CARRUSLiNK

    Guide · Customer wishes in purchasing

    How to use customer wishes in your purchasing

    Most dealers buy stock on gut feel and market pricing, while customers' actual wishes sit scattered across salespeople's heads or a notebook no one else reads. This guide shows how to register customer wishes as structured data on the customer card, and use them as the first thing you check before bidding on a car.

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    Short answer (TL;DR)

    Register the customer's wish (model, year, mileage, colour, equipment, budget) directly on the customer card, not as a free-text note. Before every purchase or auction bid, check the wishlist register for that car type. On a match, a task is created automatically for the responsible salesperson, with the customer's full history ready. The result is purchasing driven by actual demand, not just gut feel.

    Why customer wishes rarely get used in purchasing today

    • The wish only exists in the salesperson's head or a text thread, not on the customer card
    • There's no fixed field for model, year, mileage, colour, equipment and budget, just a free-text comment
    • Purchasing runs on market pricing and gut feel, not on what your own customers actually want
    • Nobody checks customer wishes before bidding at auction or valuing a trade-in
    • The salesperson who had the contact goes on leave or leaves the company, and the wish disappears with them
    • A match is only discovered 2-3 weeks after the car lands on the lot, if it's discovered at all

    How to build a usable customer wishlist register

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    1. Turn the wish into fields, not free text

    Model, brand, year (from-to), mileage (max), colour, equipment (e.g. tow bar, sunroof, leather) and budget should be structured fields on the customer card. The salesperson fills them in during the conversation instead of writing a note nobody opens again.

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    2. Register the wish even without a concrete 'no'

    Many customers never said no to anything, they just haven't found the right car yet. Register the wish proactively whenever a customer mentions it, regardless of whether the conversation ends in a lead, a test drive or just a showroom chat.

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    3. Make the register searchable across all customers

    You should be able to look up 'all customers who want a BMW 320d under 200,000 km' with one search field, not by calling around asking salespeople if they remember something.

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    4. Check the register before every purchase

    Before you bid at auction, take a trade-in for resale or make an offer to a supplier, look up the register for that car type. A match gives you a concrete sales signal, not just a market price estimate.

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    5. Auto-match against new stock

    When a car lands in stock (purchase, trade-in or lease return), it's automatically checked against the wishlist register. On a match, the responsible salesperson gets a task with the customer's full wish and history, instead of the car simply being listed like any other.

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    6. Prioritise by freshness and budget

    A wish registered 3 weeks ago with a realistic budget should be prioritised over one from 8 months ago with no updated budget. Use the fields to sort, not just to list.

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    7. Clean up the register continuously

    When a customer buys a car, or actively opts out of waiting longer, the wish should be closed. A register full of stale wishes is as useless as no register at all.

    What you get from using customer wishes in purchasing

    One place, structured fields

    Model, year, mileage, colour, equipment and budget live on the customer card, not in a salesperson's memory or a text thread.

    Searchable across the whole customer base

    Find every customer who wants a given car type with one lookup, instead of calling around asking colleagues.

    Purchasing driven by actual demand

    See which models, colours and equipment packages your own customers actually want, before bidding at the next auction.

    Automatic task on a match

    When a similar car lands in stock, the salesperson gets a task instantly, not a coincidence three weeks later.

    Connects with lost leads

    Customer wishes and the lost-leads archive match against the same stock, so almost no sales potential falls through the cracks.

    Fewer cars that just sit on the lot

    When purchasing starts from real wishes, cars sell faster after they land, because the buyer already exists.

    Purchasing with and without a customer wishlist register

    AreaWithout register (typical today)With customer wishlist register
    Where the wish livesSalesperson's head, text or notebookStructured fields on the customer card
    Search across customersNot possibleOne lookup per car type
    Purchasing basisMarket price and gut feelActual demand from your own customers
    Match against new stockManual, if someone remembersAutomatic task to salesperson
    Time from new car to contactWeeks, if it happensMinutes
    Handover on staff changesWish often disappearsLives on the customer card, independent of salesperson

    Numbers depend on dealer size and how consistently the register is used. The table describes a typical workflow, not a guaranteed outcome.

    Frequently asked questions about customer wishes in purchasing

    See the customer wishlist register on your own customers

    30-minute demo. We show how customer wishes are registered on the customer card, auto-match against new stock, and how you use the register as a purchasing signal before your next auction.