The 2025 Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE) Auto Industry Study reveals that the responsiveness of Cadillac dealers to customer contacts and inquiries over the Internet is about average compared to the U.S. auto industry overall.
The study revealed that Cadillac, and the average American car dealership, scored 65 points based on the Internet Lead Effectiveness Score calculated from extensive data by the Monterey, California-based analytics company.
In this regard, Cadillac outperformed the other three General Motors core brands in calendar 2024 (the data from which was used in the 2025 study). Chevy and GMC were tied at 60 points, about 5 points below the average ranking, while Buick scored a total of 58 points, or 7 points below the United States dealership average. The top performers with 77, 73 and 71 points consisted rather unsurprisingly of Subaru, Infiniti and Acura.
Zooming in on the details of Cadillac dealers’ responsiveness over time, Caddy dealerships are 6 percent less responsive than the previous year when the 2024 study showed a 72 rating, putting it in third place. However, they are 16 percent more responsive than in calendar 2021, when research showed a rating of just 56.
Cadillac was the top brand in the 2023 study and in second place in the 2022 study.
Predictably, Cadillac was average in all five of the areas of responsiveness Pied Piper uses to derive a final score for a brand’s dealerships. Caddy dealers sent an email or text to answer online customer questions within 60 minutes 50 to 70 percent of the time, and called customers within an hour 45 to 60 percent of the time.
The dealers offered an appointment on 25 to 45 percent of occasions, while both messaging and calling a customer for 15 to 30 percent of contacts. Finally, like most dealerships, Cadillac dealers didn’t respond at all to 10 to 25 percent of customers.
Responsiveness to customer contacts and questions over the Internet, however, is a key part of boosting sales. Cameron O’Hagan, a Pied Piper vice president, revealed that statistics show “historically, dealers who improve their [Internet lead responsiveness] performance from scoring under 40 to scoring over 80 on average sell 50 percent more units from the same quantity of internet leads.”
From this, he concluded, “the effort to improve is worth it.”
Comments
I work in a GM store. 90% of all internet leads are bogus.
Yeah but you only need one good one to sell a 120,000 dollar plus Escalade.