh yeah, that is what makes a dealer good!”.

  12. 12 Ed M May 10th, 2012 at 12:04 pm

    My dealer showed me a Pied Piper PSI survey a few months ago, and assuming it’s the same one used to generate the PSI results, it’s way beyond the simplistic comments above… They use it to make sure that their salespeople are not as they call it, “museum curators,” but are instead actively helping customers become owners of the bike that’s right for them. I know I’m not an expert on all of this stuff, but it’s interesting to read the comments above from everyone who is.

  13. 13 Fuji May 10th, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    So. Mr Ed. Who pays for this survey ?

  14. 14 Ed M May 14th, 2012 at 9:57 am

    Dealer says he pays for monthly PSI surveys on his own. He says that some manufacturers pay for it and provide it to their dealers, but his manufacturer doesn’t.

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Cyril Huze