How much did you say?

A number of garages expect me to start the buying process before they tell me how much my car servicing is likely to cost. But I’m foxy, remember; I’m used to comparing prices first and I have no intention of being fobbed off in this way.

If I pick something off a supermarket shelf or High Street clothes rack, for example, I expect to see the price before I buy it.

If it’s more than I want to pay I can keep looking or go elsewhere. Whether it’s a tin of beans, a car service or a fitted kitchen…

And I don’t expect to be asked for my personal details before I’m given a price. That’s enough to send me packing elsewhere…

So when my car needs servicing or repairs I want to know what my choices are and to be able to compare, like for like, what it’s going to cost for my car and model. Because otherwise it’s nigh on impossible to judge what’s best value for money for me, the car and the occasion.

As things stand…some garages publish car servicing tariffs online and others don’t.

Most dealerships and leading independent garages include car collection services whereas few national chain garages and fast-fits do…

And some garage brokers publish a price tariff and collect your car but don’t tell you which garage will be doing the work. This worries me because a low price can be a function of quality workmanship and this is an industry where garages aren’t regulated and mechanics do not have to be accredited as fit for purpose...

Yet many garage and main dealership websites expect motorists to book car servicing and MOTs via their website without confirming a price or giving an estimate for starters. And one assumes people trust them sufficiently to do this…

Well, knowing what I do about the UK’s garage industry I wouldn’t buy expensive garage services without knowing
1     who the garage is
2    whether it’s up to the job ie what are their credentials
3    what my local choices are and
4    that the price is a fair one in my circumstances (from a value for money point of view).

So my advice to all foxy lady drivers is to check the garage in question for measurable signs of quality (like ATA, BSI and OFT logos), look for a tariff (or ask for an estimate in advance) and shop around. And my advice to garages is to publish some sort of estimate before they go to someone else who does.

It’s a very competitive world when it comes to buying car servicing and/or vehicle repairs and this means that independents, dealerships, fastfits and bodyshops must each set out their wares to attract the right customer and car. Prices, customer services and amenities – not just the work they do.

Having said that, it is rarely in any motorist’s best interest to buy a used car or garage service on price alone and no-one should be fooled into buying any garage service or repair without getting a quote in advance…

Sadly too many foxy lady drivers are paying more than they need without realising this until afterwards.

To find out about your choice of garage solutions and signs of garage quality to look for, see FOXY’s Good Garage Guide. And if it’s female friendly garages you’re after, visit FOXY Choice’s website and email selected businesses direct to compare their prices and service levels first.

Finally let us know how you get on and, whilst this offer stands, we’ll thank women who give us garage feedback with a free gift of membership of FOXY Lady Drivers Club worth £23. Where we share the word about the best businesses to benefit foxy lady members and their families…

FOXY Steph

This thought provoking story reminds us that parts of the motor industry are in urgent need of a radical female friendly makeover to challenge and banish old fashioned views and stereo-typical ‘blokey’ comments about jobs women can and can’t do…

Because the fact is that women can do any job they want to; as well as men and often better than them.

Fortunately there is a happy ending to this story, thanks to Grants SEAT in Braintree and you must forgive a shameless plug here because Grants SEAT is, of course, part of the FOXY Choice approved Female Friendly garage network…

But how many young and talented women like Faye Gates have been put off an exciting career opportunity in the UK motor industry today because of similar misogynistic views that have gone unchallenged and remained entrenched?

This is Faye’s story…

Colchester Institute student Faye Gates was beginning to lose hope of ever finding the apprenticeship she needed to complete her three-year vehicle maintenance course after receiving more than 200 knock-backs from garages.

Reasons for rejection included ‘we don’t employ women in our workshop’, ‘you’ll be too worried you’ll chip your nail varnish’, ‘you’d be better suited to a job on reception’ and ‘we just don’t have the facilities for women.’

But after reading about her plight in the Braintree and Witham Times earlier this year Faye was offered a trial by local car retailer Grants SEAT and, after impressing them in that role, she was taken on full-time as the dealership’s latest apprentice and has since been enrolled on the SEAT Advanced Apprenticeship Programme at the Volkswagen Group’s state-of-the-art National Learning Centre.

And, after finally earning the confidence of a forward-thinking employer, she has regained her ambition and is once again determined to work her way through the ranks to become a SEAT Master Technician.

An excited Faye said: ‘I’ve wanted to be a technician since I was about 14 when I started hanging about with people who were really into their cars but I was beginning to give up hope of ever finding an apprenticeship.’

‘But I sent out so many CV’s and got nowhere and people were often really blatant about the reasons why they didn’t want to hire me. On one occasion I was told by a garage that they had no vacancies only to discover they’d given an apprenticeship to one of my (male) classmates at college a few days later.’

‘It’s absolutely brilliant to be at Grants where they value all their employees and treat everybody equally. There’s just a really nice atmosphere and everyone genuinely gets along. I’m learning loads here and am really enjoying getting to work on all the cars in the range and using all the latest equipment. It’s also brilliant being on the SEAT Advanced Apprenticeship Programme and the facilities they have and the way they teach is just amazing.’

Grants SEAT Managing Director, Darren Williams, said:
‘It  beggars belief to hear some of the comments made to Faye as she tried to pursue her dream career. The reasons people gave for not employing her would have been totally unacceptable decades ago but in this day and age they’re absolutely outrageous. Thankfully though, they’re not representative of the modern motor industry.’

‘We were absolutely delighted to give Faye a shot after reading her story in the Times but giving her a job was no sympathy vote – she earned it. She was really impressive on her trial and since joining the team, her enthusiasm and willingness to learn has really shone through. Now she’s started her training properly on an industry-leading apprenticeship programme I’m sure she has a very bright future.’

Anthony Aldridge, a qualified Technician at Grants SEAT, said: ‘Having Faye join the dealership has been no different to when anyone else comes on board. She’s been a great addition to the team and is getting on really well.’

If any young women are reading this and wondering how they might find a job in the motor industry today I suggest they browse through the database of FOXY Choice female friendly garages and dealerships for starters. Another good place to look for career information and opportunities is the IMI (Institute of the Motor Industry) career website.

And for 1:1 advice, by all means email me direct, Steph Savill via steph@foxychoice.com.

FOXY Steph

The Ladies evening at Wessex Garages Penarth Road dealership in Cardiff

Wessex Garages in Cardiff organised a very successful evening event for their female customers last month at their Penarth Road showroom.

The event attracted an impressive 60 women on a dark and dreary October evening who were entertained whilst a dedicated team of hard working valeters treated their cars to a special Primp & Polish makeover.

Wessex’s Penarth Road showroom represents the Kia, Hyundai, FIAT and Abarth franchises in Cardiff so this was a great opportunity for everyone to give the latest models the once over.

And in case the Abarth brand isn’t as well known as the others, members of the all female audience were treated to a ‘Top Gear’ like review from a panel of  motorists who had just test driven the Abarth. Their feedback was fun and favourable which is what you should expect about such a smart and zippy car with female appeal.

Next on the agenda was an excellent presentation from Conflict Solutions covering road safety issues and survival tactics in the event of the dreaded vehicle breakdown when you are on your own. Undoubtedly the highlight of this talk was the clever self-defence moves that were demonstrated, just in case this know how ever might come in handy!

At this point in the proceedings Wessex Garages female technician, Natasha, joined the party and led a number of fun challenges (for the mechanically less experienced…) including changing wheels, checking tyres and topping up oil levels. It’s always good to have a go for ourselves, even though we know that the professionals are likely to be there to do it for us on request…

During the evening there had been a few exciting prize draws but the ultimate one that most time-strapped motoring maidens would surely covet most was a professional car valet service for a whole 12 months! Just imagine that…

To demonstrate their female friendly credentials to more women drivers, Wessex Garages Penarth Road has recently joined the new FOXY Choice approved FEMALE FRIENDLY garage network and are the first dealership listed in Cardiff.

To tie in with this initiative, all attendees were offered gift memberships of FOXY Lady Drivers Club with Wessex Garages’ compliments.

As one guest said in her feedback after the event ‘It was a cold and wet October evening and I was tempted to go home after work …but I was really glad I forced myself to go!’

Well done Wessex Garages. This was a big event that was professionally managed and organised for the benefit of the lucky ladies who attended. From FOXY Choice’s point of view we have just awarded you a generous handful of female friendly brownie points as part of our garage monitoring processes!

FOXY Steph

Jeremy Chapman with Stephanie and Hannah Brookfield

Last Friday, 14 October 2011, sisters Stephanie and Hannah Brookfield of Chesham in Buckinghamshire walked away with a free MOT for life and a free valet courtesy of Roy Chapman Ltd, the female friendly Ford garage in Berkhamsted, Herts.

Jeremy Chapman, Director for Roy Chapman Ltd, donated the two prizes in support of a pamper evening in aid of The Little Princess Trust and LUCY air ambulance. The pamper treatments included manicures and threading through to a wash and blow dry and full hair styling with all donations going to the two charities.

The event was organised by Principal Hair Dressers in Chesham and Kelly Perryman and Meredith Theodorou of LUCY Air Ambulance. Over £400 was raised by Kelly Perryman before the day, who had her hair cut off to make a wig for a child in need and, on the night, over £750 was raised from further donations.

Of the evening Jeremy said, “The event was really well supported and we were delighted to have an opportunity to promote the immensely important work provided by these two charities.”

Yet another sign of a caring community business to add to Roy Chapman’s already impressive female friendly credentials.

FOXY Steph

The first Top Ten UK dealership group to sign up to the FOXY Choice approved FEMALE FRIENDLY garage network scheme is Vertu Motors plc.

If you don’t recognise that name, chances are you’ll know them better by their trading names Bristol Street Motors, Macklin Motors, Vertu Honda and Motor Nation.

This dealership group is clearly committed to getting things right for women customers.  They employ an impressive number of female staff in customer facing roles which reassures wary women in what many perceive to be male dominated environments.

Women feel more at ease seeing ‘women like them’ that they can talk to if they wish. I think this traces back to our deep-rooted concerns after hearing so many stories about women being overcharged, patronised and baffled by unnecessary jargon in other garages.

Vertu Motors is also keen to employ women in a wide range of exciting careers in the UK motor industry.  That’s another indication of their FEMALE FRIENDLY commitment  because it’s surely easier to recruit men who are more likely to have industry experience (thus perpetuating the 80:20 male:female gender ratio of motor industry staff) and it must be tempting for men to recruit in their own likeness.

So it has been refreshing to meet Vertu’s Group Aftersales Manager, Cath Thompson, and to see a high percentage of the participating dealerships nominate a Female Business Ambassador to act as the eyes and ears of their women customers in future. We all agree that women want to be treated like women, not men, and have different needs and expectations in many instances.

For example, women like to see genuine signs of quality (the more the merrier in this industry), we don’t like fog-factor jargon, we expect clean washrooms and, if we decide to wait for our car, we want to know we can have a drink and read some female friendly magazines whilst we do… And because Vertu Motors dealerships tick these boxes and more, this goes a long way towards making them FEMALE FRIENDLY businesses in FOXY Choice’s UK network.

Needless to say all motorists benefit from courtesy car and car collection services but I am confident that women will be reassured by Bristol Street Motors and Macklin Motors  promise of a ‘free and no obligation inspection of any car that is causing concern’. This is part of the evidence FOXY Choice looks for that the business in question is going that extra mile for its local customers. And that they are prepared to stand up and be counted by our independent monitoring services that encourage garage feedback via the FOXY Choice website.

Nobody’s perfect of course, and this is a big Group with lots of employees, but it’s good to sense a business that not only wants to get it right for its women customers and staff but also grasps the business imperative that being FEMALE FRIENDLY is all about customer loyalty and future referrals at the end of the day.

FOXY Steph

If you are a naturally well organised person or one that doesn’t always get her planning done as early as she might like (sounds like me if I’m honest), then the start of the Autumn school term is a sure sign that winter is on the horizon brrrr.

But it doesn’t stop me dreaming of an Indian summer <she sighs wistfully remembering one c30 years ago in Bournemouth that seemed to go on forever…>.

Either way it makes good sense to plan well ahead for colder climes. Didn’t last year’s winter start with heavy and highly unexpected snow in December? If I remember rightly we struggled with the cold for months, even in sunny Sussex.

So I’m doing my best to get ahead this year by compiling a seasonal shopping list to start just as soon as I get round to it…

Top of my list is a new electric blanket – one you can pop in the washing machine apparently. I’m going to have to convince my husband about this though because we’re like Jack Spratt and his missus in bed.  I like to be warm and cosied up before I can drift off to sleep whereas he prefers a cold bed and poking his feet out. Dual controls is the message I shall try here…

Next and considerably more major is that we MUST replace our boiler soon. As you might expect,  my husband isn’t keen on that idea either. Because when it’s moved to where it’s going ‘we’ can get on with the new kitchen I’ve been planning for years. ‘Think of all the upheaval’ says he but I’m dreaming of my new cooker and all the appliances and cupboards I’ve been making do with ‘until we get the boiler replaced…’.

And swiftly moving on…

I eventually turn my thoughts to motoring as you might expect and the need to have a reliable car come whatever our weather throws at us. Yes, it’s nearly time to check if your battery and antifreeze levels are up to the job. You CAN do this for yourself of course but if you’ve an MOT or car service on the horizon it surely makes sense to get the lot checked out together; in my book that means calling on the female friendly FOXY Choice garage professionals.

I know you probably have breakdown cover to hand but it’s a good idea to see what you’ve signed up to before you need it. Is it the variety that’ll come out to get you going if your car doesn’t start in the morning, for example? You really need homestart or homecover if you do because chances are that’s when your car will let you down, with no-one around to help sort things out. And whilst there is no guarantee that this offer will exist when you read this, this Green Flag breakdown recovery offer at £48 does look a good one – terms apply and so on.

Finally if you are a professional motorway mile eater you will probably be able to justify winter tyres so get them sorted out early. Here’s some reading material from Protyre about cold weather tyres for starters.

But if you only do local mileage and are content with limited usage and top speeds of 30-50mph then snow socks are the low cost way forward; and many motorists add them to winter tyres too. We were reminded about snow socks by FOXY Choice approved female friendly garage Steeles of Worthing who stock Vauxhall’s brand that are TUV-approved (the German equivalent of the MoT). They expect them to be the foxy buy this winter; whilst stocks remain…

Here’s some helpful reading material about snow socks. FOXY will be testing them this winter so there’ll be more to read about this subject as soon as we get some white stuff.

So there’s no excuse for being cold at home or cut off when the snow comes! All you have to do is plan for a tough winter and with a bit of luck we’ll have a mild one. You never can tell!

FOXY Steph

Research conducted by tyre retailer ATS Euromaster reveals that 23% of motorists confess to turning to their fathers for everyday advice about their cars.

Whereas a surprisingly low number (just one in five) ask their local garage or service centre for advice.

Unsurprisingly ATS Euromaster found that women drivers are more likely to turn to their Dads, with one in three (37%) asking them for help with their cars. The most common reason was for advice on how to change a tyre (40%) followed closely by how to check tyre pressure (35%).

This supports previous industry surveys confirming that women drivers will often go to extreme lengths to postpone and avoid garage visits because they find them too blokey and unfriendly places where they are likely to be patronised or ripped off.

Not only is this worrying from a safety point of view but this image is not very helpful in an unregulated industry with so many quality players in it, like ATS Euromaster of course. Few Dads are as knowledgeable as garage professionals (so longer terms problems are less likely to be detected), they aren’t always the safe pair of hands we might imagine and few have the right diagnostic equipment or the capability to get at key maintenance areas in modern cars. But Dads are cheaper than garages, you don’t have to go to unfriendly garages if he can do it for you and many Dads often seem to care more about their daughter’s motoring welfare than some mechanics!

The sad thing is that the female market is a HUGE sales opportunity for the best garages to get their act together and adopt challenging FOXY Choice approved FEMALE FRIENDLY standards where we promote measurable quality standards, garages with women in customer facing roles and are actively working hard to restore female trust levels in garages. It is quite simple – women have very reasonable service expectations of garages – they simply expect MORE for their money, want to be treated with RESPECT and AS WOMEN NOT MEN.

So I am surprised to see that ATS Euromaster is asking us to nominate Dads to be included in their ‘expert’ panel. I would have thought they would have had plenty of experts on hand already and perhaps some of them might be female?

Anita Ellis, Online Marketing Manager at ATS Euromaster explains their reasoning that: “With one in six people admitting they ask their Dads about absolutely everything to do with their cars, our research shows that there are thousands of Dads offering motoring advice to their loved ones and not receiving the praise and recognition they deserve. We want to reward these unsung heroes, so we’re launching a nationwide search to find the Dads who are in pole-position when it comes to motoring advice.”

Up to five Dads will be chosen to be part of ATS Euromaster’s expert panel and will each win up to £250 to spend on their cars. All entries must be received by Sunday 2nd October 2011.

Alternatively by all means check for a FOXY Choice approved FEMALE FRIENDLY garage that has signed the FOXY Promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women services they don’t need’ and where you can see ones that employ females and comparative signs of measurable garage quality near you.

We’d also welcome any recent female garage feedback HERE.

FOXY Steph

Women who are wary about male dominated garages and mechanics that tend to baffle them with technical jargon will be impressed by Volkswagen’s new 100% transparent garage service at their Stourbridge showroom in Worcestershire.

Not just a promise to be more open in future Volkswagen has gone that extra mile and opened up their Volkswagen Stourbridge showroom by removing its workshop walls.

This then provides a glass encased inspection area for customers so everyone can see exactly what’s going on. They can also ask for the work to be explained to them by a qualified technician whilst their car is being inspected.

As you can see in the photograph, the inspection area is actually a glass framed enclosure and customers can see precisely what is being done to their car, even when it is on a vehicle ramp.

This sort of transparency is precisely what is needed to reassure worried women about garage workmanship standards and ethics. If you have nothing to hide, you will get brownie points for showing this off.

Not just transparency but extra value for money as well… because every VW to visit Stourbridge Volkswagen in Audnam will receive the offer of a complementary 34-point express visual check. Those that want to take advantage of this can then escort Vince Baker who will explain this in layman’s terms, providing a greater insight into the car’s condition and helping to build a much needed relationship of trust with a view to the future.

The pilot service has cost Volkswagen UK £70,000 to install we are told, and if successful it may be rolled out across the UK network.

We would certainly support this female friendly approach in future. Indeed it’s one of the reasons why Stourbridge Volkswagen is a FOXY Choice approved female friendly garage that we are happy to introduce to members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

FOXY Steph

Just three in ten women take their own vehicles for a service, compared with seven in ten men.

New research from Bosch Car Service confirms that women are doing all they can to avoid garage visits for fear of being overcharged and patronised for being female.

30% of the female sample said that they take their own cars for a service with 35% stating they were not confident of a good experience from a car service.

This is because too few UK garages are genuinely female friendly places to visit.

“It is clear that there is still a feeling of discomfort amongst women drivers towards taking their cars in for a service, which could be why they are leaving it up to men” said Bosch Car Service Concept Manager, Howard Price.

And why FOXY Choice’s ‘Female Friendly’ marketing services are designed to identify, promote and monitor garages and dealerships that have gone out of their way to be measurably better (in terms of quality), to provide services that address women’s needs and expectations and that genuinely welcome females.

But just because a garage can demonstrate measurable quality doesn’t mean that it’s female friendly. This is because too many men think that men and women should be treated alike; as if women want to be treated like men!

All this can easily be sensed during phone contact, when visiting websites, when making  email enquiries and via female garage feedback – providing it’s genuine and independent…

When will the industry look long and hard at the number of female employees in garages, for starters? This is the UK’s last male bastion and a perfectly valid reason why women find so many of them intimidating and unfriendly places.

It’s time garages, dealerships and bodyshops got their Female Friendly act together behind the scenes. What FOXY Choice does is unique and specialist, requiring garages to sign up to our FOXY Promise ‘to never overcharge, patronise or sell women services they don’t need’ as a minimum standard. We then monitor this by encouraging genuine female feedback via the independent FOXY Choice website.

But just by saying they are a female friendly garage, women will not start to queue at the door. Nor does it mean that they understand what women want. There’s a lot more entailed and it may well mean they need to change the way they do things for women. Yes, they need to be seen to welcome local women with open arms but many will have to change their business culture in the process.

Employ more females for starters but make sure their needs are catered for – many do not stay in the industry because they don’t feel welcome.  Like many female customers for the same reason…

Garages also need to respond to the needs of busy women for stressbusting and time-saving services.

So garages need to work harder for women to be the richer for their efforts. By benchmarking performance standards to FOXY Choice approved Female Friendly levels women will be reassured and begin to trust garages, dealerships and bodyshops where they know they are understood and appreciated.

Once reassured they will recommend Female Friendly garages to others, men will be (secretly) delighted to share these higher standards and garages purporting to be good but not meeting FOXY standards won’t attract the female purse in future.

Bring it on guys – you know it is the right thing to do in the garage industry today…

FOXY Steph

We still come across garages that don’t have their own garage services website.

Independents with a template page perhaps, hosted by a big directory name or simply a free classified listing.

Or several listings, for that matter, including expired links… leaving the searcher in limbo and unimpressed.

And the reason these listings often don’t work, is because they rarely do a good garage justice, when motorists are shopping online to compare car servicing and MOT choices.

Surprisingly, it’s only FOXY Choice‘s website that gives women the inside information they need about garage services, promoting the measurably best garages by virtue of quality credentials such as ATA, BSI Kitemark and OFT fully approved code logos. We do this because some businesses have invested in these superior quality schemes and deserve recognition for this commitment. And we also like the businesses that employ women, offer exemplary customer services and provide top notch facilities and amenities.

As FOXY sees it, these are all quality features that can help women make informed decisions about the garage services they buy and so that businesses that have gone that extra quality mile can stand out in a highly competitive crowd.

So the garages, fastfits and dealers who think they don’t need their own garage services website are leaving themselves open to foxy (as in shrewd, canny and astute) competitors bagging internet glory ahead of them. And in today’s tough business climate if you want to have a future, the internet is surely where it is, so you have to be in it to win it.

And not just any website will do…

Garages in a male dominated industry need a female friendly website to reassure wary women who worry about being overcharged and/or patronised. Especially now that more and more women are shopping online for garage services like car servicing, mechanical and bodywork accident repairs. Women are looking to compare service levels and whilst price is a vital consideration, they are also out to avoid the well publicised industry cowboys.

Which is why women are more likely than men to think twice about using a garage that isn’t visible online. And for that matter, given a choice, she is also likely to think twice about a business with a website that’s evidently been designed by and for men and where she might feel unwelcome.

So what makes a good garage website for women?

As always any business needs to see itself from its customers’ point of view. And bearing in mind that 50% of customers are female and they are often shopping for family cars as well as their own, it simply doesn’t make business sense to ignore our needs or to imagine that women are looking for the same service levels as men. They aren’t.

And the first question (after seeing that you offer what she’s looking for…) she’s looking to see answered is whether a business understands what she wants. In other words…

• Is this business talking to me (or is it the sort of male dominated place I’ll feel ill at ease in)?
• Why should I trust it?
• How much will it cost?
• Does it offer car collection/courtesy car services/child seats (and how do I check for availability and any terms and conditions)
• How else is it a female friendly garage…

Typically, a woman will take a matter of moments to make her mind up, after taking a visual snapshot of the website homepage. Much as we make judgements in minutes about new people we meet face to face, we also make a quick decision whether the garage in question will take the sort of care we expect them to when looking after our car (and our personal safety).

So a female friendly website homepage should include photos of real life women (staff and/or customers), reassure us with evidence of quality credentials and superior customer service, give us a price guideline and not major too heavily on off-putting jargon or talk about torque…

And when making it easy for customers to get a quote by email, foxy ladies really do expect a reply the same day. Not like the garage that told us recently in an automated reply – we will get back to you within six days because this email is hosted elsewhere…

In summary, if women see a website that is making an effort to communicate with them, using colour and video and catering for children too, they’ll be more likely to favour one that is evidently female friendly over one that thinks men and women should all be treated the same.

Vive la difference as always.

But the business cost of getting things wrong for women is a steep one, especially when others around you are getting it right. Whereas a happy female is more likely to visit a garage more often, to be loyal and spread the word among her family and friends.

FOXY Steph