Automotive News
Web-based service scheduling more effective than phone calls at dealerships, study says
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July 2026
Dealership websites handle service requests more effectively than phone calls, averaging a score of 71 out of 100 compared with 61 for phone requests, according to a new study. For the first time, the 2026 Pied Piper Auto Dealer Group Service Scheduling Effectiveness Study distinguished between the two channels, revealing a 10-point gap that reflects less room for human error online. Pied Piper sent out 4,163 service requests to every ... Read More >
Automotive News
AI Gains Ground in the Auto Industry
December 2025
Auto industry consulting firm Pied Piper found a way in 2025 to use AI on a grand scale. Its new Dealership Facility Consistency Study leveraged AI to analyze more than 540,000 satellite and street-view images of 18,662 U.S. auto dealerships. CEO Fran O’Hagan said the study took about a month to finish, a fraction of the time typically required for a study of its size. Read More >
Automotive News
Chevy dealerships tops for consistent look across all U.S. stores, study finds
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November 2025
Chevrolet dealerships maintain the most consistent look in the U.S. compared with their rivals, according to Pied Piper’s new Dealership Facility Consistency Study. The dealership consulting firm’s Look-Alike Index measured the variation of features and quality picked up by its AI computer vision model. It relied on satellite and street-view images of more than 18,000 dealership stores across the country to formulate its rankings. Manufacturers ... Read More >
Automotive News
Mini top brand for scheduling service appointments, study shows
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September 2025
Pied Piper has combined its Service Telephone Effectiveness study and a new Service Website Effectiveness report to measure how well dealerships schedule service appointments. For the combined Service Scheduling Effectiveness Auto Industry Study, the consulting firm known for its benchmarking reports submitted nearly 5,000 service requests to dealerships representing every major auto brand. Dealerships received website and telephone scores from ... Read More >
Automotive News – Daily Drive Podcast
AI vs. humans on dealership service calls
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July 2025
Pied Piper CEO Fran O'Hagan talks about how well artificial intelligence is doing compared to humans when answering service appointment calls. Read More >
Automotive News
AI often beats humans in service call quality, but challenges remain, Pied Piper study says
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July 2025
Across dealerships, the effectiveness of service calls is improving — increasingly with the help of artificial intelligence. The 2025 Pied Piper Auto Dealer Group Service Telephone Effectiveness Study showed improvements across a majority of dealerships. Industrywide, average telephone service performance was up six points since 2023 with an average score of 64 this year. It was 60 in 2024. The study also looked at how dealerships are using AI ... Read More >
Automotive News
Dealerships: Call, text or email to boost web lead response times
May 2025
Dealerships that use email, text messages and phone calls in tandem to address online customer inquiries improve their web lead response times, industry consulting firm Pied Piper said in a new report. Pied Piper CEO Fran O’Hagan said pursuing the options together helps reach customers more effectively. “Otherwise, customers just don’t see or listen to the dealer’s response,” O’Hagan told Automotive News. That’s one of the central conclusions ... Read More >
Automotive News
Dealerships keep improving internet sales lead responses
March 2025
Dealerships are continuing to improve how they respond to internet sales leads, though about 20 percent of customer inquiries still receive no personal response, a new study from industry consultant Pied Piper found. The firm’s 2025 Internet Lead Effectiveness Auto Industry Study found the average internet lead effectiveness score was 65 out of a possible 100, three points higher than a year ago and the highest average since the company began ... Read More >
Automotive News
Dealership service departments improve phone call handling but issues remain, study finds
September 2024
Napleton Automotive Group was honored by performance measurement firm Pied Piper Management Co. three years running for having the fastest and best response times on Internet sales leads. But Brian Napleton, the group's director of operations, was disappointed last year to finish last out of 17 large dealership groups in Pied Piper's Service Telephone Effectiveness study. Napleton said the group "felt we did a very good job handling service ... Read More >
Automotive News Daily Drive Podcast
Pied Piper CEO Fran O'Hagan discusses the 2024 Dealer Group Service Telephone Effectiveness(R) Study results with Automotive News
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August 2024
We in the auto industry have been fixated on measuring service customer satisfaction. We've measured it all kinds of ways for decades, but if truth be told what we really care about is loyalty, and we've been using customer satisfaction as a proxy to measure loyalty. If you think about it what we really care about is what customers do rather than what customers say. You may say you're satisfied but really what I'm interested in is are you going ... Read More >
