Do women demand different standards from men?
Stupid question in my book but you have to ask, in case someone thinks differently and wishes to have their say (and are most welcome so to do…).
Of course women have different expectations and needs, subject to all the caveats you might expect when making sweeping generalisations; knowing that not all women or men are the same as each other.
However marketing research clearly pinpoints that women are more aware of aesthetics than men so any garage that wants to make the right impression on women needs to understand how this works for us.
No this doesn’t mean painting reception areas pink or buying frilly scatter cushions chaps although I for one would be thrilled to see less of the depressing black in future 
.
In real life, I find that I am much more aware of my surroundings than my husband. For example, when I ask him if he liked a particular decor at a friends’ home, he can rarely remember colours, styles or new furniture.
And we’re different in the kitchen too – my husband is no domestic slouch I hasten to add…
When I tidy up in the kitchen at the end of the day I clear and wash all surfaces whereas my husband leaves the washing up liquid visible because it’s handy for the next time with the milk bottles ready to go outside (but that’s another job…) alongside any glass jars which he has thoughtfully washed up but isn’t sure what to do with them next…
I tidy up after him the next morning and I have no doubt that if I didn’t they’d still be sitting there, and more ‘ornaments’ would join them again and again.
Newspapers and magazines are another thing Paul would keep rather than recycle and there is always a quantity of very worthwhile jobs in progress, dotted around our home, waiting for things to be bought or the time to repair them and such like.
Whilst I’m at it, in pursuit of making my point of course, I also know that dusting isn’t on his radar either because when he has ‘done his bit’ in the house, the finger along the shelf test is never wrong.
Imagine this in a garage situation where there is no female to tidy up behind a typically 100% male team and where many of the jobs done are what we girls would call dirty. How easy it is to leave oil marks on shared washroom taps, on newspapers technicians have read in their lunch break, on car upholstery where this has not been covered properly and even customer paperwork. I could go on.
Even the smartest looking car dealerships and Dealer Principals are happy to see their workshop technicians photographed in grimy uniforms and don’t seem to see the disconnect between their brand values here.
And those dreadful wall posters of scantily clad models – no wonder so many women feel ill at ease in the company of men who think it’s normal to leer at women like this in their working environment. I could go on but I won’t…
On a more positive note, businesses with women in their ranks are usually more female friendly and welcoming business environments. Fact. And being female, we can often find a way to encourage our men into more female friendly ways which they don’t always quite understand but are happy to do, simply to keep us happy. Bless!
The obvious conclusion is that garages need to employ more women and to ask them how to make their environment more female friendly – they may be surprised at how easy this is and the loyalty that this then produces.
It’s back to gender psychology of course. Men and women can help each other do a better job by working together but with 80% of the UK retail motor industry workforce male, there’s still some way to go.
FOXY Steph
“What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce.”
Mark Twain
