Halfords is to takeover Nationwide Autocentres. They are a chain of British garages not to be confused with the Building Society (which many people did apparently).
Yet there has been very little in the trade press about this business move and, come to think about it, very little from Nationwide Autocentres’ about their business under normal circumstances, other than when they are pitching for industry awards of course…
Shouldn’t the garage and dealership industry want to know more about Halfords’ plans so they can compete with them more effectively? They are a national chain and many individual garages could be affected by their strategy. I posted a question about this very subject on a leading trade forum a week ago and nobody has responded yet.
It would be different if Halfords sold cars of course… aftersales and garage services are rarely top of the motor industry’s agenda despite a £9bn car servicing market.
Can’t help thinking of rabbits in headlights, frogs in hot water and ostriches practising familiar ‘head in sand’ antics…
Independent garages should be interested of course because Halfords seems to be offering several female friendly garage services that they are not. Like opening on Sundays and providing low cost fitting of bulbs and wipers so women drivers don’t get their hands dirty and/or have to pay over the odds for these routine but often tricky jobs. I speak as a convert here, having had an exploding windscreen wiper on a snowy Sunday motoring journey in Yorkshire recently when Halfords came to my rescue…
They should also be interested because Halfords admits to targeting the female purse and employing female mechanics, who are unlikely to be ATA qualified to begin with I’d imagine…
They should then be interested because Nationwide Autocentres do not, as yet, offer local car collection and/or courtesy car services so those independents that do, have a sales advantage that could work well if employed NOW.
And finally they should be interested because Halfords is planning to invest in posh reception facilities which [most??] old Nationwide Autocentre locations do not have now…so once again, female friendly independent garages with smart waiting areas, near shops and with car collection services and courtesy cars could steal a lead here if they got their act together NOW.
But the two main reasons why so many independent garages could lose out is because they are so complacent about their local female motorist business AND because few independent garages are genuinely computer literate and are failing to meet the demand for relevant information before women drivers choose who to give their business to.
Nationwide Autocentres are not unique in offering online bookings for MOTs and car servicing of course but they did take many years to introduce their system so it should be fairly robust. And whilst many female friendly FOXY Choice garages do offer online bookings, a significant percentage of small garages still don’t realise that a website is how women tell if they can trust them. Too many still can’t handle emails professionally, expecting customers to phone them and thinking they’ll have the same customers next year…
I wish them luck of course but they do not have a winning card to play in their hand…
From FOXY Choice’s female friendly point of view and on behalf of all women drivers too, we see most competition as good and healthy providing new garage initiatives raise standards for all and are not just attention grabbing headlines without genuinely sustainable quality substance.
I firmly believe that the garage industry must do more to raise awareness of quality standards so that male and female motorists alike understand how to stay safer on our roads by cherry picking businesses that clearly want to be better than others. They can demonstrate this by signing up to FOXY’s independent female friendly business Promise, by investing in regular technician training, by having the latest diagnostic equipment and by collecting informed and unbiased feedback about good garages, not just lacklustre testimonials that are often written to order…
FOXY Steph
“Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it and you’ll start believing in it.”
Jesse Owens, Gold medal Olympian, 1913-1980
