By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario — June 13, 2019 — This year’s IBIS Global Summit has given collision repairers and industry members from all over the map some interesting insights for the future of collision repair.
Day two of the event involved a series of presentations preparing shop owners for the future of technology and panel discussions sharing thoughts on improving the industry — Collision Repair has broken down day two of the event highlighting key presentations.
Day Two:
Vice president of Enterprise Rent-A-Car Mary Mahoney presented her take on an opportunity in disruption and how we can all win. As Mahoney shared the history of Enterprise and how it started more than 50 years ago, she also made a prediction for the future.
“By 2040, two billion cars will be connected vehicles,” she explained to the audience. “Collision repair shops need to prepare for this future.”
With that prediction in mind, she laid out a number of opportunities that collision repair shops can start acting on to prepare for this future.
Mahoney first suggested that business’ should improve customer experience by providing empathy, controlling transparency and providing more than one way of communicating with a customer. The next opportunity she suggested was to invest in talent and technology as well as new partnerships. Finally, she explained that connected cars will speed up customer transactions and that collision repair shops will require investments to keep up with this advanced technology and customer transactions.
“If you don’t invest you will not survive,” she said.
Following this presentation, a panel of industry professionals including vice president AAD of 3M Dave Gunderson and WorldSkills champions Ase Brekke Roe, Georg Profanter, Steve Waite Nicholaus Owen and Mirko Cutri, took the floor. The panel answered many questions directed at the issues of the industry. “How should we get more women involved in the industry?”
One of the panelists answered that we should treat individuals equally and not have separate messages. Women shouldn’t be afraid to try because they feel they might fail. Another question that was raised was how the job of a collision repairer can be improved.
“Provide more time to perform work,” suggested Waite.
“Getting estimates right the first time will speed up the repair process as well,” said Owen.
“Alleviate stress for employees and provide ample time to perform the work correctly,” said Georg.
“Help develop youth for the role of tomorrow,” said Curti
“Get the industry to hear the voices of the collision repairers working within the industry,” said Gunderson.
