Polaris ranked highest in the 2021 “Omnichannel PSI for UTVs” Industry Study, which for the first time included omnichannel website shopping measurements in addition to calculating effectiveness selling in-person. The study answered the question, “What happens when UTV customers shop for a vehicle by first visiting the brand’s website, or a dealership website, and then visiting a dealership in person?” BRP’s Can-Am brand was ranked second of the seventeen UTV brands evaluated, followed by John Deere.
The “Omnichannel” approach to shopping and purchase combines and integrates a customer’s online and in-store experience. A customer moves from a brand website, to a dealership website and start of communication with the dealership, to visiting the dealership in-person. The customer may then go back home again and back onto the websites before committing to buy either online or back at the dealership in person.
For 17 different brands selling UTVs, Pied Piper measured whether their customer’s omnichannel path was intuitive, simple to use, easy to navigate, and effective 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: Polaris, BRP, John Deere; Bottom brands: Kymco, Yanmar, CFMoto.
- 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: Kawasaki, BRP, Kubota; Bottom brands: John Deere, Honda, Yamaha.
- Dealership Response to Website Customer Inquiries (38% total score): Did the local dealership quickly respond to website customer inquiries? Top brands: Polaris, BRP, CFMoto; Bottom brands: Tracker, Bobcat, Yanmar.
- 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: John Deere, BRP, Polaris; Bottom brands: Kymco, Cub Cadet, Yanmar
Pied Piper measured dealer response to UTV 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 UTV 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.
“UTV customers today face big differences in shopping experience depending upon the brand,” said Fran O’Hagan, President & CEO of Pied Piper. “Some UTV brands have added digital retail shopping tools, and work with their dealers to encourage quick response to website visitor inquiries, while other brands have not yet embraced omnichannel selling.” Pied Piper’s Omnichannel PSI for UTVs study shows that brands and dealers who pay careful attention to all four subcategories of omnichannel selling are the ones who sell most effectively to today’s customers.
