It was fantastic to finally be able to hold an industry event on Friday 28 May at the Monkey Baa in Darling Quarter, Sydney. Sadly there were a few empty seats because of the Victorian lockdown but there was a fantastic turn out from repairers and suppliers from the rest of the country.
The day was called Success Summit and each of the presentations complimented this theme. Everyone we spoke to was extremely impressed with our keynote speaker Sonia Friedrich, a behavioural economist who made us all think differently, by explaining the way the brain operates and it's resistance to change and it's innate fear of loss. She discussed ways to upsell to customers, to make them feel like they were getting great value from a service and also ways to motivate a team. Friedich also talked about the immense value in reducing friction points in the business from operational friction points within the business (by engaging team members who will then be less resistant to change) to friction points from a customer's perspective. Her presentation resonated with everyone so much that it was referred to in every presentation that followed.
Marcus Hofmann, product and sales experience manager from Volkswagen took to the stage next. His presentation offered many valuable technical insights into the Volkswagen group range. He began by looking at the Volkswagen platforms and explaining the strategy and advantages of MQB, MLB abd MSS platforms and later the MEB electric drive platform. He discussed some of the ADAS systems onboard and stressed the importance of calibration. He also made a convincing case for using OEM parts, especially windscreens, in the context of ADAS Systems. Naturally there was a section on electric vehicles and the challenges that these will pose to the repair community.
Our next session was a case study called Growing a Collision Repair Business. Steve Davies of Northside Smash Repairs in Queensland and Gene Finn from Finn's Bodyworks were interviewed about their success by Max My Profit director Ben Fewtrell. Both Davies and Finn gave a 'warts and all' account of their journeys.
They both talked about the difference in mindset that having a business coach had made and how having to be accountable was a really motivating factor. They discussed the ways in which they had implimented efficiencies, engaged their staff and boosted their profit. The emphasised what a difference it made working on the businesses and not in it and how difficult it had been to make that transition because it involved a significant change in daily behaviour.
As well as being more successful financially, their quality of life improved from not working as many hours and in Davies' case virtually making himself redundant in the day to day running of the business. Finn realised, like many business owners have, that actually everything to do with the running of the business and its strategy was in his head which meant that the business couldn't function without him.
Just before afternoon tea Richard Dudley, CEO of MTAA and one of the day's sponsors took to the stage to discuss some of the legislation changes taking place such as the mandatory data sharing law, the unfair contracts regulation and discussing the possibility of the Code of Conduct becoming federally mandated.
Our Platinum sponsor for Live was iBodyshop. Sadly managing director Steve O'Brien was locked down in Melbourne but he did watch the presentation by Zoom and still managed to take part in our panel. Fortunately some of his team were able to be there and had a table with the iBodyshop on display and information on the system in the foyer which people were able to look at. Associate sponsors Hella Gutmann and Opus also had displays with information on their diagnostic and ADAS recalibration systems and services.
After tea a man who needs little introduction in this industry, Rob Barlett formerly of Suncorp and now running his own business SupplySide Group took to the stage. With his dry sense of humour and immense knowledge of the insurance world his presentation was a series of tips for how to engage in 'insurance-eze'. He gave many valuable tips on what insurers are looking for. Firstly - yes they do compete against one another so anything you can help them with that will be welcome. He also suggested that including pictures of your spraybooth in a pitch or presentation was not the best move - insurers assume you have one - unless it's part of the story of why your business is different and worthwhile considering.
He commented on the enormous amount of compliance that insurers have to deal with which has been immensely compounded by the recent legislation that emerged from the Haynes Commision and has been a huge upheaval for the industry. He also touched on other areas where repairers could be helpful to insurers such as self assessing which saves the insurer a great deal of money in terms of reducing headcount.
Success Panel
We finished the day with a panel discussing what a successful repair business looks like. On the panel via Zoom was Steve O'Brien who kicked us off. As you would expect with a workshop management and quoting platform that has been adopted by over 1200 repairers, efficiency is key to success from O'Brien's viewpoint. Ensuring that everything is systemised and there is no time wasted both in the office and on the workshop which results in faster turnaround times, less headcount and higher profits when utlised fully. He was followed by Joe Woodriff from Woodriff Smash Repairs in Queensland. Woodriff runs a huge shop which has diversified and offers repairs, mechanical servicing, detailing and wheel repairs. He talked about the success he has enjoyed by optimising iBodyshop to the full and how this has enabled him to refine so many aspects of the business. He also discussed rebranding the business to reflect all of the improvements and changes. Glenn O'Donnell from both Northshore BMW Bodyshop and Macarthur Prestige Bodyshop talked about his views about success and that was from the aspect of having a highly trained workforce that could genuinely return the complex vehicles they work on to 'factory' condition. Finally Bartlett shared his views which echoed his previous presentation that a successfull collision repair business reduces friction points with insurers and actually thinks about how it can help the insurer by completing timely and safe repairs and offering the kind of customer service that would result in premium renewals.
We finished the day with networking drinks and received some great feedback from many of the delegates.
Peter McMahon the general manager of Car Craft said: "Congratulations to the team at Paint and Panel and Yaffa Media, the Live event was excellent. The content of the day based on Success and what that looks like was a perfect title for the forum, with many of our Car Craft Members in attendance from around the country is also a measure of the importance of forums such as Live and the benefits of these type of events, not mention the networking of industry leaders.
"Some of the highlights for me were the session with Ben Fewtrell and Gene Finn and our own Steve Davies, both gentlemen were great success stories and provided a warts and all on the road to success."
Glenn O'Donnell of North shore BMW and Macarthur Prestige said: "Professional, informative and a great networking opportunity."
Brett Leslight of Regatta Motorbodyworks said: "Paint and Panel once again delivered with concise knowledge on our profession. Extremely informative whilst touching on relavent subjects moving into the future was the key denominator. Well done."