Bilar99e Oy is a Finnish used-car retail chain with around ten stores across Finland. In 2025, the company’s revenue was €198 million and it employed 140 people.

Three years ago, Bilar99’s management stopped to consider a fundamental question: how well do we really understand our customers’ experience and how well do we manage it? Customer experience was already being measured at the time, but the data easily remained inside reports. It did not influence the daily work of salespeople and did not guide decisions at the store level. At the same time, the market had become more competitive: every deal mattered and competing purely on price was no longer sustainable.

“The market situation is competitive. Every deal and every customer matters. For us, improving customer experience is ultimately about securing the continuity of our business,” says Sales Director Eetu Sutinen.

“For us, improving customer experience is ultimately about securing the continuity of our business”

Eetu Sutinen, Sales Director, Bilar99

In this situation, Bilar99 decided to replace its previous feedback solution with Buenno. The old system was considered rigid and did not provide tools for actual development. The goal was to bring customer experience data genuinely into sales and leadership use – not just as a metric but as a tool for influence.

Starting Point: Measurement Lacked a Development Perspective

The previous customer feedback solution provided numerical data but did not help explain why something worked or did not work. The data remained disconnected and could not be easily used at the salesperson or store level.

“The usability of the old service felt a bit cold. And perhaps the biggest issue was that it could not really be used to develop sales. You could see what was good and what was bad, but you could not access the underlying factors – either at the individual salesperson level or across the whole chain,” Sutinen explains.

Bilar99 had a clear view: customer experience had to be more than a number reviewed afterward. It needed to become the foundation of sales training, part of store leadership, and ultimately one of the most important business metrics.

From a Metric to a Sales Management Tool

Buenno was implemented so that measurement would be precise at the salesperson level and comparable at the store level, but above all easy to use in everyday work and sales management.

Now an automatic survey about the customer experience is sent after every offer and vehicle delivery. The responses are collected directly in Buenno, where they can be viewed at the chain, store, or salesperson level.

“It was important for us that the information could be followed easily and assigned all the way down to the salesperson level. Now that is possible, and it has clearly changed the way we manage sales and customer experience,” Sutinen says.

“It was important for us that the information could be followed easily and assigned all the way down to the salesperson level.”

Eetu Sutinen, Sales Director, Bilar99

The benefit of Buenno is not limited to measurement. The data is also used in sales training and decision-making.

Customer Experience at the Core of Sales Culture

At Bilar99, customer experience is not a separate “soft value,” but part of how sales and service are carried out. Sales models and training have been built around the type of customer experience the company wants to provide.

“Our sales approach and training start from customer experience. We believe that when the customer feels heard and their needs are met, they are willing to recommend us – and statistics show that they are also willing to pay more for the service and product,” Sutinen says.

“When we looked at who were awarded as customer experience champions, they were also the ones who sell the most and generate the most revenue for the company.”

Eetu Sutinen, Sales Director, Bilar99

Customer experience is visible in the themes of sales days, in the content of sales training, and in reward systems. For example, the title “customer experience champion” is given to those whose feedback results are exceptionally good. Interestingly, these individuals are often also at the top of the chain in sales performance.

“When we looked at who were awarded as customer experience champions, they were also the ones who sell the most and generate the most revenue for the company. Customers were willing to recommend them, and it also showed in the level of sales,” Sutinen says.

Buenno as Part of Sales Manager’s Everyday Work

Buenno has become a shared everyday tool for both sales managers and salespeople. Sales managers have access to their own results, and customer experience metrics are followed alongside sales performance. In the Lempäälä store, Sales Manager Visa Sappinen has integrated Buenno into the weekly routine.

“On Mondays we have a results meeting before work begins. We go through common topics and review Buenno. We celebrate good performances, we do not punish poor results, and salespeople themselves explain what the situations were like and learn from each other. This has made the use of Buenno something shared and something that genuinely motivates salespeople,” Sappinen says.

“This has made the use of Buenno something shared and something that genuinely motivates salespeople.”

Visa Sappinen, Sales Manager, Bilar99

When customer experience is made visible and discussed together, salespeople’s interest also grows.

“Salespeople have committed strongly to improving customer experience and understand that the customer’s experience and the success of the sales process begin from the very first second. When we are moving in the right direction, nobody wants to break the good trend and performance level we have achieved,” Sappinen explains.

The Lempäälä store is a good example of how active use of Buenno shows in results: its NPS has risen clearly above the already strong chain average.

Results: 18-Point NPS Increase and Strong Correlation With Sales

During the three years of using Buenno, Bilar99’s NPS has increased by 18 points to 69. The development is based on thousands of respondents and has been linear. The result is therefore not a temporary spike caused by a good moment, but a reflection of genuine improvement in operations.

“We had a three-year strategy for improving NPS, with a long-term target included. Each year it has been great to see the results move higher and higher,” Sutinen says.

Bilar99 also examined how the NPS curve correlates with business performance metrics. When the monthly NPS development was compared with the chain’s margins and additional service sales, the result was clear.

“We looked at nine months of data to see how the monthly NPS figure relates to our chain margin. There was a surprisingly strong correlation.”

Eetu Sutinen, Sales Director, Bilar99

“The same was visible in additional product sales. In practice it proved true: when a customer is willing to recommend us, they are also willing to pay for the service and purchase additional services,” Sutinen says.

AI Analysis Supports Strategic Decisions

One of Buenno’s benefits is the ability to identify important themes from large volumes of feedback using Buenno AI. This helps to understand customer experiences at a deeper level and to distinguish which parts of the experience relate to the company’s own operations and which relate to partners.

“We were able to find open feedback about driver services using a few correct topics. Without the Buenno AI tool it would have been mostly guesswork.”

Eetu Sutinen, Sales Director, Bilar99

In one case, Bilar99 considered whether outsourced transportation services should be brought back in-house. To support the decision, feedback was examined using themes related to transportation.

“Although transportation occasionally received critical feedback, the salesperson’s work and the purchase experience were still perceived as good, and customers were still willing to recommend us,” Sutinen explains.

Collaboration With Buenno

According to the sales management, cooperation with Buenno has been smooth. Pricing has been transparent and the service has continued to develop without costs getting out of control.

“I am willing to recommend Buenno. The cost level has remained reasonable, the service has been continuously developed, and what was agreed upon has held true. Changes have always been handled quickly and support has been available when needed,” Sutinen says.

Summary

In Bilar99’s case, measuring customer experience moved from reporting to becoming a daily management tool. When data is available at the salesperson and store level, reviewed regularly, and connected to business metrics, customer experience becomes a driver of growth rather than just a secondary metric.