Executive summary Aims and Objective of the thesis The following title identifies and quantifies my hypothesis: “The new role of after-sales service – how to develop unused potentials in the after-sales services via a detailed as-is-state and market analysis”. The hypothesis has been made under the present conditions in the world market and was aroused by the need of companies functioning nowadays on the secondary service apart from their major specialization – manufacturing products. The increasing need for after-sales assistance as a way to provide higher competitive advantage has been continuously recognized by the majority of manufacturers thus causing a need to create an efficient tool for assessment of black spots in the system of after-sales assistance and to design a system that would eliminate them. Design of the thesis The approach taken in the present thesis is a qualitative assessment of existing company analysis tools and uniting the findings into one homogeneous assessment tool to identify the needs of the customers that fail to be satisfied in the course of the provision of mainstream services to the customers and to identify as many ways to meet them as possible. Such tools as 3C’s, the SWOT analysis and the 5 Forces Analysis have been used to identify the current position of the company and potential for development and improvement that can be gained through the improvement of after-sales services provision. Unused benefits were identified with the help of the named instruments, signifying the potential that can be further developed. Afterward, practical recommendations for the increase in potential were offered together with the enumeration of threats that were potentially possible in the course of the change. The subject matter of the thesis The present thesis is concentrated on the issues of ensuring higher productivity of the company-manufacturer through working out a set of innovative approaches to after-sales services. The initial statement says that the sphere of services is playing a huge role in the world market nowadays, thus it should not be neglected by the producers that are concentrated only on the production segment of their activity. In order to prove the correctness of the idea, the analysis of the customer database was conducted, helping to estimate various groups of customers that required separate attention and different services. The company being a manufacturer, it was necessary to define the potential profit brought by spare parts as well as the real profit it gains at the present moment, thus comparing two figures and understanding the necessity of change. Analysis of demand helped understand the needs of the customers that are continuously not met, giving a scheme for future action. Analysis of competitors creating real and potential threats was also highly useful as it helped identify the problem the company faces in a broader and more complex way. The conclusion to which the researcher came is the growing necessity to pay considerable attention to after-sales services, to create a set of measures to protect the discussed segment from unauthorized third-hand parties decreasing the profit of the company, conseque