Back in October I was invited to be part of the Mary Portas Secret Shopper series because we now identify, vet and approve used car dealers, not just garages, with women in mind.
And tonight (Tuesday 17 March, Channel Four, Secret Shopper, 8pm) we’ll see what Mary makes of all this, including behind the scene events I haven’t seen but that will likely make compelling TV for women drivers and not entirely comfortable viewing for many used car dealers in the motor industry.
The first filming session I got involved in was at Silverstone when I met up with three lovely female driving instructors (more about them in my next blog) who had similarly strident views about what women want. And as you might expect, women telling men what to do doesn’t always go down well although whether that bit will be filmed, we’ll have to wait and see…
The second bit was at the car dealer itself, Gatehouse Cars in Aylesbury, where Mary had done her magic to spruce up the car sales setting. On what was a cold and grey day in an industrial looking environment…
I’ll be interested to see how this all comes together.
My main delight was to hear Mary saying what I’ve been saying for years now ie that this dealer (and many others like them in the motor industry) needs to up their customer service levels to get them right for demanding women because women expect MORE than those men who have got used to the way motoring things are in overly masculine garages and car dealers. And of course, higher standards benefit men too.
And because, with a bit of luck, she’ll be pinning one of our FOXY Lady Approved certificates on the Gatehouse Cars wall so women can see that they have a female friendly car shopping choice if they use one of our dealers.
And that we welcome all feedback from females about their car shopping experiences afterwards. To keep them on their toes and so we are happy to promote them to members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club.
