A Ladies Garage evening in Leeds

Nightingale Service Centre in Horsham and Motor Marque garage in North Leeds are both organising free and timely Ladies Evenings in November to give women drivers cold weather motoring tips and foxy advice about caring for your car during what may well be a harsh winter.

When we recruit garages to FOXY Choice’s female friendly network we expect subscribers to sign our FOXY Promise (to never overcharge, patronise or sell women anything they don’t need or want to buy) and a minimum commitment to quality, value, cleanliness and a genuinely friendly customer welcome. But for non-compulsory ‘female friendly’ brownie points FOXY Choice particularly likes to see garages that employ women in customer facing roles and organise ladies evenings to help women run their cars

Two such FOXY Choice subscribers are organising special Ladies* Evenings this November in Horsham, West Sussex and Leeds in West Yorkshire.

*men welcome too of course (but few think they need this ); FOXY recommends these evenings to ALL novice drivers regardless of gender.

HORSHAM 29 November 2011 from 6-8pm
Nightingale Service Centre tel: 01403 253068 (ask for Shelly or Austin)
Free of charge but including a cuppa and a very merry mince pie in between practical tips on winter driving and hands on oil and wheel changing advice.

NORTH LEEDS 16 November 2011 from 6.30 to 8.30pm
Motor Marque tel: 0113 288 8899 (ask for Louise or Mark)
Free of charge but including refreshments, practical winter driving tips and associated seasonal motoring matters that women want to know about!

Please note that all women attending these sessions will receive a gift membership to FOXY Lady Drivers Club worth £23 so it also makes financial sense to sign up whilst there are still spaces.

FOXY Steph

PS Any men attending can nominate a foxy lady to receive their Club membership gift of course!

As we wind down towards Christmas it’s good to see some festive cheer in evidence – thanks to Bankside garage in Leeds reminding us of their female friendly FOXY Choice credentials.

Of course it isn’t necessary to employ women for a business to be female friendly (in fact FOXY research last year suggested that women were equally happy to buy a car from a man as a woman in a showroom providing they knew what they were talking about) but in an industry with such a reputation for being male dominated, if you are seen to employ women this could be a source of reassurance for many local women drivers  even if you don’t need to see them when you take your car in.

In Bankside Garage’s case, should reassurance be needed, they are also one of the best garages in Leeds with a BSI Kitemark and operating to a fully approved OFT Code of Practice, as a member of the Bosch Car Service network.

I am sure we all have our fingers crossed for a good start to 2010 after such a miserable 2009 in the motor industry.

Whilst the new car dealerships might have had some help in the shape of the car scrappage scheme (even though this benefited overseas manufacturers not ours) the reality is that the independent garages now need to fight for their share of the MOT, car servicing and vehicle repair work around because many older caps were scrapped and motorists trying to save money have been cutting back on their motoring and trips to garages.

Yet another reason for the best garages to market themselves as different from the mediocre and why the FOXY Choice female friendly marketing services can help in this area.

We’re here to spread the word to as many women drivers as possible in 2010.

FOXY Steph