Page 18 - Australasian Paint & Panel Magazine Jan-Feb 2019

WOMEN IN COLLISION
18
PAINT&PANEL JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2019
AN INSPRING GROUP ATTENDED THE SECOND WOMEN IN COLLISION SEMINAR AND AWARDS AT IAG’S MELBOURNE HQ ON FRIDAY 16 NOVEMBER.
CELEBRATING WOMEN IN COLLISION
I
T WAS AN INSTRUCTIONAL
and emotional afternoon, which was also lots of fun. The seminar kicked off with all of the women in the room in- troducing themselves and saying what they liked about the industry. There were women from every aspect of the industry - technicians, assessors, ad- ministration, customer advisors (one of the new names we came up with to re- place receptionist), managers, owners and a number of women from industry suppliers. Everyone was passionate about the industry and a common enjoy- ment factor was the variety it offers with
few days the same.
IAG's Ivana Sekanic, Principal – CX
Performance, Customer Futures, Cus- tomer Labs gave a fascinating presenta- tion on how IAG looks at customer satis- faction and the customer journey – a very different view from the small business outlook. Sekanic talked about strategies to gain customer trust and how IAG anal- yses customer attitudes.
STINKING THINKING
Next up was a session with MindFit at Work on 'Stinking Thinking'. Scott Car- lon-Tozer discussed different kinds of negative thinking, how to recognise it and ways to avoid it. This energetic ses- sion involved juggling and hunting around to match up negative thinking statements with their explanations and talking through each one. What was clear that although there were many con- fident, successful women in the room, we all have some negative thinking patterns.
A quick break for afternoon tea and it was time for a live chat with an inspira-
tional Russian repairer, Olga Selezneva who started her business, called Volin in Moscow, as an 80m2 car wash back in 2003. Fast forward to today and she has 6500m2 of floor space and offers servicing (34 bays), collision repairs (18 bays) and tyre services (including a tyre hotel for storing summer and winter treads). Volin also has its own tow truck service, sells insurance, offers rego checks and carries 52,000 spare parts. Katia Gridina from AkzoNobel kindly set up the interview and carried it out in Russian, translating Selezneva'sanswers.Beforeshesetupthe car wash, Selezneva worked for her hus- band who is a building contractor, now he's contracted to her, building yet anoth- er extension to her thriving business.
RECEPTIONIST MUST DIE
We're putting a contract out on the term receptionist as the job title is outdated and doesn't reflect the breadth of the many and varied tasks front of house staff carry out. Our seminar attendees split into four groups to discuss their opinions, come up with alternative titles and a strategy for how to implement them. Repair business manager Danielle Kelberg originally came from a human resources background. She had much to contribute on the subject including shar- ing that when they did an audit of peo- ple's contribution to their repair busi- ness, they worked our their 'receptionist' was worth around $100,000 year. It was agreed that it is essential to have a de- tailed job description for each staff member and while titles like Director of First Impressions are fun, a 'director' or manager title can get you in trouble with clerical awards in terms of salaries.