March 8 6:30pm No Host Cocktails
7-9pm Chapter Announcements, Program, Dinner

Join your colleagues for a dinnertime roundtable discussion. Share insights and experiences on a topic of interest listed below.

The premise on which the idea of roundtables is based is simple – there is no ‘leader’ as such, but each table will choose a facilitator to ease the work process and to maintain focus, and a scribe to record the great ideas and tips. Nobody is at the head of the table, everyone has an equal voice and can speak mind freely on the subject.

Bring your toughest questions and best ideas to discuss!

Customer Retention

Customer satisfaction and retention represent constant challenges, especially for businesses with multiple competitors. Each roundtable member will share successful strategies for connecting with customers. Strategies could include regular customer appreciation events, a customer advisory board with rotating membership and generous customer referral incentives. print or email newsletters to their customers or host at the shop interactive customer seminars.

New Markets

Reaching new markets often means marketing existing products or services to new market segments. For example, a shop can target the clients whose vehicles need to have their headlights polished, or begin selling a new product, such as tires. Ask each roundtable member to share a market expansion success, as well as a challenge or temporary setback.

Your Shop’s Website

Websites and online business networks often help a business expand. For example, a body shop could post “before and after” customer photos on its home page to draw in new customers, and any shop can share testimonials from their happy customers. Website-savvy attendees are also encouraged to help hesitant business owners understand online media components and benefits.

Profitability and Business Growth

A business owner concerned about his current bottom line may not concentrate on his long-term business outlook. In contrast, another entrepreneur tracks his daily progress via a spreadsheet program and runs monthly updates to his five-year financial projections. While current profitability keeps a business’ doors open, well-planned growth is key to its continued success. Attendee will share how they developed their business vision and how to monitor short- and long-term profitability.

Team Dynamics, What Works for You?

What practices do you and your team consistently undergo to exercise creativity, generate ideas, solve problems and ever importantly, recharge? Let’s discuss fun ideas about how to mix up the daily meeting schedule or agenda with critical creative exercises. How does your team connect together outside the work at hand? Do you have a softball team or 10-day silent meditation retreat? Where are your leaders in the spectrum of ...Do you cheer-lead from the rear or is it a Dictatorship? How do you foster young talent growth, how do you challenge and reward them and when to you lean-in to catch a mistake?

Tweet or Perish: How does social media impact your success at launch and beyond?

In today’s era, consumers expect many touch points - and often. There is one school of belief that maintaining constant connections with the most avid fans is crucial for success and a must-have for pre-launch, launch and beyond. Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and more all help you connect with customers. How do you establish your company’s ‘voice’ and personality? Are today’s methods for ROI measurement even useful? In this roundtable, we’ll share our own stories and explore solutions together. Plus, we’ll examine how leaders and influencers depend on these mediums for their life blood.

Employees – Onboarding them and Keeping them

What are some examples of a tool that has helped save you time and effort in regard to recruitment, onboarding, and/or employee evaluations?
How does your shop onboard new hires? What works? What doesn’t?
How do you encourage your managers and employees to take annual evaluations more seriously when merit increases are not being offered?
Outside of the BAR requirements, what are some areas where automation could be a benefit to your shop?

Event Location: Biltmore Hotel
2151 Laurelwood Road, Santa Clara, CA 95054

COST | First person from a Chapter 42 member shop is free; other attendees pay $35