Above and Beyond: CSN honours exceptional shops at annual conference

By Mike Davey

Mississauga, Ontario — October 7, 2016 — It’s important to acknowledge those who perform above and beyond what’s expected. A desire to give credit and recognition for those exceptional efforts underlies the awards given out by CSN Collision Centres at its recent conference in Vancouver.

Gary Laschuk,and his team at CSN-Reflections in Edmonton, Alberta, were the proud recipients of two awards at the conference. First, they took home one of the three CSN Experience Awards.

The CSN Experience Awards are given to CSN members that have displayed passion, commitment, corporate citizenship, dedication and customer service above and beyond the average. Receiving the award is definitely a reason to be proud. But you can tell that Laschuk feels even more pride for his team’s accomplishments when he discusses the ultimate award they won that night: the CSN Shop of the Year Award.

The Shop of the Year Award specifically recognizes the CSN member facility that demonstrates commitment and dedication to their growth in sales, customer service, growth and support of the CSN network, participation in the industry and positive outlook and results through their activities year over year.

“It was a great night,” said Laschuk in a recent interview with Collision Repair magazine. “A year ago, the staff and I thought ‘we want to win this,’ so we made it a high priority and worked with CSN to come up with some new ideas and best practices.”

CSN-Reflections Auto Body was the first facility west of Ontario to join the CSN network. Laschuk was approached by CSN in 2009 and signed on. The CSN corporate team is proud that this facility was the first facility in western Canada to take home CSN Shop of the Year.

“When I first took on the role of Alberta Regional Manager and met with Gary he told me his goal in 2016 was to be the CSN Shop Of The Year,” said Kari Barton of CSN Collision Centres. He never wavered from his goal and was set on going from good to great. Gary’s ambition and drive ignite the passion he shows towards his business on a daily basis. I’m so proud of Gary and his team, and I am confident that this is achievement is not only a win for CSN – Reflections but also an inspiration to others in our network, especially in the Alberta region.”

Laschuk says they knew a year ago that they needed to grow to take better care of their business partners.

“We expanded the shop, got rid of a paint booth and put in two new ones,” he says, noting that there were also new processes put in place. “We really worked on our flow. We’re a very lean running shop, and part of the expansion was to design the layout so cars would flow through a lot better.”

The entire face of the collision repair facility was also redone, including refurbishing the 40 by 10 foot sign outside.

“We’ve got a good reputation locally and we’ve always been known as Reflections Auto Body,” says Laschuk. “Now we’re known as CSN-Reflections and we’re very proud of that.”

Melanie MacKenzie also has reason to be proud. MacKenzie is the manager of CSN-Crown in Saint John, New Brunswick. The facility won the award for Sales Growth in the 8,001 to 12,000 sq. ft. category. She accepted the award with Chris Downey, the facility’s owner. MacKenzie has been with the facility for about 15 years, starting as a receptionist. From there, she moved into invoicing, billing, repair planning and got her hands dirty in the production area. She became the facility’s manager last June.

“I believe our sales growth over the last year is the result of new processes and some new people on the floor,” she said in an interview with Collision Repair magazine. “Combined with our everyday business, that’s what made the difference.”

“Congratulations to all of our winners this year.They are the leaders in our network and should be very proud of their accomplishments,” said Jenny Trokic, Marketing Manager for CSN Collision Centres. “These CSN collision centres, especially CSN – Reflections, have shown nothing but dedication and commitment to our philosophy and brand. We believe that they are prime examples of what it means to be best in class.”

For more information on CSN Collision Centres, please visit csninc.ca. See below for a complete list of award winners and watch an upcoming issue of Collision Repair magazine for a complete report on the 2016 CSN Conference!