Mercedes Listed as Best Dealership in U.S. by Mystery Shoppers

An independent study issued by Pied Piper, that uses secret shoppers to determine how customers are treated, shows that Mercedes-Benz dealerships were on top for the third year in a row. The German manufacturer was followed close by Jaguar and Lexus which came in second.

Lexus suffered a sale decrease due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan that curbed production affecting the company on long therm. Meanwhile Mercedes-Benz is in a tight race with BMW to overtake Lexus this year as top-selling luxury brand in the U.S. Despite its problems in Japan the manufacturer managed keep the pace on the auto market.

The brands that had major decrease in sales were the ones who had the lowest sales per dealership.The problem comes from inside due to the fact that good sales people are difficult to retain, according to Fran O’Hagen, CEO of Pied Piper, based in Monterey, California.

Mitsubishi Motor Corp. and Suzuki Motor Corp were labeled a low-volume brands in the Pied Piper study.
The reduced staff in dealership’s staff has cut into customer satisfaction as many dealers realize they have cut staff too much .

O’Hagen and Pied Piper sent 3,524 secret shoppers to U.S dealerships, in order to determine how sales people perform in explaining the features of the car to finalizing a sale.

After the study came to an end, O’Hagen explained that there is a need of focusing on the customer needs. A successful sales person stops thinking like a salesman and instead thinks like an owner of a dealership, said O’Hagen.

The Lincoln dealerships were also tested by Pied Piper and scored the worst among luxury brands, falling below the industry average score.