Digital After Sales

Our customers benefit in Digital After Sales through the unique combination of automotive expertise and the extensive IT know-how of Arvato.

Holger Nitsche
Vice President

The untapped potential in digital after sales

The after sales market in the automotive industry is a large and, in some cases, highly underestimated ecosystem whose potential in terms of direct digital sales channels is far from exhausted. With growing (digital) customer expectations, OEMs not only face competition at the product level, but are also forced to change their business models and adapt them to customer expectations. These are spoiled by wide choice and high convenience. The complexity and importance of today's customer expectations requires a clear understanding of the market. Since more and more vehicles are networked and roll off the assembly line with their own IP address, for example, the data generated in the process is playing an increasingly important role. All cars can now communicate, are constantly online and collect a large pool of data. The task is to use this data properly and manage the associated complexity.

The after sales market in many industries has traditionally been characterized by customer loyalty and repeat purchases. However, in the automotive industry, more than anywhere else, after sales represents the beginning of another customer journey and revenue channel for OEMs. We support our customers in exploiting this potential and in designing their individual customer journeys. In addition to logistics services, we offer our customers in the automotive industry a wide range of customized solutions.

Our Digital After Sales Solutions at a glance

Technical Content Creation & Management

Editorial and Publishing Systems

Content Management/ Workflow Management Systems

IT Service Management

After Sales Platforms, Processes & Systems

Connected Car Services

Workshop Information Systems 

Automotive After Sales: Digitizing the Customer Journey

Do you want to know what a sustainable customer journey in the after sales market in the automotive industry can look like?

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Focus topics

Technical Content Creation & Management

For the safe use and care of a vehicle, the vehicle owner needs precise information about the model, series and equipment variants. Vehicle manufacturers are required by law to produce a vehicle owner's manual in accordance with current standards and guidelines. One of the challenges is to provide a uniform and easy-to-understand description of identical information. Arvato takes over the creation of operating instructions for specific vehicle series as well as the research and editing of the content in a multidimensional classification model. The focus here is on ensuring the consistency of the content and increasing the efficiency of the creation process.

After Sales Platform, Processes & Systems

Automotive customers also expect a holistic customer experience from manufacturers as well as seamless interaction between different channels. Processes must be integrated in such a way that customers experience a consistent buying experience and networked services regardless of the channel they choose. This applies both to the car purchase itself and to after-sales issues.

Arvato's service portfolio includes the development and operation of after-sales systems that are made available to our customers and can be used by independent workshops, vehicle fleets as well as private individuals. User-friendly platforms allow relevant service information to be accessed quickly and easily at any time. This information can be used, for example, to identify specific faults and rectify defects more easily. Furthermore, in addition to repair and maintenance instructions, additional information such as training materials can also be accessed.

Connected Car Services

Today's vehicle systems increasingly collect vast amounts of data, both about their own condition, such as kilometers driven, individual service intervals and tire pressure, and in relation to their immediate environment. The data helps vehicle manufacturers to continuously optimize the driving experience and the design of vehicle models as well as driving safety. But this data is also interesting for other use cases: OEM workshops can start diagnosing faults before the car arrives at the workshop and have the necessary spare parts ready for repair in advance. This can increase customer loyalty to OEM workshops.

The data is collected via corresponding APIs of the manufacturers or neutral and independent data platforms. For this purpose, we provide intelligent dashboards for our customers, which collect data, transfer them into tickets in case of error messages or events and forward them to vehicle owners, the OEM or the OEM workshop. With the help of our dashboards, we enable a continuous communication channel, which captures insights about behavior and requirements and thus can increase the loyalty to OEM workshops.

Your contact

Holger Nitsche

Holger Nitsche

Vice President