Dubrovnik / Stuttgart / Ostfildern (1. Oktober 2016) – The Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH (DAT) and the AkzoNobel Coatings GmbH are starting an online-portal for car body- and lacquer work. This was announced at the annual meeting of AkzoNobel in Dubrovnik today. Via www.fahrzeug-reparatur.com, over 350 German, Austrian and Swiss body and paint shops organized in AkzoNobel's Acoat Selected network will be made available. On the basis of FairGarage-technology, end consumers will be able to select and book various services in the field of body- and lacquer work for their vehicles online.
The portal's service spectrum is tailored to Acoat Selected-partners and includes, among other things, lacquer work, wheel rim repair, polishing work and bumper repair as well as work in the area of Smart Repair. For participating companies, AkzoNobel will optionally provide a so-called Webkit, a software for repair service calculation, including appointment booking and additional form fields. It is to be implemented in the design of each participating workshop, to enable these to offer the full spectrum of services to their customers, all on the familiar workshop-homepage.
"We are taking a further step towards digitalization with this portal. We are turning online- interested -parties into offline-customers, who can be convinced of the quality and services of our Acoat-Partners firsthand. Our body- and paint shops are specialized on surface damages and repairs. They work quickly, precisely and offer high-quality service." Explains Kai Gräper, Acoat Selected Manager DACH at AkzoNobel. "We are clearly distancing ourselves from other providers by offering no opportunities for bidding on repairs or undercutting prices. All repairs are based on SilverDAT-data, so original manufacturer's data, which allows costs to be precisely calculated."
Upon selection of repairs and vehicle identification, customers are shown specialist companies that offer the necessary work by the standards of AkzoNobel, on the basis of the manufacturer's data. For multiple repairs, no costs are shown, especially in cases of extensive body damage. "It would be frivolous to offer a customer a price for the repair of a body over the internet, without the car having been assessed by an expert first. The customer can book an appointment for an inspection of the damage over the portal. Then, the workshops can use a professional calculation system to calculate the correct cost of the repair." explains Johann Peter Kleffmann, head of DAT- distribution Germany. Kai Gräper continues: "Our portal combines a google-search with the direct booking of an appointment in a workshop. This is a one-of-a-kind function in the field of body- and lacquer work."
"It's important to us to catch the customers during their google search with the help of the correct SEO-measures. This method has shown good results with FairGarage, and is already being implemented in Acoat Selected." concludes Johann Peter Kleffmann.