Electric vehicles, with fewer moving parts and less wear and tear, are leading to declining parts sales. This is putting significant pressure on vehicle manufacturers’ profitability. At the same time, manufacturers sometimes face high warranty costs due to teething problems with new models. To unlock new potential, many vehicle manufacturers are now rethinking their aftersales strategies and focusing on areas such as body and paint. We supported a renowned German manufacturer of premium and luxury vehicles in this process and developed a highly practical strategic guide.
Accident Damage Management (ADM) is increasingly becoming a key lever in aftersales – both economically and strategically. State-of-the-art vehicle technologies require repair methods that not every repair facility is able to perform. Our client is therefore strategically repositioning ADM across all its markets. To enable a successful global rollout despite significant local differences, we developed a comprehensive planning manual.
However, the markets differ considerably in terms of their existing structures, established processes and level of ADM maturity. Some are already quite advanced: the importance of the first customer contact is well understood, communication within the manufacturer’s network works effectively, and collaboration with insurance companies is well established. Other markets are still at an early stage: accident damage is repaired within the manufacturer’s own service network more by chance than by design, while vehicle owners rely heavily on their insurers, which are not necessarily affiliated with the brand.
The intended reader of our manual wants to establish ADM as a business area in their market. However, the topic may be new to them, and their market may still have fairly rudimentary structures in place. For this project, we therefore combined our hands-on dealership expertise with our strategic knowledge of different markets, as André Glanz, Senior Automotive Consultant at cotedo, explains:
Because we come from the dealership environment, we understand how structures need to work from a strategic, organizational and technical perspective. Only with this knowledge can such a complex business area successfully contribute to the profitability of both manufacturers and dealerships.
Our planning manual therefore bridges the gap between strategy and operational implementation. It provides extensive fundamental knowledge about the business area and gives markets a range of options for analyzing their current situation. Once the starting point has been clearly established, those responsible gain a clear perspective and can develop a concrete plan for the years ahead.
For the manufacturer, this transforms a complex topic into a manageable system – and turns numerous individual initiatives into a global strategy.
Then we should talk. Feel free to contact us at +49 (0)89 716 77 97 00 or by email at [email protected]