By Mike Davey
St. John’s, Newfoundland — September 18, 2017 — “You have a choice. It’s your journey. We are ready for the future,” said Flavio Battilana, COO of CSN Collision Centres at the conclusion of his opening remarks at the 2017 CSN Conference. Battilana’s remarks echoed the theme of this year’s conference, “Innovation: Navigate Your Future.” The event took place at the St. John’s Convention Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
This year’s conference officially got underway with dinner and the opening of the tradeshow on Thursday September 14, concluding with after dinner live entertainment and networking opportunities.
The main session kicked off the next morning with Battilana’s opening remarks. He discussed how CSN Collision Centres will navigate the future. Part of this is being a responsible part of the claims process and focusing on safety and security.
“We have choices and we control our journey,” he said. “We have to stay true to the goal of CSN, and that’s to be innovative and prepared for the future.”
Battilana elaborated by noting that all 350-plus CSN shops across Canada will need to have the right people in place at all levels to ensure a world-class repair and customer experience.
He also discussed how the network is developing a portal for repair information and outlined how shops will be certified in regards to equipment and training, tying this into the overall theme of innovation and preparation for the future.
Next to the stage was special guest Leonard Brody to discuss what he calls the “Great Re-Write.” Brody focused on how innovation has changed the way business is done. In particular, Brody pointed to how there has been a power shift away from top-down organization. This upending of traditional power structures has led to a rewriting of expectations, according to Brody.
“We are resetting the operating system of the Earth. Expectations are very different today and we need to learn to speak the same language,” he said. “We can see how the world is being rewritten around us.”
Brody was followed by Larry French and Jay Hayward of CSN Collision Centres, presenting “The Larry & Jay Show: CSN in the Spotlight,” a look at the network’s marketing, branding and operation initiatives for the year ahead.
The overall marketing plan may be best summed as increasing brand awareness on the consumer side. In some ways, this started with CSN Collision Centres’ drive in the last two years to have all stores display consistent signage. Now the network is ready to take consumer awareness to the next level.
The branding initiatives include serving as the title sponsor for the next season of Canada’s Worst Driver on the Discovery Channel, sponsoring the PGA’s President’s Cup and a number of TV spots on various channels. In short, you’re going to be seeing CSN Collision Centres appear frequently if you’re watching much television this fall.
French and Hayward also discussed operational advances the network either already has in place, or is rolling out in the near future.
CSNdex is the network’s customer service management system. In brief, it provides scoring for individual locations and shows them how they’re performing in terms of customer service.
CSN Collision Centres is also partnering with Mike Gilliland and his company AutoHouse Technologies, to bring the benefits of business intelligence both to the network as a whole and to the individual shops.
In brief, the AutoHouse Technologies system takes all of the data that comes from the shops’ individual management systems, regardless of brand, and puts all into one central system where it can be accessed.
“All of the shops in the CSN network will have real-time data at their fingertips,” said French in a recent interview with Collision Repair magazine. “They’ll be able to use it to improve their operations and efficiency. Having the data will help us set benchmarks and see who’s performing above that level.”
Ideally, this will also allow shops to leverage the top performers’ techniques, thereby raising their own efficiencies. According to French, it will allow shops to see how they rank by region and by province. Providing a sense of the current landscape, and how they rank within it, will allow them to improve areas where they may currently be weak.
CSN Collision Centres has also announced a new quality control team headed by Douglas White. White’s team will be in charge of helping shops ensure repairs being performed are of the highest possibly quality.
Special guest Vincent Romans was next to the podium, giving an update on the current state of the industry and potential disruptive influences. Romans also outlined Canadian market data, which will be available in an upcoming whitepaper.
After a brief break for lunch, attendees returned for special guest Hod Lipson, Professor of Engineering and Data Science at Columbia University.
Lipson, of course, looked at autonomous vehicles and increasing automation. Lipson is considered something of a maverick, with views that challenge conventional views of robotics and have enjoyed widespread media coverage, including in Collision Repair magazine.
Lipson’s presentation led directly into the panel discussion on autonomous vehicles. Moderated by Douglas White of CSN Collision Centres, panelists included Lipson, Lorenzo D’Alessandro of CSN 427 Auto Collision and CSN Avenue Collision and George Kozyrakis, Manager of Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s car sharing initiative. White led the panel by asking specific questions geared towards the individual’s area of expertise.
Lipson, as you might expect, monitors the situation regarding autonomous vehicles closely. He believes we’ll have AVs within a decade, but that current legislation still needs to catch up.
“Legislation is essentially unknown right now,” he says. “Canada is allowing ‘testing’ as long as there is a human being behind the wheel, but the question is, what qualifies as testing?”
D’Alessandro focused on the OEM certification aspect and the large advances in technology we’ve seen in the last few years.
“We could see years back that the vehicle was getting more complex, and that certification would be a big part of the equation,” he says. “We were early adopters of OEM certification as we could see it would be required in the future. Soon, we may be at a point where repairing a car is more like repairing an aircraft.”
Aircraft repair and maintenance is a rigidly controlled process. Every aspect must be just right and in accordance with established standards. D’Alessandro’s comparison seems accurate, as the days of “close enough” in the automotive world are rapidly disappearing into the industry’s rear view mirror.
Kozyrakis looked at the advent of car sharing, and what this practice holds for the future of the industry. He noted that he believes both car sharing and car ownership will grow in the future. Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s model will involve individual memberships for users that allow them to have a car when needed, and to not worry about it when they don’t.
Max Valiquette was next to the stage, presenting the first of two sessions. An innovation and trends expert, Valiquette’s presentation was called “Dangerous Innovation.”
Valiquette outlined some of the reasons innovation can present a danger to your organization and how to avoid some of those perils. For example, he says it’s dangerous to innovate simply because everyone else is doing it. A better reason to innovate is because you really need to.
Valiquette has four key points for successful innovation. First, you must define the value for your organization. Second, identify the leaders and innovators within your organization and empower them to make the needed changes. Third, you must move quickly and set up your groups to do the same. Fourth, collaboration should be constant, but needs to be built for innovation.
One of the most striking “danger” points that Valiquette noted is simply paying too much attention to your competitors, and not enough to your customer. Innovation should always be about serving your customers better.
After the closing of Conference Day 2, CSN shop owners and employees, corporate staff and industry partners assembled for theCSN Awards of Excellence Dinner. For more on this, please see “CSN honours top performers in St. John’s.”
Conference Day 3 was led off by the second presentation from Max Valiquette. His keynote focused on practical tips for understanding the new generation, the millenials, and how to effectively integrate them into your shop’s culture.
Valiquette also served as the moderator for the following panel discussion on millenials in the collision repair industry. The panelists were Jessica D’Alessandro of CSN 427, Shawn Stenson of CSN Kingston, Colton Jones of CSN Jones and Alana Ramsay of CSN The Coachworks.
During the panel discussion, it was noted that many of the traditional drivers for settling down are occurring later than ever before. Millenials are getting married later and having children later in life. This means they expect more flexibility than members of previous generations might have. According to information presented during the discussion, around 60 percent of millenials have reported switching jobs at least once in the last three years, and 66 percent of them expect to change careers completely at least once in their working lives.
The panel gave a number of retention strategies that could be employed. One is that the shop, like millenials themselves, must become a “digital native.” In other words, the shop as a whole must be comfortable with digital technology and the modern methods of communication and doing business.
After the discussion panel, conference attendees moved onto a number of breakout sessions on various topics. Brigitte Pesant of AIA Canada led the session on AIA’s CCIAP shop accreditation program. Further sessions on Economical Insurance and Northbridge Insurance were led by Joe Carvalho and Gary Nagle respectively.
Conference Day 3 concluded with a special members outing. Called Rally in the Alley on George Street, the event featured a fish and chip dinner and a pub crawl, before concluding at The Martini Bar with live music. In addition to the booked band, Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies made a special appearance.
For more information, please visit csninc.ca.
