The word oxymoron dawned on me as I wrote the heading here as so few websites for garages, dealers and dealerships are as female friendly as they might be. Not moron as in moronic you understand but meaning that the words ‘female friendly’ and ‘dealer’ are not always verbal bedfellows as seen by women drivers (but this may be the case in Swiss Toni’s head haha).
Take colour for example – my experience is that most garage websites favour black, or that their designers like black. I quite like black too but it can be drab and a bit me-too looking after browsing through a lot of similar websites.
An absolute no no for me is loud upbeat music which shocks me and invades my space – I come across this on many motoring accessory websites and find it quicker to leave the site than find the volume control.
And how many motor businesses respond to their website messages promptly and professionally? A significant number of garages don’t have a website yet seem to move from Thomson to Yellow Pages to the next advertising variation year after year, presumably oblivious to the defunct ad listings left behind. This always says more than we realise and is a bad image to give potential customers.
When it comes to answering emails the industry will hopefully get its act together in a recession? It has some way to go I’d say. I have recently mentioned the polite garage owner who emailed me an auto reply to say that he would reply within 5 or was it 7 days…either way he is going to need to reduce that comms gap to hours, not days, in today’s ‘I want it now’ society.
I must admit to finding car dealership websites more female friendly looking than garages or dealers although perhaps this is simply the fact that they are more aesthetically pleasing (which women pick up on) and perhaps aspirational photos of new cars are more attractive to us all than a used car forecourt or the underside of a car on a ramp, or similar mechanical pose!
When we ask FOXY Choice garage subscribers to submit a female friendly photo to complete their entry few have a clue what we mean yet others have got it just right including Wallis & Son of Cambridge. Smiling people, female staff where appropriate, neat and tidy looking interiors, summer flowers if an exterior is used and so on are just right. Whereas tatty secondhand car lots, men in scruffy oily uniforms and boring lookalike building exteriors do not convey ANY female friendly customer service message to me.
Have a look at your local garage, dealer or dealership’s website and please tell me how female friendly you find it.
Does it look different in any way, is there any female friendly content, photos of females or is it expecting you to like the same as men; in which case plus ca change?
How can it be improved upon for women drivers?
I can then add your thoughts to my ever-growing list!
FOXY Steph
“The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them.”
Queen Victoria
