OK, folks. That's us. That's time.
I would like to welcome you into our webinar
today. My name is Brad Rook, senior customer
advocacy marketing manager with Igloo Software
and I'm pleased to welcome you to today's webinar.
How today's retailers are tackling industry
challenges in 2024.
Um We will get right into our content
in just a second, but I did just wanted to uh draw your
attention to a couple of housekeeping items.
Uh The first is going to be the Q and A link. So
you're not going to be able to chat in this webinar.
Uh Nor will you appear on camera microphone,
anything like that? Uh But we do have a
Q and A link on the uh user ribbon.
So uh if you see that, that will be
where you would ask any questions of our presenters
or myself. So do feel free to uh to
use that. Uh Of course, uh that
helps us keep track of who asked the question, uh follow
up with any more detailed answers, that sort of thing.
Uh And just ensure that all the questions are being
asked in one place. So, thanks very much for doing
that. And uh again, that's the Q and
A ribbon uh on the uh on the, on
the zoom uh contact ribbon there.
Uh The other thing that we have uh available
for you is closed captioning. Should you need it?
Uh Closed captioning is available on the
uh I believe the lower right of the uh
participant zoom ribbon, uh You'll
see the uh familiar CC icon
and if you want to uh enable that feature,
you just click on that and uh you'll be
uh you'll be set to go with uh closed captioning.
So, with our housekeeping out of the way, uh once
again, I would like to welcome you to our webinar how
today's retailers are tackling industry
challenges in 2024. Uh Getting
into things, we've got a, a pretty full
agenda for you today. So uh first off,
we will get into introductions in just a second.
Uh We are then going to look at uh trends
and uh outlook for the retail industry
in 2024 followed
by our solution showcase with CB
A Connect. So one of our presenters uh is going
to share their digital workplace and some retail
use cases with us um in
that. And then finally, uh we
will allow time for Q and A. Although if a question
does come in and we find it's contextual,
uh we might just answer it in flight there as
well. We like to be a little uh free and easy like
that. Um So with that, all being
said, uh as I mentioned, my name is Brad
Rook. I'm the senior customer
advocacy marketing manager. Pardon me?
Uh with Igloo software, been with Igloo
uh coming on five years now. Um All
of it in customer facing roles. Uh formerly
a solutions consultant, uh moved into customer
advocate and uh now have formally moved
into uh uh marketing facing duties.
Um My co-host
uh I'm a, a great customer of ours.
Uh Someone I've worked with in the past is Paige
Stillwell. Paige is the senior messaging
and communications specialist with Christian
Brothers Automotive. Welcome, Paige.
Thank you, Brad for having me. I'm so excited
to be here and to talk about this. Uh just
a little bit more background about me and our
company. So Christian Brothers Automotive
is a nationally franchised automotive
repair and maintenance brand in the US.
So we're headquartered in Houston, Texas.
We have 286 locations
across 30 states in growing.
Um We do anything that you can
think of when it comes to automotive repair. So
oil changes, alignment, engine
repair, transmission, repair, repair, fluid
flushes, all of that fun stuff. Um
and we really are focused on the customer
experience. So we've been ranked by JD Power
as number one in customer satisfaction
for our segment for the past four years.
And whenever anyone asks me to tell them a little
bit more about Christian brothers, I always say
that the heart of our brand is found in our mission
statement, which is to love our neighbors
as ourselves. So we're really
focused on, you know, improving
the lives of the people that we come across, whether that's
our customers or our front line team
members or people at our home office, like that's
really the goal of our brand.
Um I've had the pleasure of serving
the brand for the past almost five years as well.
Um I do all of our internal and
external messaging. So from
social media pr radio,
web writing, all of that fun stuff all
the way to all of our internal coms. So, c
suite messaging
blog writing and the management of
our internet, which I'm excited to show you a little
bit more about here in a minute. But yeah, thank
you for having me.
Oh, very excited to have you, Paige. Thank you for being
here. Um Just wanted to recap that.
What did you say? 286 locations?
I believe it was 286 68
in 30 86 3200
and 86 in 30 states. So definitely
AAA very large reach. And
um you're a, you're a franchise model um
with, with a lot of these locations. Is that correct?
Yes. Um I believe just over 250
of our locations are franchise owned and
then the rest are operated.
Wonderful. Well, we're looking forward to what you can
bring to the discussion today and certainly to seeing
uh inside uh your digital workplace,
CB A connect uh in just a little bit.
So folks, as I mentioned, um we
are gonna look now at our retail industry 2024
outlook and I will um throw in a little caveat
to start. Uh This is not a comprehensive
view of the industry uh in terms of
every problem facing the industry in an in depth
analysis. Uh We, we cherry picked
a few things through our research uh because obviously,
if we were to get into a uh a full
uh breakdown of the uh retail industry that would
probably be a much different and longer
webinar. But we did do our research um
to look at a number of different trends
that are facing the retail industry in general
and uh page and I have some thoughts
on that. So to start with
uh the first thing that we're seeing is uh
of course, with a lot of arms of business
um is economic uncertainty. So
the global economy is facing several challenges
such as inflation, supply chain disruptions
and this is putting pressure on retailers
margins.
So in our research, we came across
AAA quote from Forbes and I like
this quote. Um The, the goal
for supply chains in 2024
according to Forbes, when we start thinking especially
about that, those supply chain disruptions.
And as we get a little further on talking about
maybe integrity of the supply chain as well
as maybe sustainability.
The goal for supply chains as stated
by Forbes is to transform fragmented supply
chains into agile collaborative networks
for supply logistics, asset management
and service all connected by dynamic
workflows with real time data to increase
the pace of business. So we're looking
uh at traceability tracking
visibility, these things are all going to reach new heights
with regard to the supply chain and really
um help mitigate some of the issues
that are faced with. Of course, that economic
uncertainty and some of the supply chain
disruptions that we'll see
now within um some
of the uncertainty and within the idea of the supply
chain, we're seeing that A I artificial
Intelligence is going to continue to evolve.
Um And that's gonna take the supply chain itself
to another level. Uh It's gonna help reduce cost,
it's gonna help maximize efficiencies along the way.
But also um it's
a bit of a two headed uh thing with A I
in the fact that there is an aspect of trust,
there's an aspect maybe of lack of personalization.
So we've got to bring those things together and
we'll talk about those a little more.
Um The supply chain itself
is gonna still continue and this
is economically as well uh to
be challenged by logistics, geo
geopolitical impacts and material shortages.
Um Looking at this through a digital transformation
lens that's why we're here talking about digital transformation
and how we can support some of these issues
uh with digital transformation strategies.
Um Insurance employees are aware
of these impacts changes. Therefore, they always
have the latest information, making sure that they're
equipped with the latest knowledge and information
to do their jobs. This is going to play a key
role in ensuring that the digital workplace
uh can continue to provide that information
uh to those employees as well as ensuring
that the organization uh and its employees
are well informed and can meet some of these challenges.
Now, this is the first time I'm going to bring in Paige.
Um because Paige, I know you had some
uh uh kind of a neat perspective with
Christian brothers and that whole economic
uncertainty idea. Would you care to share?
Yeah, absolutely. Um What's
really unique kind of about our industry,
the automotive industry is that we're kind
of protected from economic uncertainty
to a certain extent.
Um People need their cars no
matter what the economy is doing. So even
during COVID-19, we were still
seeing, you know, growth because
whether you're a doctor that's going to the hospital
to serve patients, you still need a car that you
can rely on. So
that's one thing that we are fortunate to be protected
from, but we also know that
the economic uncertainty impacts our guests
and our customers. And so we wanna, you know, keep
that in mind based on what we're doing today.
Um, but we do see some supply chain disruptions
affecting our business, um, namely
in our growth. So we have very aggressive
growth plans for opening new shops.
But those have been slowed based
on the fact that we can't get the supplies
to build the new shops. So we're
kind of seeing it from both ends where we're like, yeah, we're protected
in a certain sense, but we're also capped
based on what the supply chain is doing at the certain
time. So
interesting. Yeah, and certainly uh that
point is, is very well taken, the idea
that, you know, in a lot of cases you're supplying
um parts, uh auto parts
to um uh
consumers for their vehicles, that sort of thing
if those parts aren't there because of a supply
chain disruption or some sort of shortage, uh
that can be a real problem. So, so knowing
about those shortages and knowing maybe about those
issues approaching,
I also like the point you raised about the idea
II I like it don't get me wrong. Um But
you know that you the the slowing of your growth due
to uh maybe materials availability for
um uh for, for Fran for
the franchises to start up. So no, definitely
good um solid points there. And as far
as the economic uncertainty aspect goes,
um the next thing that we looked at is
tech uh tech is everything. That's what the
point says. That's basically what uh we're gonna
talk about here. So um we
looked at everything from uh as it says on the slide
from social commerce to chatbot marketing,
from A I generated product descriptions and promos
to personalized communications, technical
proficiency is driving uh the
retail marketplace. Um We're expecting
a lot more of employees in the retail
field uh to be technically sound
and savvy in order to make
the most of some of these uh technological
advances that are really driving things
uh in, in terms of in marketing, purchasing,
all sorts of fun stuff.
Um Some interesting things we found
uh chatbot marketing and targeted communications
are really coming to the forefront. Uh This
was, this was really interesting to me, 91%
of consumers want. Uh according
to a study, uh S MS texts
from brands that they like 91%.
Um This was something that
came through Forbes. Uh whatsapp
Marketing has a 95%
open rate. So we're seeing tech
uh coming to the consumer in those forms
as far as things go now to,
we talked a little bit about A I in the previous point
and A I is going to be a huge driver in these
initiatives, but it needs to retain
a human touch. And that's where a lot
of that personalization aspect is going to come
in. A lot of that trust aspect is going to come in.
Organizations are going to look to drive
individual engagement at scale with trustworthy
A I. Meanwhile, half of retail execs
and this is this is important. Half of
retail execs are confident A I can be
trusted. So what does that mean? On the flip side?
Half are not? So there is a trust
aspect with A I and certainly we can incorporate
elements of A I into digital
transformation strategies, but we want to
ensure that that A I is humanized
as trustworthy as fact check that sort of thing.
Uh Along those lines, we can see A I
doing things, for example, like deep fakes
um make making problems for brands,
the ability to kind of uh fraudulently
produce um uh elements
of an organization's brand uh using
the that deep fake technology.
Um So in all stricter regulations
and heightened consumer awareness regarding data protection
demand that retailers prior
prioritize pardon me, robust cybersecurity
measures. So not just with A I but
with the uh the the workplace in general.
And in considering all the technical aspects,
one of the big impacts that we see
quite often with digital workplace and
digital transformation within an organization
is the conveyance of uh and
a knowledge repository for uh cybersecurity
training and awareness, that sort of thing.
Paige. Um Have you got any thoughts here
on, on any of the uh the tech is everything
sort of aspects?
Yeah, absolutely. So we're
really feeling the big tech push here at CB
A. Um I'm not on the tech team, but on the
marketing team, I get to touch a lot of those different
pieces.
Um And we're really always
looking for different ways to meet the convenience
challenges of our guests because as
tech evolves so does convenience
and that's really what they're looking for is what,
how can I book my appointment faster?
How can I get this off my plate a little bit easier.
So a few things that we've done last
year, we launched our own online appointment scheduler.
And so now guests can go right in
and schedule appointments online before
they would have to find a location and call,
uh they can online. So that's one thing that we've
done recently. Um And then
in an effort to get our customers to use
that our whole messaging
when people call
says, hey, do you want us to send you a text
that has the link to our online scheduler?
And so they can press a button while they're on hold
with us and get a link texted right to
their phone that allows them to, to schedule
directly. Um
We also are developing this year a tool
for all of our guests to manage
their garage of vehicles in one place.
So we every vehicle that they own
service history, past recommendations
that they maybe didn't go for. Um
And then any add ons they have with us like
our extended warranty or anything like that, they can
manage all through that. Portal similar
to like a patient portal at a doctor's office.
So we're really trying everything
that we can to make things more convenient,
more tech forward, just bring it into
the modern century. Um But yeah,
nothing with a I yet. So I'm curious
to see where we go with that.
Yeah, certainly in your role as a content creator
uh across social media platforms and a lot
of your internal external communications,
I can certainly see that that'd be touching you at some point.
But um love what you said about,
you know, some of the technical aspects that you're
bringing into your business. And certainly we can see how
that um is starting to uh make
a bit of a paradigm shift in terms of
uh maybe the skill level of some employees. And
also uh the just simply the exposure
to technology.
Um the, the, the next one that
we came up with. And uh this, this was
kind of an interesting one as well was the idea
of loyalty programs and value adds. Um
So those that are in loyalty
programs, I like this stat right off the start.
Um
They reported a 61 high, 61%
higher trust uh level of the
organizations that are providing those uh with
the uh um uh loyalty programs
than those who don't have loyalty programs afforded
to them. Uh Meanwhile, we see more
and more retail organizations they're seeking to add
value to their products. With service programs,
pig you mentioned like extended warranties, things
like that.
So the role that we see with
a digital workplace when it comes to loyalty programs
and value adds really comes down again to
um centralization of information source of
truth uh and communicating with employees
in the field. So a digital workplace
um is really going to provide that centralized
platform where employees can access all relevant
information regarding uh these loyalty, these
service value add programs. This is
going to include everything up to and including
program details, benefits of the eligibility
criteria that was hard to say promotional
offers and any updates or changes.
Um Having all your information in one
place is going to reduce um
uh likelihood of information
uh mi misinformation, pardon me and
increase your consistency managers,
they can use a digital workplace to announce new programs,
promotions or updates instantly ensuring
that employees are always aware of the latest information.
Similarly, employees can ask questions,
they can seek clarification, they can provide feedback
through these channels. Um This really
promotes a culture of transparency within
the organization and also uh furthers
the course and the cause of employee
engagement um in ensuring that they're
up to speed with everything employees that feel
informed are are um statistically
well more engaged uh than those that don't,
they necessarily have the answers.
Um And then certainly as I mentioned,
the idea of mobile applications. So uh
using mobile applications, we can allow
employees to access information on loyalty
service, value add programs, product information,
all sorts of cool stuff. Uh, we can allow them
to access that
where they work in the field. Um,
as opposed to having to,
uh, to be desk bound or anything like that.
Um, Paige, I know you said you were setting up a couple
of different things in terms of some of these loyalty
and value adds. Uh, would you care to um provide
us a little context on that?
Yeah, absolutely. And the showcase
at the end of this is really going to show how we're using
our digital workplace to meet all of these
challenges, but some context
as to what we're doing this year, we're really, really
very busy this year focused on
different things to add value to our service
offerings. So we just launched
an on location uh service
in three different markets. That's where a mobile
mechanic will take a truck
and a lift and go to someone's house
or their place of work and repair their car on
site.
And so that's one of the things that we're working on.
We also are doing, like I said, the new
extended warranty program that launches next
month. Um And it's a huge
thing for change management with all of our
shop employees, like they're now having to
sell if they want to, you know,
an extended warranty, which they've never done before.
So that's another thing that we have to really focus on communicating
about. Um, but we think our guests are really gonna
love it because it's taking out that third
party. They already trust us to care for their
car. And now we're just going to protect their car too.
Um And then we also have a concierge
service as well where our technicians
or service managers can pick up
someone's vehicle from their home or place of work,
bring it to the shop, work on it and then take it
back to them. So again, trying
to meet those convenient needs for our customers,
but also we need to make sure that we're able
to communicate all of this stuff to our shop employees.
So they know how to integrate it all.
Very cool and yeah, definitely a lot of correlation
with the, the, the points that I made earlier.
I really liked. Uh the idea
of that, that, that mobile um, aspect.
I, I'd never heard of that or seen it with, uh with
vehicles before. Maybe I'm just sheltered.
Uh I had seen it with bicycles, the idea
that uh you will have someone come to home and
actually perform the work there, that sort of thing.
Um, but certainly that builds a very nice case
for, you know, keeping employees informed in the field,
that sort of thing because these employees, they're
not going to be bound to a desk, they're going
to be outperforming. Um, the work actually
in the field in this case at the
um um person's place of business or residence.
Yeah, absolutely.
Ok. Um So next
up, we looked at a couple of different
uh trends to round this off. Um
The first is green fatigue and sustainability.
And uh this is something that I,
I really found fascinating. I did a lot
of um research into uh
and certainly um uh again,
found it very interesting.
Um and it all relates to sustainability,
sustainability questions, concerns and issues
um are really abounding within any number
of industries. The retail industry being no exception.
This was staggering to me. Nearly 90%
of Gen X consumers said that they would
be willing to spend an extra 10% or more
for sustainable products compared to just
over 34%. Um 2 years
from the time the study was done. So this massive
massive increase all based around the idea
of sustainable products, sustainable
supply chains, so on and so forth.
Um Another interesting point we found
was that 60% of consumers believe
that companies are making up their sustainability
and green promises. While a Gartner poll
found that 87% of business leaders
expect to increase their organization's
investments in sustainability over the next two
years. So pausing there for a 2nd,
60% of consumers now granted
one study. But that's really, really
interesting when it comes down to the idea of
um building that trusted brand again
and, and, and certainly making sure
that our investments and sustainability
are communicated not just to our customers
but to our employees who are going to be those ambassadors.
So we're seeing things working
better for independent retailers who can prove their
claims and demonstrate sustainability both
in their operations and in their supply chains.
Education of staff is, as
I mentioned, is, is really key to ensuring
a positive company and branding experience.
Staff members who can provide clear backing
for corporate green initiatives will be an asset
storefront and broadcasting
that green ethos to potential hires
to those folks who are working for the organization
uh can draw in like minded individuals
who feel passionately about the business,
want to support the business and maybe want to
stay and make it a career. So
we see a talent attraction and retention
uh being an offshoot of some of these sustainability
initiatives. Um Paige automotive
industry. Um How are you folks
looking at sustainability and what, what,
what sorts of things are you seeing as trends
affecting your specific industry?
Yeah. Um It's no secret.
I don't think that our industry is
getting increasingly under scrutiny
over the sustainability and how
we go into the future with automotive.
Um So
I think one of the biggest things that we're trying
to do right now um based on the
laws that are getting passed in the United States is
how can we prepare our front line employees
for the shift to electric vehicles? It's
a huge shift it's not just, oh, you
know, you did a naturally aspirated
vehicle and now you're going to do the same thing on an
ev, the makeup of the cars are completely
different. The, um, parts
and stuff that we have to have in the shops to service
those vehicles are completely different. And
so I think the main focus for us
in this space is really focusing
on that training, getting them ready to service
these vehicles. Once this market really starts
to saturate more with electric vehicles,
we even had our auto tech team came
up with their own ev hybrid certification
process and they're really focused
on getting that out in front of our
technicians, getting them ready.
So that when that way when they start coming
and laws are more mandated, they
are ready for that. And so we're excited
about being able to service those kinds of vehicles.
And that's, that's really interesting because again,
that, that delves right back to the idea of
that knowledge, sharing that source of truth.
Um You folks are preparing for
um these trends that are, that are emerging
within the automotive industry and, and you're making
sure again as a franchise model with many,
many locations across a lot of states
um that we, we, we're seeing this
consistent education and establishing
that this is, this is what we're doing as
an organization to, to, to meet this challenge
or to meet this next trend.
Um OK, the last the last point
that we wanted uh to, to focus
uh on because it's a big one before
we get into the uh the demonstration
of, of CB a connect uh workforce
challenges. So one thing I found
that I thought was quite interesting was there were more
than 4 million retail job openings across the
US in 2023.
That seems like a lot. It's a lot um attracting
and keeping staff is, is really
a key element that um retailers
and and a lot of other industries have to consider
um in not only ensuring
that we have that but ensuring that staff are properly
um trained for their roles. So there's
a lot of uh really interesting
uh things that are coming out of that in terms
of the challenges with the workforce.
So finding the right talent, it's
uh it's a persistent challenge. Uh the competitive
job market coupled with evolving consumer
demands requires a workforce that is not only
skilled but also adaptable. So we talked
about maybe some of the changing tech uh changing
messaging from the organization, that sort of thing.
Um High turnover rates are continuing
to plague the retail sector. Uh the nature
of entry level positions and the demands of the industry
are contributing uh to a revolving door
of employees. In a lot of cases. In response,
retailers are re evaluating their employee
value proposition. They're focusing on things
like offering competitive wages, flexible
schedules where they can and comprehensive
benefits to enhance uh job satisfaction
and reduce that turnover aspect. Staffing
concerns aren't just extending to
um your front line staff, but we're also seeing
them extend to uh desk staff
that work behind the scenes, things like warehouse workers
who are doing order picking and packing, things like
that. Uh They're essential in
today's e-commerce realities and,
and certainly their folks that uh um
are, uh we're finding their
talent pool is getting a little depleted as far
as that goes. So, retaining, attracting
and retaining these workers is, is a key thing.
Um We also see within retail
industry, a lot of seasonal recruitment. So
seasonal recruitment and training programs
um for those seasonal recruitment efforts
are creating a big need in this sector.
So we uh uh we see a lot of
the uh especially kind of that bespoke seasonal
training around the holiday season where we're bringing
people on for a specific period of time
and yet training them to be ambassadors of our brand
and sell our products out in our physical
um locations.
Um As technology continues
to reshape the retail landscape, there's a growing
gap between the skills possessed by the existing
workforce and those demanded by those evolving
roles. Retailers are investing in
things like upskilling, reskilling programs,
streamlined approach to onboarding,
things like that are helping to bridge the gap
and ensure that their employees are equipped with the digital
literacy and the technical skills needed to
uh navigate an increasingly technological
uh environment.
The retail sector itself has
recognized the importance of prioritizing
employee well being we saw during the pandemic
and and and kind of since then really
uh a big emphasis on things like employee
well being mental health, things like that. So the need
for mental health support uh and
we're starting to see retailers implementing programs
uh that are focused on wellness, employee
assistance, flexible scheduling. Um really
looking to ensure that overall employee
well being some of the things that we're seeing.
And again, we're seeing these being surfaced
within the digital workplace, uh creating
a positive work environment, ensuring employees
feel supported, valued and engaged
uh recognition centers, wellness centers,
open communications channels, inclusivity
efforts. Uh We're seeing career
development and career advancement opportunities.
So professional development, training and mentorship.
Uh and of course, we're seeing, I I pardon
me, implementation of employee retention
programs. So uh we want to keep
the people that we're hiring, we want them to grow uh
within the industry and develop uh within the
organization.
And then finally, we, we see things like surveys
and feedback mechanisms. I me mentioned in an
earlier point, the idea that with promos
and and, and just gen general store feedback,
we're soliciting that information from
our employees largely through vehicles
like the digital workplace uh in,
in, in order to better understand
what the employee experience is telling us at that
grassroots level.
So in summary, when it comes to the workforce
challenges, adapting to new workforce trends,
addressing turnover issues and prioritizing
employee well being are critical components
of a successful personnel strategy.
Uh retailers that invest in innovative solutions
um embrace technological technological
advancements and foster a positive workplace
culture will be better positioned to attract
retain and develop the talent needed to thrive
in the dynamic retail landscape of the future.
Paige thoughts from you.
Um You're looking at um a franchise model,
you're looking at a lot of distribution as
far as your, your, your team goes. What
sorts of things are you doing and seeing?
Yeah, absolutely. Um Employee
retention is really top of
mind for our CC our CEO in particular,
it's really important to him.
Uh I think our hr manager
really says it best when he says whether you're
here for five days, five weeks, five
months or five years, we want you to leave
CB A as a better person that's closer
to your goals than when you came here. And
so I think one of the things that we really
try to focus on is holistic benefits
for our shop employees
as well as the employees that are at our headquarters
in our franchisees. So some of the things
that we do our financial literacy courses
and packages for our front line,
um we are off
on the weekends. Um So that's not typical
for automotive, but because we offer
those like concierge services and mobile
repair we're able to do that and not
lose any customers. Um
We do several benefits
including mental health and physical health
um in depth training. So
I think one of the things that you had touched on was
professional development, that's a
thing that we do, whether it's trade training
or leadership training. We have
several different paths that our front line guys can
take to again become a better person
than they were when they joined our team. We
also have a uh from service manager
to franchisee track. It's a two year
program that people interview for and
if they get it, they spend two years taking
classes and then they're awarded a franchise at the end
of it. So we're doing a lot of different
things to really make sure that um
our employees are happy.
We've got a big challenge with a
technician recruitment.
People are leaving that industry, new
people aren't coming on as fast. And so
attracting and retaining talent especially
is very important for us because
we can't do anything without having technicians
to fix vehicles. So we really
focus on that. Yeah.
Yeah. No. So definitely a lot of really good
points there in terms of um attracting
the talent uh developing them. I like
that quote from your hr manager. I thought that was nice,
you know, leaving, leaving in a be better
um um frame, uh then
maybe you join the organization but certainly
lots of um rubber on the road
there in terms of the uh ability
to develop a career. Uh It seems,
and you're conveying that information to those employees,
which is really good to see.
Absolutely.
Ok. Um Paige, you
are gonna be on. So I've got a slide
and that's it. Uh So we're gonna
get into our solution showcase. Now I'm gonna stop
sharing and we'll give Paige a chance to uh get
a set up and share. Uh But again, we're gonna
look at uh Christian Brothers, automotive digital
workplace, the digital workplace. I'm familiar with. I've
had the great benefit of working with
the uh Christian brothers a couple of times
on their digital workplace. Um page. Take
it away if you would, please. Yeah, absolutely.
So this is C VA connect.
This is our brand wide internet
and to give a little bit of a context, this
website did not always look like this. Um
We did a digital transformation
and evolve a couple of years ago and
really the catalyst for that was
our ce really wanted us to
find better ways to get in touch with
our front line desk list workers.
So,
an important thing to note about them is that
they're not sitting behind a desk all day, twiddling
their thumbs, waiting to engage with corporate,
they are fixing cars, they are dealing
with customers. They are
the shop life is crazy. So they are not
really ever behind a desk just waiting
to engage. And so
one of the things our CEO is really passionate about
is the type of culture we have here at our home office.
And he wanted us to find ways to engage
that culture with our front line knowing
that they aren't behind a computer in, in order
to do that. So
step one for me, when I was sitting there
about ready to do the evolve was
to figure out one, how do we get them to use
the digital workplace first and then
move into a point of engagement and culture.
So the first thing that
we did was we created a vendor center
to really drive technician
and service manager engagement.
So the automotive industry kind
of presents a unique
challenge which is especially
for a franchise. We have all of these
different vendor partners that we negotiate
partnerships with.
But we can't, it's not like they're forced
to use any of these, they can pick and choose,
they can do none. These are the people that are
supplying our uniforms, our parts,
our fluids, all of that fun stuff.
And we needed a centralized
place to put all of that information. So
before we do evolve, all of
these different vendors lived under our knowledge
bases under whatever department was in
charge of managing that relationship
which to a service manager or
a technician that's not really relevant
to them. They just need to know who
the vendor is and more about them.
So, something that we are really proud of
when we did this evolve was we took all
of the vendors and we centralize them in a vendor
center.
So we've got all of them here in alphabetical
order. As you can see, there's quite
a few. Um And then we
also broke them out into different tabs
based on the type of vendor that they
are. So if they were used to finding the information
that way they still could
uh or they can find it alphabetically
under this first tab here.
The other nice thing about this that
really got our service managers, especially
using this platform
was these expanded vendor profiles.
So they can go into whatever vendor
and it gives all the information that they could
ever need to know about that vendor.
So a link to their website, there's
another button if they have like a different portal to
log in um who they are,
how the partnership works. So
a lot of them do rebates with us. So it's, that's
got more information there.
Um the point of contact.
So who they call. I think this is really the
reason why they use it the most is because it's really
easy to find contact information so they can find
there.
And then we have a downloads widget at the bottom
that has all the credit applications, you
know, rebate information, sales,
wires, anything that they might need. Um
for that vendor, it's all in one place.
We've also found that franchisees really
like using this, especially when they're
setting up their store for the first time.
Uh They can come here to credit applications
and that opens an entire list of all the credit
apps they need to do in one place. So
like it's really easy. I just go down the list, fill them
out and send them off and then they're not having
to track them down under a bunch of different places.
So this was really
made obviously to make it easier
for our front line guys. But what ended
up happening was this was the reason they started using
CB A connect a lot more.
That is a really good call out. And
I, I wanna unpack this a little if I can like
first off, um You took,
you identified a need. Um The, the,
the need was uh that you needed these
service managers, these folks in the field
uh to be informed of the uh the various
vendors that they were going to be doing business with that sort
of thing. Um You identified a problem
which was in the past, as you mentioned,
the um the vendors were
categorized under an area of departmental
responsibility, that sort of thing. Um
And then you built a solution which
is simple, easy to engage
with. Uh We can see the classifications,
the table of contents, things like that
you built out, it's comprehensive,
it serves their needs in terms of anything from
visiting their website to, uh, getting requisite
forms or primary points of contact, whatever
the case may be.
But it's something that's consumable. It's
easy for them to, to find and
to use. And as you said,
uh, it really helped drive their engagement in the
tool. Yeah, absolutely.
And I think another point there too is that
it's a single source of truth. So
our, uh, teams that manage vendors aren't
always the best at going in and updating
under their department, old,
old documents. And so before
was they would go in and search AJ
O, for example, they wouldn't know which one
is the most up to date form.
So this really helps. It's one
place for our internal teams to manage documents,
but it's also one place that they know if they go
here, they're gonna have the most up to date information
that makes a lot of sense. And I love that you use the
phrase single source of truth. It's one of my, one
of my uh touchstones if you will, but yeah,
certainly establishing this as a knowledge
base. Um And of course, it also
knocks on into the idea that you mentioned
like Aguero um uh looking
at that as a as a piece of knowledge.
What's the right uh piece,
what's the right version? Uh Do I have the
latest and, and correct information knowing
that we have this as a single source of truth in an easy
to find place this just makes things that
much easier as pertains to that.
Yeah. Absolutely. So, they've, we've
gotten some really great feedback about this.
Um And once we had them,
we're like a ha ha. We got you. Now, now you're going
to engage with us. So once
we did our evolve, we launched
our evolve without the social center
right here. So,
like I said, we really wanted to get them on the site.
And then a couple of months later, I built out this
social center and we made it live
so
a little context here
every four months. So once a quarter,
we send out a package
to all of our shops, which is like culture
in a box. So this was
again getting to that initiative that our CEO
really wanted us to push our culture down
to the front lines. Um So
we do every April when the masters
golf tournament is on, we do our own
little putt putt course at our home
office. So every April or every March,
we send out a kit to all of our franchises
that they can do that at their shop as well.
We do taco eating contest, we
do um
decadent dining, which I can show in
a minute, um a bunch of different
things. And then in Christmas, we do like a give back initiative,
toys for tots, things like that.
And one of the ways we really wanted to get them engaged
on the Social center is by sharing
pictures of those joy boxes.
So we told them, hey,
do this dining contest. We sent
them out um aprons and
chef hats that are embroidered um
and said,
create a decadent dining feast
in your shop. Whatever way you want to do that,
then you need to post all the pictures
in our CB, a social center. And
then we did a vote on the team that did the best.
And so the one, the team that won got
a golden chef trophy and they got
a two months paid for by the home office.
But as you can see, it really got them
excited, they started engaging.
This guy did a hibachi which I thought was
wild like he's a car guy, he's not
a chef. Um
So yeah, it really got them on
the social center. It got them using this platform
to engage with each other. Um rather
than just being in their
like silo of their location.
One thing I sorry, Paige, I, I didn't mean
to interrupt but I will because
one thing I really like seeing here as you were scrolling,
I saw a couple of messages that we're thanking the home
office for putting these things together. And that really
um calls back nicely to the point.
Uh We were talking about earlier, which is the idea
of that inclusivity of,
of our employees, you know, those, those folks that are out in
field performing the work that we do. Um
It's really cool that you can take that home
office culture and provide it to those
employees and they feel a greater inclusion
in the organization and, and I, and if identification,
pardon me with the brand, um just
simply based on the fact that you're, you're making
these efforts and including them and then celebrating
them within this, this social center.
Yeah, definitely. This was our winner.
Actually, Mount Juliet, they had a little
Gatorade Coop glasses. Um
People really liked their, their minimalist
feast. So
that was our winner there.
But yeah, so once we kind of got them used
to engaging with us through the Joy Box,
it was easy to ask them to engage
with us in other different ways. And so
one of the ways that they do it is anytime
they get a cool car that they work on
as someone who does our social media, I love this
because it's easy content for me. They
come out here and they just share
about it. So like
an easy vehicle right here, the truck,
um different classics
or like really expensive vehicles. They love
to share.
We have a Jeep Duck. So I don't know if you know
the whole adding ducks to people's
Jeeps that you like. But we have a branded one. They
love that
really fancy engines, just
anything that they come up with
and they're engaging with each other. So
like these are technicians right here that are
doing this. And so it really has
accomplished our goal of getting them
a place where they can interact with each other and not
just wait for the once a year convention that we put
on for them to get to know each other better.
So, this has been a really good solution,
I think, um, for our CEO, as
well as he's seen that they're, they're taking
it and running with it too.
That's, it's really great to see honestly.
And, and certainly, um, I like the
point you made about this being easy, social media
content. I mean, when you work in an industry like
this, it's really cool to be able to take
maybe some of that stuff and, uh, and, and
really emphasize the, the good
and,
you know, challenging work that you folks are doing as well,
you know, I mean, fixing cars working on
them is, is no mean feat. Um So
it's really cool to see that they're, they're taking
this and celebrating this as part of
um their day to day work with, with your organization.
I think this is awesome.
Yeah, it makes it really easy. We have a little
campaign tagline that's fixing cars,
driving joy. And so I think it's,
it's one thing for me to make up like corporate
sounding
content around that. But if I can actually show
the ways that they're doing that in the shops, it just
is really good for our brand. So
we love doing that. And then um
like we talked about we're doing
a lot of different things this year,
brand new initiatives, a lot of change management.
So the last piece I want to show is
our strategic initiatives, knowledge base.
So like our new extended warranty,
our mobile repair, all of these
departments have something to do with
the launch of those programs. So it did makes
sense for me to house any of the communications
under one of those departments over
the other.
So we created a brand new strategic
initiative update
knowledge base and we have
different blog feeds for all of our different projects.
So extended warranty. This
is James. He's our project manager
so regularly throughout the process,
he is updating front lines
and our franchisees with this is what's
going on. This is what you can expect next.
Once we start piloting next month, he's
gonna be posting, hey, do you want to be part of
our next pilot? If so, here are the steps you
need to take. Um And so it's one
convenient place to have all of the information
about all the big initiatives that we're doing.
It, links out to our L MS with
the flywheel that we call,
that we um house all of our training
stuff for these different programs.
It's very integrated. They can see all the different
project owners here on this side and
then if they want to open up the individual feeds,
they can do so here and then that will just
open the blog feed for that specific project.
So we found that this has been really helpful
and again, they're not having to go into each department,
try to figure out where it is, try to stay
up to date. They know they can just come to this one
and get up to date on all of the, the different things
that we're doing. So
the digital workplace has absolutely helped
us um
meet the challenges, especially what's going
on right now. It's helping us get those
communications in front of those key stakeholders
and it's keeping us organized, which has been really great.
That's great to hear. And yeah, I lo I love what
I'm seeing here again because again, it's that
establishment of a knowledge base.
Um And not only that, but you mentioned you're, you're,
you're recruiting people through this. Um when
you do your, your, your soft launch or pardon me, your
pilot, I think you said it was. Um So
you're, you're keeping people informed again through
a easy to find, easy to manage area
of the digital workplace.
The other thing that I like that you said, um just
now and I can't even remember whether we
hit it in, in as we were talking about this
uh webinar uh earlier on, but
you're linking out to your L MS. And I think
that's one of the, the, the features of
a digital workplace that sometimes um
maybe gets undersold or, or misconstrued
is the idea that not everything
necessarily has to live in the digital workplace.
It's a great area for that
single source of truth. And we've seen a couple of great examples
here um in terms of uh establishing
that source of truth, but there are other
applications um that are going to be
used in the corporate ecosystem and
the digital workplace uh can be just as useful
as, as a, a navigation tool
to get to those areas, that sort of thing.
So, hey, if you want to check out this course, here's the information
on the course, navigate here to the L
MS. And it's really important to understand that
as a purpose to something of a, a hub
within the uh the greater corporate um
flywheel of technology. Wow,
that was a thing I said,
yeah, we um consider CB A connect
to be our launch pad. So obviously
all the coms are housed here, all of the knowledge
um like repository stuff is housed
here, but we have our workplace bookmarks
that actually just link out to our different
apps. We have a toolbox and promo
store. You can link to uh the
flywheel is the element.
Um We have an operations manual,
just different things, external
links that they're gonna use. And so
that way we can say, hey, you're coming to CB A
connect first, you're
getting all the information that you need
and then you're able to easily launch into a
different application if that's what you're there for.
So, absolutely,
this is awesome Paige. Thank you so much for
sharing uh some of these aspects with us
of CB A connect.
Um We did have a couple of questions come
in and uh I just uh I think
now is a great time to ask them.
Um I think the first one is going to be
the um the vendor section. So
we've had someone ask about the vendor section. Um
Was, was it a difficult thing to create
or kind of what went into that process
as far as things go?
Yeah, absolutely. I think it was a very
big lift when we first started doing
it because there were things all over the place.
Um Like you said, no, single sort of source
of truth. And so I had to work really closely
with our purchasing team
to
get vendor profiles made.
So all these expanded vendor profiles were
something that Alison on our purchasing team
wrote out for me. So she wrote, who
are they how it works? Um
Gave me all of zip files of all
the documents that needed to be under there
and we slowly did this. So
when we launched the vendor center, I would say
we had about half of the vendors on here
that we do now. And slowly over time
as she's been able to have her bandwidth, she's
gone through and added more and more as we've
been um growing.
And so
what's been nice about that is it wasn't, you
know, you need to do 80 vendor profiles
and then launch the, the platform we
were able to do it with what we had and then grow upon
it. So it's a lot of back and
forth with her. She knows how to do some of the
stuff on her own. Um Obviously I do
all the layout and so anytime things
change, obviously, it's a lift for me, but it's absolutely
one that's worth it because I know it's a valuable
resource.
Awesome. Thank you, Paige. Uh Next
question we had um you, you talked
about this a little actually, um as we were
talking about some of the workforce challenges, but um
how has Christian Brothers Automotive
used their digital workplace to address uh talent
retention?
Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question.
Um I think one thing is
our
hr knowledge base. I won't open it just
in case. Um But
all of the in recruiting as well.
So we're doing a lot of different things,
recruiting wise to get in front
of new technicians. And so we're doing different
tech school partnerships. We
uh launched $500,000
into a technician scholarship.
And so all of the things there that
they need to do to take advantage of that at their
local level is all housed under our recruiting
knowledge base.
Um And like we were talking about
with the L MS, the fly wheel, it links
out to all of the different things
that they're doing training wise
as far as retention and recruiting. And so
whether it's how to use smart recruiters,
which is our platform for job apps to
these are the ways that you can retain talent locally.
All of that stuff is being surfaced
to our guys um
via CB A connect and then it links out like
we were talking about to the different platforms.
So that, and I think also, like
we talked about with the Social Center, really
sharing the heart of the brand with the entire brand
and not just the corporate employees and not
just franchisees. I think that's one
way we really try to retain
them long term because it's not just home office
that's celebrating, it's not just us that's enjoying
the culture, it's everybody. And
so, yeah,
yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for that.
Um Last question, same idea
may be a different tack. Um We
mentioned your franchise model. Um You're widely
distributed across the US. Um
How do you use? And we've seen some aspects,
but I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll let you answer this one.
How do, how do you use uh CB
connect to um uh
to create a consistent brand?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean,
I think that
the heart of our brain, like I said is our mission.
And so I think surfacing stories of
us living out. That mission is one of the ways
we do this best. So we,
every quarter, I send out AC
B A Compass newsletter, which is just stories
from around the brand of how we're impacting our communities
and our teams. And so
whether that's a team recently
just gave away a vehicle to
um one of their G techs,
which is like the one that's just doing oil changes,
like the basic stuff. So he's young,
he was riding his bike to work every day.
The team came together, pulled their resources,
bought him a car. And so we
that we do a lot of um
community giving. And so we share those different
kinds of stories and that way when
people join the team for the first time or
they're just trying to get on CB A connect to see
what's new,
those stories are surfaced and they can kind
of see how the heart of the brand lives out across
the country.
And so I think that's really storytelling is
our, our biggest tool in doing that.
Excellent. No, that's wonderful answer. Thank
you. And, and yeah, really, really cool stories
to share and certainly can see how they contribute
to the overall brand identity.
Um I don't see any other questions.
Uh Folks do feel free to ask them. Um but
um I don't see any just now.
Um
So with that in mind, uh Paige, I did want
to thank you very much. Uh you and Christian
Brothers Automotive uh for, for coming
on and for uh presenting your knowledge
to us for jamming with me on some of these
uh industry trends and uh and outlook
and for sharing uh the goodness that is
uh CB AC B connect with us. Uh really
uh really appreciate your time and your effort.
Absolutely. Thank you for having me. It was
very fun to learn about the industry as
a whole. Um I don't think people think of automotive
as retail all the time, so it was fun to
be a part and I appreciate you having me.
Thank you. All right. Well, as I don't see
any other questions, uh, I will once again
thank everyone for attending. Uh, and,
uh, we will, uh, we'll have the recording
up on the, uh, on the website shortly for anyone
who wants to go back, maybe look at some touch points, things
like that. But otherwise thank you once
again for attending. Thank you to page to Christian Brothers
Automotive. Uh, and until we see you again,
folks take care and igloo on.