Kubota Dealers Ranked Highest in 2025 Compact Tractor Industry Study for Website Customer Responsiveness
Kubota dealerships have been ranked highest in the 2025 Pied Piper PSI® Internet Lead Effectiveness® (ILE®) Compact Tractor Industry Study. This prestigious study evaluates how well dealerships respond to customer inquiries submitted via their websites. Following Kubota in the rankings were Kioti, TYM, Mahindra, and John Deere.
The study, conducted by Pied Piper, involved submitting customer inquiries to 726 compact tractor dealerships representing all major brands. These inquiries included specific questions about tractors in inventory and provided customer contact information such as name, email address, and local telephone number. Pied Piper then measured the response speed and quality over the next 24 hours, assessing communication through email, phone, chat, and text messages. The ILE evaluation applies over 20 weighted measurements, each based on proven best practices that have been statistically linked to higher sales performance. Dealerships receive an overall ILE score between 0 and 100, indicating their effectiveness in engaging with potential buyers.
Industry-Wide Performance Trends from 2024 to 2025
The overall industry performance remained stagnant compared to the previous year, with an unchanged average ILE score of 33. However, four brands saw improvements: Kubota, Yanmar, Bobcat, and Case, while eight other brands experienced either no change or a decline in performance. One notable improvement was the increased likelihood of dealerships responding promptly via email or text, rising from 22% in 2024 to 27% in 2025.
Despite this, fewer dealers utilized multiple communication methods to engage with web customers. Only 11% of dealers reached out via multiple channels in 2025, compared to 13% in the previous year. Furthermore, “ghosting” customers—failing to respond to inquiries entirely—became slightly more common, with an average of 20% of inquiries receiving no response, up from 18% in 2024. This highlights a growing challenge for dealers in prioritizing online leads and providing timely responses.
Understanding the “80/40 Rule” and Its Impact
The ILE scores reflect a broad spectrum of dealership performance, from high performers to those lagging behind. In the 2025 compact tractor industry, only 4% of dealerships achieved an ILE score above 80, demonstrating quick and thorough responses to inquiries. On the other end of the spectrum, a concerning 59% of dealerships scored below 40, failing to respond personally to website customers.
For comparison, 34% of automotive dealerships and 14% of powersports dealerships achieved scores above 80, suggesting that the compact tractor industry still has significant room for improvement. According to Cameron O’Hagan, Pied Piper’s Vice President of Metrics and Analytics, “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.”
Kubota Leads the Industry: Key Improvements from 2024 to 2025
Kubota showed the most significant improvement among compact tractor brands, with its average ILE score increasing from 37 in 2024 to 42 in 2025. The percentage of Kubota dealerships scoring above 80 rose from 6% to 10%, well above the industry average of 4%. Additionally, Kubota dealerships scoring below 40 dropped slightly from 47% to 46%, significantly better than the 59% industry-wide failure rate.
Kubota dealers also excelled in using multiple communication paths, responding to customers through more than one channel 21% of the time, compared to the 11% industry average. Moreover, Kubota had the lowest failure-to-respond rate of any brand measured in the study, decreasing from 14% in 2024 to just 10% in 2025.
The Compact Tractor Industry’s Greatest Opportunity for Improvement
The most critical area for improvement in the compact tractor industry is adopting a multi-channel communication strategy. Many dealerships still rely on a single response method—either email, phone, or text—when engaging with potential buyers. However, successful dealerships recognize that customers have different communication preferences, and reaching out through multiple channels significantly increases the likelihood of making a sale.
In 2025, 60% of compact tractor dealerships relied on just one communication method, while only 11% reached out via multiple channels. Among brands, Kubota led with 21% of dealers using multi-channel communication, while fewer than 5% of New Holland, Bobcat, McCormick, or Case dealers followed this best practice. For context, 44% of automotive dealers and 26% of powersports dealers use multiple channels to communicate with online leads. O’Hagan emphasized, “A consistent multi-channel response to every customer is worth it. You never know in advance which communication channel will be most effective at reaching a specific customer.”
2025 Brand Performance Breakdown
The study revealed significant differences in dealership performance across brands. Here are key metrics highlighting these variations:
Answered Question: The percentage of dealerships that provided an answer via email or text:
- Above 50%: Yanmar, Kubota, TYM, Kioti
- Below 40%: Massey Ferguson, McCormick Tractor, Case, Bobcat
- Industry Average: 46% (Compact Tractor), 50% (Powersports), 59% (Automotive)
Phone Response: The percentage of dealerships that called customers in response to a web inquiry:
- Above 30%: Kubota, John Deere
- Below 20%: Massey Ferguson, Case, McCormick
- Industry Average: 25% (Compact Tractor), 45% (Powersports), 68% (Automotive)
At Least One Response (Email, Text, or Phone):
- Above 65%: Yanmar, Kubota, TYM, John Deere
- Below 50%: Massey Ferguson, McCormick Tractor, Case
- Industry Average: 60% (Compact Tractor), 70% (Powersports), 81% (Automotive)
Both Email/Text and Phone Response:
- Above 14%: Kubota, Kioti, TYM
- Below 5%: Massey Ferguson, Bobcat, Case, McCormick Tractor
- Industry Average: 11% (Compact Tractor), 26% (Powersports), 44% (Automotive)
Failure to Respond to Customers:
- Below 20%: Kubota, John Deere, Bobcat, Mahindra
- Above 30%: McCormick, Massey Ferguson, New Holland
- Industry Average: 20% (Compact Tractor), 10% (Powersports), 7% (Automotive)
The Role of Website Engagement in Modern Sales Success
“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’s research highlights that the key to improving website response rates and, ultimately, sales, is providing dealerships with a clear view of how they are performing. Many dealers are unaware of how their response times and communication methods compare to industry standards. By addressing these issues, dealerships can significantly increase their chances of converting online leads into actual sales.
As the 2025 study demonstrates, dealerships that prioritize prompt, multi-channel responses to customer inquiries are the ones that stand out and achieve the best sales results. With Kubota leading the way, other brands have a clear benchmark to strive toward in improving their digital customer engagement strategies.
