Vancouver, British Columbia — September 25, 2016 — The message at CSN Collision Centres’ latest annual conference was clear: performance drives the business. The conference took place at Westin Bayshore in Vancouver, BC, with the theme of “Performance Driven.” It was a theme that was reinforced and discussed in-depth over the course of the event.
The 2016 conference opened on September 22 with the official deinner and the opening of the Vendor Trade Show. James Cunningham served as emcee for the dinner. Cunningham is the host of the TV show Eat St., which airs on Cooking Channel USA, Food Network Canada, and in more than a dozen other countries around the world.
The conference really got rolling the morning of September 23rd, with a short opening address by Cunningham, who then introduced Flavio Battilana, Chief Operating Office for CSN Collision Centres. Battilana updated attendees on the success of the network in the lst year and outlined what they will face in the future.
Mike Lipkin, founder of Environics/Lipkin, was next to take the stage. The author of nine books on leadership, Lipkin spoke on what he calls “The Checklist of Champions.” These are items that are directly to performance.
The next speaker also focused on performance, but in a somewhat unusual way. Carmen Dunn is an orthomolecular nutritionist who spoke on nutrition and its effects on your performance. What’s put into a business is often seen as directly related to its performance. Dunn served up a refreshing reminder that the performance of an individual is often very similar: what goes into the body will directly impact personal performance.
After a short coffee break, Flavio Battilana returned to the stage, accompanied by Jay Hayward and Larry French of CSN Collision Centres.
Mike Black, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Dent Wizard was next, with a presentation titled “It’s About the People.” In the final analysis, the performance of any business comes down to the people involved and how their skills are utilized. Black discussed various methods for achieving maximum performance from team members.
Dunn followed Black with another short health and wellness session, this time looking at stress management and how to perform under pressure. Running a high-performing collision repair facility can put a lot of pressure on management and staff. Dunn’s session focused on how to deal with stress in that environment and turn it into an advantage.
An industry update and performance panel followed lunch. Moderated by Trista Anger-Miklusek of CSN Collision Centres, the panelists included Joe Carvalho of Economical Insurance, Chris Hancock of ICBC, Luc Ruest of TD Insurance, Steve Wade of Intact, Jake Rodenroth of AsTech and Scott Wideman of Volkswagen/Audi.
Rounding out the day’s session, Dave Carroll discussed customer experience in the age of social media. Carroll is something of a practical expert in this area. United Airlines severely damaged one of his guitars while he was on a flight, and nine months of calls and emails asking the company to compensate were ignored. Carroll then posted a song to YouTube, titled “United Breaks Guitars.” The video has since been seen by over 150 million people worldwide. It touched off an avalance of bad press for United Airlines and the company’s stock plunged as a result.
Carroll recounted his story while also delving into the importance of customer service, social media, branding, and the power of one voice to make a difference.
The day concluded with a gala dinner and awards recognizing high performing facilities.
The conference continued on September 24 with a number of events restricted to members of CSN Collision Centres.
For more information on CSN Collision Centres, please visit csninc.ca. Watch for a full report on the conference in an upcoming issue of Collision Repair magazine!
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