According to Forbes magazine, “Roughly 82% of U.S. consumers actually consider corporate social responsibility when deciding what services and products to buy and from where.” In order to emphasize locality, corporations need to find ways to establish trust with their customers on a personal level.
David Goldstein, chief talent officer of Caliber Collision, specializes in creating event and community-centric opportunities for Caliber Collision shops. Goldstein has worked alongside the company’s food drive for the past seven years; This year's food drive had participation from a total of 561 shops and which brought in 4.3 million donated meals in just six weeks.
Serving the community in more ways than fixing a vehicle can help build trust for a specific shop, Goldstein describes.
“It’s important that we become the fabric of every community we serve,” Goldstein says. “ “Our purpose is to restore people to the rhythm of their lives and this includes the places where we work and play.”
When it comes to creating outreach opportunities, Goldstein shares how Caliber has been able to assist in building the bridge for relationships with their shops and the community.
Create a universal mantra.
In regards to bringing everyone together, it’s often important to take a step back and look at what message the company wants to deliver to customers. According to Goldstein, Caliber has always focused on the external customer.
“People can come to work and fix cars anywhere, but in 2009 we really sat back and said, ‘Why are we in business?,” Goldstein says. “Through hours of discussion, we were able to agree that we are really in business to restore people back to the rhythm of their lives.”
After that motto was created, the company began to use the phrase and it became a universal way to do business.
“Whether it’s a quality auto repair or our efforts on hurricane relief for teammates or donating food to 53 food banks across the U.S., it’s all about restoring people to the rhythm of their lives,” he says.
Bring the company motto into the shop every day.
After an overall vision for the company is established, find ways to implement the company motto into the shop’s daily life. Customers are typically shook up or distressed when they visit a collision repair shop, Goldstein says. Caliber Collision believes that they need to provide friendly, helpful reassurance that the customer’s life will be back to normal as soon as possible.
"This is the car that gets them to school, to soccer practice. We are restoring our customer’s rhythm because their rhythm has been completely disrupted,” Goldstein says.
According to Goldstein, teammates have gotten inspired by what it means to restore a customer back to their routine and staying goal-oriented helps create a purpose for each shop.
“To me, this is what sets Caliber apart as a world-class, purpose-driven company,” Goldstein says.
Go the extra mile to give back.
Along with repairing cars after an accident, focus on ways in which shops can give back to their community in a fun, lighthearted way. Goldstein says Caliber encourages shops to come up with wild ideas when engaging their customers, vendor partners and Caliber teammates in community events like the Rhythm Restoration Food Drive.
“Our teammates rally together as a team to do fun things like games, dunk tanks and car shows to support our community food banks,” Goldstein says. “We’ve had ice bucket pours and some of the shops even did small golf tournaments.”
Goldstein says his experience with putting on events in the past has brought not only the locals together, but also created comradery with staff.
“It brings us closer as a team while it personalizes us in the community,” Goldstein says. “And it reinforces our core values to do the right thing and be inspired to serve.”
Celebrate even the smallest accomplishments.
In order to increase bonding and future opportunities, Caliber promotes friendly competition within each shop with the winning regions receiving plaques and custom-designed t-shirts along with a visit from senior leadership to work for the day. If a company-wide event takes place, shops that turn over high results are paid recognition for their efforts.
“I’m proud and humbled by our teammates performance this spring to help feed kids who go without nutritious meals over the summer months,” Goldstein says.
Those who win are able to receive a t-shirt, plaque, and also have the senior leadership team come into their shop to work for the day. In Goldstein’s experience, senior leadership members have washed cars all day for the shop or utilized their technician skills to work for the winning shop.
