Despite one in four cars being bought online today, new car-buyers continue to appreciate the valuable reassurance provided by product experts within an in-person setting - especially when it comes to electric vehicles (EY, 2024).

To delight these customers, the forward-thinking Funnel Management team at Volkswagen Germany have launched an exciting online tool, which blends the 1-1 reassurance offered by a personal conversation with a product expert with the convenience of an online car configurator.

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This unique digital experience, called ‘Live Beratung’, invites customers to join a Volkswagen product specialist in a virtual 3D environment online. Once the customer has entered this space, the specialist can guide them around a photorealistic digital twin of a Volkswagen vehicle, highlighting key features and answering questions. The specialist can also help the customer finalise their favourite paints, wheels and other preferences from all possible options. When the online session has ended, the customer is connected with their local Volkswagen dealership, where they can continue their buying journey. 
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Live Beratung is playing a crucial role in educating and reassuring Volkswagen customers about the shift to 100% electric vehicles. Since we made Live Beratung sessions available in January 2023, both customer feedback and average session length have exceeded our expectations, signalling just how engaging the experience is to our customers. We’re excited to continue expanding the capacity available on the Live Beratung service.

Heike Kaldenhoven, Analytics & Funnel Management at Volkswagen Germany

As Live Beratung sessions are streamed via the cloud, they can be accessed on any device that is able to stream a video. This means that customers can effortlessly join on their phone, tablet, or laptop, from wherever they are. Streaming also makes it possible for customers to experience all possible vehicle configurations in the same place - an opportunity that simply isn’t possible in a real-world showroom.

‍Live Beratung is currently available to all German consumers and features Volkswagen’s entire passenger cars BEV lineup, including ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.7 and ID.7 Tourer. The Live Beratung solution was built in partnership with ZeroLight, cloud visualisation specialists and leverages their Palette SDK and OmniStream™ products.