My name is Steph Savill. I write FOXY Lady blog for women and usually I find the topic is about motoring matters driven (pardon the pun) by things that have happened in the Club or at FOXY Choice. When the mood takes me I also like to write about female friendly businesses, especially ones that make a fuss of us!
My husband Paul and I set up FOXY Lady Drivers Club in December 2004 when our daughter was treated so badly at her first solo garage visit. Before that I hadn’t realised that garages weren’t licensed, that anyone could set one up and that mechanics don’t have to be qualified to repair our cars. I had found out in one easy lesson how dangerous a bad garage could be. Both Paul and I wanted to do something about this for other women drivers.
In my networking experience I have since discovered that women drivers are often victims when buying a new and used car, so there is plenty to be done in car showrooms and dealerships too.
So FOXY Lady Drivers Club helps women run safer cars, save money, enjoy better and female friendly motoring (and garage) services and have a friend to turn to when motoring gets stressful. It’s about buying and running cars, shopping for female friendly garage services, car insurance products and providing female feedback, motoring advice and support when it’s needed. It’s a passion for me now because I can see how things can and should be much better in this area.
FOXY Choice emerged from the Club, because I had met so many great garages. It is a marketing subscription service for female friendly garages and means that women drivers can single out the best and female friendly local garages, dealers and car dealerships based on measurable quality, services and amenities. The choice is theirs.
Business subscribers sign the female friendly FOXY Promise to ‘never knowingly overcharge, patronise or sell women services they don’t need or want’. We then help them promote themselves and provide a range of female friendly marketing materials.
I am proud to be a Chartered Marketer with a MBA in Strategic Marketing; this combination gives me a professional interest in staying ahead of others through the latest marketing techniques and with an ambitious long term business plan.
I am also a SEEDA Women’s Enterprise Business Ambassador and my personal resolution for 2010 is to work harder to encourage more women to join the UK motor industry; at present women are the majority customers yet only 20% of employees are female – there is a disconnect here! Sadly the SEEDA network is unlikely to be funded in future but we’ll just have to soldier on some way!
I am lucky to live in an attractive town, near the sea yet surrounded by the Sussex Downs. I am married with a 17 year old son and a 27 year old step-daughter (who started all this off…) who is in Australia at present.
If any of this rings a bell with you and you’d like to get in touch, by all means email me via FOXY Lady Drivers Club’s contact page or LinkedIn if you are part of that business community.
Steph Savill
MBA, FCIM, FInstTT, MIMI
Chartered Marketer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephsavill
