• Room to Improve: 4 out of 10 online inquiries received no personal response
• Industry average performance unchanged since last year, but top-ranked Kubota dealer performance increased substantially

Kubota Dealers Ranked Highest in 2025 Compact Tractor Industry Study Measuring Response to Website Customers

Contact at Pied Piper: Ryan Scott (831) 648-1075

Kubota dealerships ranked highest in the 2025 Pied Piper PSI^® Internet Lead Effectiveness^® (ILE^®) Compact Tractor Industry Study, which measured responsiveness to internet sales leads coming through dealership websites. Following Kubota were Kioti, TYM, Mahindra and John Deere.

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2025 Pied Piper Compact Tractor Internet Lead Effectiveness Industry Study (USA) (Graphic: Business Wire)

Pied Piper submitted customer inquiries through the websites of 726 compact tractor dealerships representing all major brands. Each inquiry asked a specific question about a tractor in inventory and included a customer name, email address, and local telephone number. Pied Piper then evaluated the speed and quality dealership responses by email, telephone, chat, and text message over the next 24 hours. ILE evaluation of a dealership combines over 20 differently weighted measurements, based upon best practices mathematically most likely to generate sales, to create an ILE overall score ranging between 0 and 100.

How Did Industry Performance Change Over the Past Year?

The overall industry average ILE performance remained unchanged compared to last year, with an average score of 33 for both years. Average ILE scores improved from 2024 to 2025 for four brands, Kubota, Yanmar, Bobcat and Case, while the scores for eight brands remained the same or decreased. This year dealers were more likely to quickly answer a web customer’s inquiry by email or text: 27% of the time on average for 2025 vs 22% of the time for 2024. In contrast, dealers were less likely to respond to web customers using multiple paths (email, text, phone): 11% of the time on average vs 13% for 2024. Customers were more likely to be “ghosted” this year, receiving no response from dealers 20% of the time on average, compared to 18% last year.

What is the “80/40 Rule” and Why is it So Important?

Each brand’s industry study ILE score represents an average that includes top-performing dealers as well as poor performers, each with a score ranging from 0-100. In the 2025 compact tractor bell curve of performance, 4% of all compact tractor dealerships industrywide scored above 80 (providing a quick and thorough personal response), while 59% of dealerships scored below 40 (failing to personally respond to their website customers). In contrast, 34% of auto dealers score over 80, and 14% of powersports dealers score over 80. Cameron O’Hagan, Pied Piper’s Vice President of Metrics and Analytics, said, “The effort is worth it. Historically, dealers who improve their ILE performance from scoring under 40 to scoring over 80 on average double the number of units sold from the same quantity of internet leads.”

Top-Ranked Kubota: Which Behaviors Improved from 2024 to 2025?

The average Kubota ILE score in 2025 increased from 37 to 42, the largest gain among compact tractor brands. The percentage of Kubota dealers scoring over 80 rose from 6% in 2024 to 10% in 2025, exceeding the 2025 industry average of 4%. Dealers scoring below 40 dropped slightly from 47% to 46%, well below the industry average of 59%. Kubota dealers responded to customers via multiple communication paths 21% of the time, compared to the 11% industry average. Additionally, the Kubota dealer failure-to-respond rate decreased from 14% to 10%, the lowest among all brands measured in the 2025 study.

What is the Compact Tractor Industry’s Greatest Opportunity for Improvement?

The behavior most likely to boost compact tractor sales is adopting a multi-channel communication strategy instead of responding to customers using only email, only phone, or only text. Many customers miss emails, ignore calls, or get overwhelmed by texts. Successful dealerships respond via multiple channels to ensure contact and then switch to the customer’s preferred method for future communication. In the 2025 ILE study, 60% of compact tractor dealers relied on a single channel, while only 11% used multiple channels. Performance varied widely among brands—21% of Kubota dealers used multiple paths, compared to less than 5% for New Holland, Bobcat, McCormick, or Case. In comparison, auto and powersports dealers fared better, with 44% and 26% using multiple channels, respectively. “A consistent multi-channel response to every customer is worth it,” said O’Hagan. “You never know in advance which communication channel will be most effective at reaching a specific customer.”

2025 Brand Performance Compared:

Response to customer web inquiries in 2025 had large variation by brand, as shown by these examples:

• “Answered Question” - How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question?
  • More than 50% of the time on average: Yanmar, Kubota, TYM, Kioti
  • Less than 40% of the time on average: Massey Ferguson, McCormick Tractor, Case, Bobcat
  • Industry averages: 46% Tractor vs. 50% Powersport & 59% Automotive

• “Phoned Customer” - How often did the brand’s dealerships respond by phone to a website customer’s inquiry?
  • More than 30% of the time on average: Kubota, John Deere
  • Less than 20% of the time on average: Massey Ferguson, Case, McCormick
  • Industry averages: 25% Tractor vs. 45% Powersport & 68% Automotive

• “Did at least one” - How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question and/or respond by phone?
  • More than 65% of the time on average: Yanmar, Kubota, TYM, John Deere
  • Less than 50% of the time on average: Massey Ferguson, McCormick Tractor, Case
  • Industry averages: 60% Tractor vs. 70% Powersport & 81% Automotive

• “Did both” - How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question and also phone the customer?
  • More than 14% of the time on average: Kubota, Kioti, TYM
  • Less than 5% of the time on average: Massey Ferguson, Bobcat, Case, McCormick Tractor
  • Industry averages: 11% Tractor vs. 26% Powersport & 44% Automotive

• “Failed to Respond” - How often did the website customer fail to receive a response of any type (email, text, or phone call)?
  • Less than 20% of the time on average: Kubota, John Deere, Bobcat, Mahindra
  • More than 30% of the time on average: McCormick, Massey Ferguson, New Holland
  • Industry averages: 20% Tractor vs. 10% Powersport & 7% Automotive

“Most customers first visit dealer websites, and how dealers respond to those who reach out online for help is critical to today’s sales success,” said O’Hagan. “The trouble is that website customers can be invisible in day-to-day operations which makes them easy to overlook.” Pied Piper has found that the key to driving improvement in website response and sales is showing dealers what their website customers are really experiencing – which is often a surprise.

About Pied Piper Management Company, LLC

Monterey, California-based Pied Piper helps brands and national retailer groups improve the omnichannel sales & service performance of their retailers.

Pied Piper’s Prospect Satisfaction Index^® (PSI^®) process applies data science analytics to determine the omnichannel sales and service best practices most likely to drive purchase and loyalty. PSI then uses a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning and human actors to measure and report how effectively each retail location follows those best practices.

Clients order ongoing PSI measurement and reporting – internet, telephone or in-person – as tools to improve and maintain the omnichannel sales and service effectiveness of their retailers. Through Pied Piper’s industry studies, clients also learn how their performance compares to others within their industry, as well as to other industries.

Examples of other recent Pied Piper PSI studies include the 2024 Pied Piper PSI^® Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE^®) Auto Industry Study (Nissan’s Infiniti brand ranked first), the 2024 Pied Piper PSI^® Service Telephone Effectiveness^® (STE®) Auto Industry Study (Honda’s Acura brand was ranked first), the and the 2024 Pied Piper PSI^® Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE^®) Powersport Industry Study (Polaris Inc’s Indian Motorcycle brand ranked first.)

For more information about Prospect Satisfaction Index^® study results or to apply ongoing PSI measurement and reporting to improve performance, go to www.piedpiperpsi.com.

This press release is provided for editorial use only, and information contained in this release may not be used for advertising or otherwise promoting brands mentioned in this release without specific, written permission from Pied Piper Management Co., LLC.

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