Customer demand, Buzz Score and request matching

Customers often want a unit you do not have yet. MotoDealerHQ lets them ask for it on your website, lets your staff record requests taken by phone or in person, matches every request against your stock automatically, and measures what customers are interested in from your own website and CRM. It never bids or buys for you: matches and demand are information for your staff.

Vehicle requests and demand are included in the Pro and Enterprise plans.

Requests from your website #

Your website shows Can't find your vehicle? Let us find it. with a Request a vehicle button on the inventory page, and its no-results message links to the same form (/request-a-vehicle).

• Every vehicle field is optional: category, make, model, style, years, budget, condition, colors, mileage or hours, distance, accessories, financing preference, preferred store, contact method and contact times. A free-text description is read to fill in the blanks.
• The shopper chooses how they agree to be contacted. One consent record is kept per channel they tick.
• The form has spam protection, and the same customer asking again for the same vehicle adds a follow-up to the open request instead of a duplicate.
• Each request creates a CRM lead (or joins the customer's existing one) at the chosen store and follows your normal lead routing.

Shoppers can also save a search or wishlist on the inventory and vehicle pages (/alerts). No account is needed. They confirm by email (double opt-in) and can manage or unsubscribe with one click.

Turn the public form and saved searches on or off under Customer request & demand rules (Jump to: Demand rules).

Requests your staff take #

1. Open Sales › Vehicle requests and select New request.
2. Choose an existing customer or lead, or enter new contact details (a lead is created when there is none).
3. Fill in What they want and the Work details: owner, urgency, follow-up date and whether this is your estimate or a commitment the customer confirmed.

The request board #

Sales › Vehicle requests (/requests) lists each request with the vehicle wanted, customer, interest level, budget, timeframe, owner, days open, stage, in-stock and auction matches and the next action. Filter by stage, make, model, year, salesperson, urgency, match state, minimum budget or rooftop, and sort by urgency, budget, matches or follow-up.

The request page shows the matches with their explanations, the stage, owner and urgency, follow-up date (also created as a CRM task), manager approval, comments and the customer-contact log, message drafts, and Edit criteria and Renew.

Stages: New, Assigned, Searching, Possible Match, Customer Contacted, Vehicle Located, Acquisition Pending, Customer Interested, Sold, Closed and Expired. You can rename them and add up to ten custom stages. MotoDealerHQ only moves a request forward on its own from an early stage to Possible Match when matches appear.

Manager approval. When your rules require it (for example above a budget), a request cannot move to Acquisition Pending until a manager other than the person who asked approves it.

Requests expire after 90 days by default; with the customer's consent a renewal email is sent shortly before.

Salespeople have My requests & follow-ups (Jump to): follow-ups due today, unanswered inquiries, new matches, suggested alternatives, auction and wholesale matches, open requests, commitments and high-interest units. It shows no costs.

How matching works #

Every open request is matched against:

• your units at every rooftop (available, pending and newly acquired drafts), including units on their way in by transfer or purchase;
• open trade-in offers;
• auction and wholesale listings you imported, when your rules allow it.

New units, price changes, trade-ins and listings are checked every 15 minutes, and all open requests again every night. Each match is scored on type, make, model, style, years, trim, condition, price against budget, mileage, hours, color and distance, and every match lists which criteria were met, partly met or missed.

Dismissing a match means it is never announced again. Matching is structured; no AI is used to match.

Units at other rooftops follow your group inventory visibility rules: they may be counted as hidden, shown without a price, or shown with a price.

Acquisition reviews (/requests/acquisitions) lists one task per auction listing or trade-in offer that matches open requests, with a customer matches link showing which customers want that listing. Open customer requests with no exact or strong match in stock also appear on the Smart Buying Desk, where you can see a maximum purchase price.

Who is told #

Staff are notified of new and unassigned requests, matches in stock, at another rooftop, at auction or among trade-ins, customer follow-ups, price drops on a matching unit, follow-ups due, approvals needed and expiry. Each person hears about a fact once, in the console and by push, and by email or text only when your dealership has turned those on. Notifications never contain costs.

Customers get an automatic email only when your rules allow it, they ticked "email me about this request", their preferences allow it, the message has not been sent before and the weekly cap is not reached. Texts to customers are never automatic: staff write a draft (templates: match, alternative, check-in) and someone with leads.edit approves it before it is sent.

Customer demand and the Buzz Score #

Open Inventory › Customer demand (/demand). It shows the most requested vehicles in the last 30 days, the highest-buzz models, rising and losing interest, high-interest models you do not stock, many requests with few sales, possible shortages, missed opportunities, high interest with low conversion, aging units with buyer interest, price ranges, rooftops, seasonal pattern, request areas by ZIP prefix, follow-up performance by salesperson, request-to-purchase conversion and a model demand table.

On a unit, View Customer Interest and View Matching Requests show the evidence for that unit, and the inventory list has Buzz and Requests columns. Salespeople can record interest a customer showed in person.

What the Buzz Score measures #

The Buzz Score (0 to 100) measures how customer engagement with a unit or model is changing, from your own website and CRM. It compares the last 14 days with the 56 days before.

Signals, from lowest to highest weight: views, compares and saves; saved-search sign-ups; leads, calls, chats, credit applications and salesperson-recorded interest; requests; test rides and deals. Each visitor or customer counts once per window, at their strongest signal.

To keep it honest: bots and your own excluded devices are never counted, a visitor viewing an unusual number of units in a day is excluded, engagement from paid campaigns counts half, and no single day can dominate. Browsing visitors are never identified and never linked to a customer. Change the weights and windows under Buzz Score weighting and analysis in the demand rules.

Customer demand grade #

Separately from buzz, each vehicle gets a customer demand grade (A to F) from the distinct customers who want it: a confirmed commitment counts most, then a matching request, a test ride or quote, a lead, chat or call, and least an alternative request or saved search. Anonymous browsing never counts as customer demand. Demand never offsets title, safety, condition or financial risk in the grades.

Estimates on a request #

With cost access, the Estimates section of a request shows, for an exact or strong in-stock match, the unit's asking price, its booked cost and the difference (front gross before holding costs). For anything else it says the estimate is not available; no number is invented. Use the Buying Desk worksheet for a maximum purchase price.

Permissions #

Limitations #