Posts Tagged ‘female friendly’

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How to sell cars and garage services to women

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

FOXY provides marketing services to help garages and dealerships become [and be seen as] more female friendly and my specialist subject is marketing to women so I do have a vested interest in this subject…

Why bother making the industry more female friendly I can hear you ask? That’s the easy part! Because on a global scale women control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years. And even more impressive – women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined – more than twice as big to be precise. So you need to be there in her mind to get your share.

To be more female friendly, first and foremost, the retail motor industry MUST employ more females in all areas and levels of the business. At present some 20% of the retail industry are females and I read recently that c10% of females are in management jobs (which was higher than I had imagined…).

That’s pathetic of course but knowing that you must employ more women, how do you address the perceived chasm that the industry is not a female friendly employer alongside the self-perpetuating machismo that drives service levels and communications towards men. An example of this is where manufacturers focus on the performance of cars rather than their usefulness and when aftersales staff use unnecessary jargon and cause the female fog factor; in my experience this is common when it comes to car engines…

Yes, to employ a female she should be the best candidate for the job (as opposed to the only gender prepared to do it for so little?) so not anyone will do. If it is a business’s first female employee they may have to rethink their recruitment and employment policy too as well as staff amenities.

In many ways small garages are easier to make female friendly, especially when the often family owned business includes the wife, Mum, daughter or partner who gets involved on a daily basis. She makes it female friendly at customer level because she knows what women want and fear most.

The tricky cultural issue is more often in dealerships where the Dealer Principal is more likely to be a man and supported by male managers in the aftersales and car sales business units. Even if they wanted to employ females, few can work out how to do this or where to recruit them without falling foul of the equal opportunities lobby. Nor do many women read automotive job vacancies because they perceive this to be an unfriendly business to work in. So the male recruitment level is self-perpetuating and fulfilling…

There is a massive job to be done to encourage employers to recruit women and women to realise that their feminine talents can be used to add serious value to the balance sheet in future.

I have written the word ‘talents’ above and I can almost hear some males sniggering at this whilst they imagine the sort of feminine talents that are first to their mind ie we are not talking brains here. Having visited smart dealership and less smart garage workshops I know that both environments are equally as likely to have topless calendars and posters on show. I find them extremely demeaning and imagine I am not alone here.  If that is the business culture that is allowed in the workplace, no wonder female staff and customers alike would feel ill at ease and may well sense being patronised or treated as sex objects when they go to buy a car or garage services.

So what’s to be done, assuming the UK market finally gets its act together before we all go online and cut out the middle men.

Why not have a look at a new female friendly approved scheme including consultancy services, training and accreditation at femalefriendlyapproved.com.

And to find out about a unique range of female friendly marketing services for UK garages and dealerships, there’s always FOXY Choice providing you can meet the FOXY Promise© in real life.

FOXY Steph

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Are city law firms female friendly enough?

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

My anecdotal evidence (mostly based on reading the Daily Telegraph I accept) is that there are more and more legal cases of City firms behaving badly towards female staff.

So perhaps I am not surprised to read that female friendly law firms in the provinces are outperforming ones in the City when it comes to retaining, rewarding and appreciating female colleagues. This is what recent research by website magazine Legal Week confirms and that, over the last three years, regional firms promoted on average 37% of female partners, compared with some 20% in the top 10 City firms. And, on average again, across the UK’s top 30 legal firms, just under 28% of promotions have been female ie fewer than three vacancies out of ten have been filled by women.

While women make up less than 19% of the partnership on average across the UK top 30 as a whole, this figure falls to 16% at the top 10 City firms, but increases to nearly 24% in regional practices.

Shoosmiths has emerged as the most female-friendly law firm with women making up just over half of its recent promotions and a third of its partnership overall. Shoosmiths chief executive Claire Rowe said:

“The reason we have found it easier to retain female talent is that we have a transparent promotion criteria based on merit.”

Which is surely how it should be but perhaps Shoosmith is managing to bolster female confidence levels to positively encourage more women to apply for these senior jobs whereas Holman Fenwick Willan, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Simmons & Simmons presumably aren’t with only 12%, 13% and 13% respectively employing female partners back in May 2009.

Deirdre Walker, Group Head of Commercial, Real Estates and Disputes at Norton Rose believes that it makes good sense for more law firms to be female friendly and more flexible when women in their 30s and 40s, for example, may have children or other caring commitments to satisfy.

Deirdre explains that “At various points in a female career other events are going on outside of work – this should not mean that our career is over. To end a career just because you want to put it on hold does not make commercial sense.”

Yet the reality is surely that when corporate legal men are in charge (as in the majority of cases) they are less likely to see the need to be flexible to retain females if men are available instead and may seem less likely to take these career breaks.

Whereas if a woman is in charge, as at Shoosmiths, she will know just how hard the right female will work to balance a career and her family commitments. Which is why the right women with family commitments should always be allowed to secure the job… even if they may need some compassionate leave and support at certain and unavoidable times.

I’d add to this debate that in my experience, ambitious men were more likely to change employers than ambitious women ( is there any evidence of this…) yet it was more often the women that got criticised for having babies rather than the fast moving CVs that were invariably male.

FOXY Steph

To find a unique female friendly motoring association for women visit FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

To find the nearest female friendly good garages and dealerships in the UK  visit FOXY Choice.

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What is a fair price for garage services?

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

With average garage labour rates varying between £90 an hour for a dealership and £56 for an independent garage in the UK it’s hard to know if you are paying more than you need to when there are so many other factors to consider.

Of course we all judge value for money based on our needs, expectations and satisfaction levels which is why FOXY Choice publishes a Good Garage Guide to help women with their MOT and car servicing shopping – this website identifies measurable quality standards as well as good female friendly car dealerships and independent garages.

From my experience I know that many female motorists choose where to have their car serviced on the basis of convenience factors like the location of the garage and whether it offers a car collection service. Increasingly women drivers are sharing female feedback online within FOXY Lady Drivers Club so I know that the following motoring myths continue for many, despite trade efforts to put the record straight…

Some women will happily pay more to have their car serviced by a dealership thinking they need to, to maintain a warranty or that a dealership stamp in the car’s handbook will guarantee a higher resale value.

Other women are more cost conscious and tend to shop around for the lowest price for MOTs, tyres and car servicing deals, thinking that all garages are much the same as each other.

The truth is that whilst dealership rates are undoubtedly dropping and represent much better value for money nowadays, many motorists can have their nearly new car serviced at a good independent garage for less money and within the terms of their warranty.  But it isn’t true to say that a dealership stamp will guarantee a better price when it’s time to sell – what matters most is that the car has been serviced regularly and to the manufacturer’s standards.

More worrying from a female point of view is that if you shop around for the lowest price going or choose a garage you don’t know anything about you could be risking your personal safety and that of your family and other motorists. This is an industry where garages aren’t licensed, where mechanics don’t have to be qualified and where complaint levels are high.

And very often we hear stories about the lowest price escalating because the garage doesn’t have the latest equipment to diagnose the fault correctly; you then end up paying more for the mechanic’s labour to see if he can find the fault instead.

To illustrate the differences in perceived ‘value for money’ a good example is the price that a BMW driver would pay in a dealership versus a good independent garage, for a simple job like an oil change or a typical car safety check.

In its recent advertising campaign the manufacturer states ‘Think we’re expensive? Think again.’ listing the following BMW Value Service prices for participating franchised dealerships to change the engine oil, front brake pads and carry out safety checks for BMW 3 series (E46) 4 cylinder models.

£115 Oil Service (includes microfilter)

£99 Front brake pads (includes sensor replacement)

£189 Inspection 1 (includes oil service and safety checks)

Clearly these prices have been reduced so they represent better value for money than they did but £115 still sounds a lot to pay for a simple oil change, no matter the use of the word ’service’. And if BMW’s Inspection 1 costs £189 for an oil change and safety checks then their safety checks must cost £74…

But are these prices fair enough for an up-market dealership experience, with all that entails for the executive BMW driver?  That’s up to you, your car and your budget, dear reader ;-) .

The alternative solution to a franchised dealership is a measurably good independent garage who uses genuine BMW parts, BMW specified lubricants, accredited technicians and who carries out work in accordance with BMW’s specifications.

Starting with a female friendly Bosch Car Service garage in Scotland who operates to a fully approved OFT Code of Practice, Falkland Performance Centre in Glenrothes would charge the following prices:

£80.15 Oil Service saving £34.85

£147.70 Inspection 1 saving £41.30

But when it comes to the front brake pads, Falkland’s business owner Allan Adam calculates £111.35 which is £12.35 more than a BMW dealership because they always strip and clean the brake calipers prior to fitting brake pads which BMW does not specify.

Another leading and similarly female friendly independent garage, Woodley Autos near Reading in Berkshire (where labour rates are higher than in Scotland) who is ISO 9001 approved would also save local BMW motorists money for the equivalent oil change and safety checks as follows…

£86.26 Oil Service saving £28.74

£93.08 Front Brake Pads saving £5.92

£139.43 Inspection 1 saving £49.57

So in a nutshell it is possible to save money by shopping around and if these savings can be made for low cost garage services then there is much more to be saved by shopping around for the likes of full and major car services, comparing car collection and courtesy cars, other services & amenities and whether the business is near shops, a leisure centre or other entertainment to occupy the driver who chooses to wait.

But the most important factor on all occasions is surely to identify the best value for money, seen through the eye of the beholder, taking into account minimum quality standards, the latest diagnostic equipment, service levels and amenities to suit. This matters because, at best, motorists might be overcharged, patronised or sold services they do not need. At worst, the job might not have been done properly and they could be risking their personal safety and that of other motorists.

To find out more about this big subject, female and male motorists alike, please read FOXY Choice’s Good Garage Guide and search for measurably good and female friendly UK garages and dealerships.

FOXY Steph

PS: A cheap garage isn’t worth the risk if they cut corners to save them money…

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Happy couples need good garage help

Monday, January 11th, 2010

If you want to have a happy marriage women drivers need to find more time for their domestic chores or get more help.

In a recent survey carried out by car insurer esure, 29 per cent of couples admitted to using their work as an excuse for not doing their domestic chores with one in four (24 per cent) blaming their children and one in ten (11 per cent) even held their pets accountable.

This often led to domestic disputes of which these were the Top Ten

1. Leaving clothes lying around the house (35 per cent)

2. Putting off home improvements (28 per cent)

3. Doing the washing up (24 per cent)

= 4. Not fixing broken household items (17 per cent)

= 4. Not taking the rubbish out (17 per cent)

6. Not making the bed (12 per cent)

7. Leaving the toilet seat up (10 per cent)

= 8. Hiding or not owning up to damage (9 per cent)

= 8. Not emptying the dishwasher (9 per cent)

10. Doing shoddy DIY (6 per cent)

Just for the record, women cited DIY as the biggest cause of domestic disputes with home improvements, fixing broken household items and shoddy DIY totalling 59 per cent of the overall vote.

With no mention of the car here, one hesitates to ask the question whether it is the woman driver who is expected to look after the maintenance, MOTs, car servicing and repairs for the family cars  in case this adds to the alleged 4.4 hours typical couples spend arguing about all this each week.

Instead of running the risk that your car might be unsafe, unreliable and running more expensively than it needs to, why not check out female friendly good garage website, FOXY Choice, to choose one of the measurably best local garages and industry professionals to maintain, MOT, service and repair your car near you?

Or if you join FOXY Lady Drivers Club you can claim free quarterly Car Fitness Checks from FOXY approved garages who have signed the female friendly FOXY Promise. And in most cases you’ll also qualify for a members only discount for MOT, car servicing or repairs which you can then share with your partner and other motoring members of your family.

Here’s to foxy motoring services for men and women drivers in 2010.

FOXY Steph

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How to spot a good and female friendly business

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Google lists some 23 million searches for female friendly businesses so it makes good sense to be well listed for ‘female friendly’ and your type of business, in this instance ‘garage’,  ‘fastfit’ or ‘car dealership’ and your postal town. Female friendly marketing is big business in the US and Australia and now it seems to be coming here which suggests that UK women are looking for more in terms of service levels than they are getting from some businesses and in certain industries with an unfriendly reputation…

In these circumstances, businesses that get it genuinely right for women and can promote themselves (online and offline) as female friendly are highly likely to win new business by being different and ahead of others.  And, let’s face it -  if she is impressed she is likely to tell her friends, family and work colleagues because that’s what women do; we talk and compare shopping feedback particularly when we’re talking about expensive products or services we mightn’t know plenty about (or be all that interested either…).

How will she tell if a business is female friendly enough?  To be genuinely female friendly in my book any garage, fastfit or car dealership has to be able to prove that they are a good business for starters and ideally one of the best in their area. That means meeting high standards in terms of measurable quality workmanship, value for money, cleanliness (especially the loos) and customer welcome.

It’s all too easy to say ‘we are female friendly’ or ‘we are a good garage’ on a website or in a sales leaflet.  What’s to stop bad and unfriendly garages, fastfits and dealerships from saying this about them to tempt her in? And some do, believe me ;-) without understanding what women want and making that fairly obvious over the phone to a casual mystery shopper (often me…).

Well I thought long and hard about all this before I set up FOXY Lady Drivers Club and again before FOXY Choice because whoever sets out any such standards must be totally independent, able to monitor them and not be overly influenced by a commercial owner, sponsor or agenda that has a vested interest in spinning the marketing message in that direction.

For example, you could say that the Good Garage Scheme (which is owned by US company Forte Oils) has a vested interest in signing up any garage that wants to be promoted as a good garage simply if they agree to sell their oil products and fill in gaps in their UK network.

And you could say that the newish Motor Industry Code, Service and Repair, sponsored as it is by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders who represent the car manufacturers and their franchised dealers, has a vested interest in promoting franchised dealership subscribers over independent garages (which they do in the ratio of some 80:20 incidentally).  Fair enough perhaps but the female motorist running a car on a budget who is influenced by their advertising is likely to end up in a dealership paying some 30% more than she would do in a quality independent.  And they don’t explain this choice to her beforehand. And the Code standards are so very elementary that you have to wonder why the dealerships were required to sign up to this by the likes of Ford. Surely they were exceeding these basic standards before…)

So, catching up here, the way to identify a good and female friendly garage must be by giving the customer (in this instance the female because FOXY represents female motorists) all the advice and information they need to make the right buying choice for them, their car, their budget and the occasion.

I find that many women drivers are interested in comparing the likes of services and amenities alongside the all important quality and price. And because so many women are using the internet to shop, the business website is vital alongside any garage feedback and social networking site content.

But the problem with garage feedback and many testimonials, including social network postings, is that they can so easily be written by those with a vested interest, and to order.  Otherwise many of them are sufficiently bland that you know the customer has had to write something (mental picture of the motorist with his or her arm twisted behind the back.  And which would you trust most, someone who tells you they are a female friendly garage without any evidence of what this means on their website, someone who  says their local garage is ‘nice’ and ‘friendly’ or a website that shows which local businesses operate to demanding quality standards like ATA, BSI or fully approved OFT Code.

We follow up the good garage feedback we get and very often the surnames are the same as the business owners! It isn’t rocket science to spot this! They must think we are daft too!

What we do instead is to provide a Good Garage Guide for women to explain that and get all FOXY Choice subscribers to sign the female friendly FOXY Promise© to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women services they don’t need or want’.  We then spell out all the quality indicators such as ATA, BSI and full OFT approval, mentioning the Motor Industry Codes and the Good Garage Scheme so that shoppers can see the entire picture.

Those who want to can also list their customer services like free local car collection and courtesy cars as well.

Then we promote these subscribers to Club members and share any female feedback within the Club.

Finally if any member needs our female ‘welly’ to get things sorted out we will help and ultimately we are prepared to eject any ‘couldn’t care less’ or worse behaviour from our network of female friendly garages and dealerships across the UK.

FOXY Steph

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Is it time for insurance brokers to fight back?

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has just published some best practice advice to act as guidance for insurance providers, brokers and insurance comparison websites who sell insurance products including car insurance for women drivers.

This guidance states that customers should be able to review key features of their selected policy before they commit to buy; should see what cover is provided as standard as well as which features are add-ons and be given clear information about excesses. In principle this should help women drivers do their insurance buying homework before committing to one car insurance provider but in reality if the likes of Aviva and Direct Line companies and insurance products are not using comparison websites surely those female motorists who buy their motor insurance online will be looking at a restricted audience, without necessarily appreciating this?

And if insurance providers are paying the likes of £40 per lead/sale to comparison websites perhaps it’s time to give High Street brokers like Cooperative, Swintons and NFU a fair chance to compete?

Maybe it’s just me but I sense a genuine appetite for a more female friendly customer service from the women drivers I speak to – perhaps the time is right for female friendly insurance brokers to sharpen up their marketing tactics here and give the comparison websites some serious competition based on keen prices, added value and superior customer service.

To find out more, read FOXY’s car insurance feedback for women drivers…

FOXY Steph

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Women drivers smell a female friendly garage difference

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

We are often told that women drivers go into a garage expecting to be ripped off or patronised and that this then makes them aggressive and, occasionally, challenging to deal with.

Just imagine how off-putting this can be if you are a female friendly garage already, wanting to do the right thing for women drivers from the word go yet she is treating you with the same suspicion as she might an unscrupulous garage where this attitude might be totally justified.

So I was interested to read the latest US research that people behave less charitably in dirtier environments than in a clean work place which is what they found in a study called The Smell of Virtue, carried out at the Kellogg School of Management at North Western University. Not only do morality and cleanliness go hand in hand it would appear but simply making a room smell fresher is enough to cause a subconscious impulse towards fair play and honesty.

In this study, just a few sprays of a lemon-scented cleaner produced a noticeable improvement in ethical behaviour whereas those who worked in unfragranced areas were less likely to act charitably to others.

May I suggest that the UK motor industry come up with a suitably fragranced range of reception and workshop scents to be used in garages and dealerships? One that masks testosterone perhaps?

I believe in this theory because I know that smell sells all sorts of things; just the smell of freshly roasted coffee can sell the experience of living in the house that is one the market…

In this instance, I imagine that a female associates a clean (neat and tidy) organisation with one she wants to do business with, whereas one whose reception and waiting area are  coloured black, and smell of fuel and oils, may well be seen as a dirty business in her mind. This scent association can then transfer to the brand and the  garage experience in her head -  suggesting that this is a business that will care about her family safety, or not as the case might be.

How interesting to imagine that the right garage scent could reassure suspicious women drivers and surly front of house garage staff to find some common ground with a view to a future business relationship!

I hope one of the leading air freshener companies might give this a whirl and  suggest they call such a range ‘FOXY Scents’ for garages that want to make their businesses more female friendly in future ;-) .  We’d be happy to introduce some female friendly FOXY Choice garage subscribers to act as guinea pigs here!!

FOXY Steph

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Female friendly Google suggestions

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

You’ll have noticed that when you start to type in a search, Google tries to be helpful listing your choices below so you can see how many searches have been made by others for specific terms.

I think this service started in the summer so I’ve been watching how it copes with ‘female friendly garage’ and, believe me, not so long ago some one million searches were recorded and this has since risen to two million.

If you think about it, this is a very ambitious service to offer and it could be that some of the slow risers (a million here and a million there aren’t rapid risers compared with the likes of Twitter and other trendy websites) simply aren’t on the priority list of Google records, but it’s good to know there is something for us to measure how effectively FOXY Choice is managing to get the ‘female friendly garage’ message out to women drivers, always with limited marketing money to do the job.

Just to illustrate the wackiness of some of the search results Google is trying to compute, amid guffaws, have a look at their collection of some of the strangest…

I think this will be very useful and it has helped me to illustrate that what we are leading towards ie a more female friendly motor industry is where women drivers want to go! I am reassured too…

FOXY Steph

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Celebrations coincide…

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Just like buses, off we go on our travels then two of them turn up at once. No not buses… keep up in the back.

I am talking about female friendly businesses I know and like who are both celebrating their 15th birthdays in 2009 -  in today’s economy, getting to any business birthday is really something special.

Business number one is female friendly garage car repairer ooops.net in Poole, Dorset. I’ve mentioned them before because they do creative things like invite female motorists and their family to drive-in movies and summer fetes. This time business founder Paul Booker is starting his own ooops blog so I wanted to give him a foxy plug on behalf of the many women drivers in Poole who know they can trust their car to this business.

The second business is actually related to business number one in that they specialise in designing social networking solutions like the ones ooops.net offers their customers – they are creative agency Preview based in Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex and their design work is some of the best I’ve seen  – and I’ve seen a lot, trust me ;-) . This agency was founded by Nick Broom FCIM who I know from my CIM Sussex committee work.

I’d also add that both Paul and Nick recognise that social networking needs to add value and provide advice and information to become regarded and trusted by women in particular, in their different fields.

Here’s to the next 15 years guys… and let’s all look forward to meeting the 25% of our customers we don’t know yet as we travel the next 15 years in business!

FOXY Steph

www.ooops.net/blog

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Female friendly garage in Eastbourne opens new car dealership

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

When many dealerships are struggling to sell new and used cars it’s great to read of a motor industry success story in Sussex which seems to be bucking the industry trend.

Sterling Automotive is an approved MG and Rover service centre carrying out MOTs, servicing and repairs for all vehicles but specialising in Land Rover, Jaguar, Mini & Smart makes.

As a FOXY Choice subscriber they have already nailed their female friendly credentials to the mast and are also listed at www.femalefriendlyapproved.com having signed the FOXY Promise © to ‘never knowingly overcharge, patronise or sell women services they do not need or want’.

Over and above Sterling’s female friendly garage premises in Redward Business Park, off Eastbourne’s Lottbridge Drove they have just opened a new MG car showroom at The Glasshouse at Enterprise Shopping Centre on Station Parade in the town centre.

Knowing how popular MGs are with foxy ladies we expect them to do a roaring trade with highly competitive prices for the new MG TF range (prices from c £13,495 for the TF135 to c£15,995 for the top of the range TF LE500). This month there’s a limited edition model to commemorate the 85th anniversary of MG – there’s only 50 cars available so you can expect them to be collector items

Sterling Automotive's new MG car showroom in Eastbourne The photo shows Eastbourne’s MP, Nigel Waterson, cutting the ribbon at the official opening ceremony on 11 September last.

One thing that the best garages share in common is their ability to think creatively and this includes an awareness of (and commitment to please) the female purse!

I particularly like two innovative ideas from business owner Patrick Warner. The first is the ‘5 Year Head Gasket Guarantee’ for MG and Rover cars and the second is their ‘Service Tourism’ so that holidaymakers in Eastbourne can enjoy their holiday in the town and give their car a holiday break too aka a car service carried out by Sterling Automotive.

Watch this business – it is clearly getting it right for women drivers in Eastbourne.

FOXY Steph

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