Arai Tops J.D. Power & Associates Helmet Rankings

For twelve years in a row, Arai Helmets has topped J.D. Power & Associates motorcycle helmet rankings for customer satisfaction. This is important because J.D. Power also found that highly satisfied owners are more likely to buy their brand of helmet again (that’s a no brainer, right?). The kicker though is that the likelihood of a repeat customer is nearly 10x more likely when they are highly satisfied with their helmet. In a world where it’s cheaper to keep an existing customer than to find a new one, a 10x multiple is a staggering figure on how product quality plays into a company’s sales and growth strategy.

This ROI seems to exist at virtually all price points regardless of the actual price paid for a new helmet. Motorcycle owners who are highly satisfied with their helmet also say they believe they received a great value in their purchase, despite the price. Furthermore, 57% of highly satisfied helmet owners say that they got an “outstanding” amount of value out of their purchase.

Out the most highly rated helmets Arai was followed by Shoei, Icon, and Harley-Davidson (in that order), with all four brands beating out the industry average. On par were Scorpion and Bell (Scorpion was just above the industry average, and Bell just below it). Check the attached chart for more listings.

Helping come to this assessment, J.D. Power consolidated 4,800 customer responses that focused on three key factors: helmet ventilation, face shield, and design & styling. Each of these three factors was then further broken down into 11 other attributes (quietness; ventilation/air flow; defogging performance; face shield ability to keep wind out; face shield ability to resist scratching; ease of replacing face shield; scratch resistance of shell; color/graphic design; weight; ease of fastening the strap; and fit and comfort), and a comprehensive score was made out of the results.

Both Harley-Davidson and Bell Helmets showed a substantial increase in customer satisfaction as they’ve improved their product line. We’ve got a couple Bell Helmets here in the A&R office, and should have a comprehensive report on them soon.