Tag Archives: dealerships

women

Is this how we’ll car shop in future?

Hyundai Rockar in Bluewater Shopping Centre
Hyundai store in Bluewater
I have always thought that the concept of a travel agent, for travel and destination advice followed up by holiday delivery, would work well for those of us shopping for a new car.

An independent and personal service with transparent charges to make sure customers were aware of the measurably best car choices in their particular search category even if they then decided to buy another.

At least they’d have known their choices.

And knowing the female influence here and what many women think of the car showroom experience, I’d want any such car shopping business model to include female sales staff as an obvious sign of a genuinely female friendly car dealership service.

The Rockar model

So Hyundai’s digital car buying service, badged as Rockar back in November 2014, seemed to be a step in this direction, with a physical store at Bluewater shopping centre off the M25. Apparently 54% of car buyers here have been women and their average age is 39. Rockar also reports that 60% of buying customers completed their car shopping purchase online and later.

Clearly this made financial sense because Hyundai then opened a second Rockar-branded store in Westfield Stratford.

And now Jaguar Land Rover is following suit in October 2016 with the option for customers to buy their cars online or from the Rockar store at Stratford.

Car ‘angel’ experts

This is where car shoppers will be greeted by ‘angels,’ described as ‘non-selling product experts’ in response to changing needs and demands from JLR customers. Now I can’t see what gender these ‘angels’ are to be but I’d guess that there’ll be a significant female presence…

These ‘angels’ will offer advice (about Hyundai and JLR choices) as well as help customers with the in-store car configurators and show them around the display cars. Customers can then complete their purchase on the accompanying website, there and then, or afterwards at home.

The only part of the after sales service that isn’t clear (to me) as yet is how Rockar handles any new car delivery gremlins and/or the car’s future servicing and/or repairs. Inevitably the best solution for the customer is always a local one, with dealers who will surely want to be part of (or compete with) the Rockar model to win as much business as possible for themselves?

All this competition is great for customers of course. Unless local dealerships can’t afford to compete with the Rockar model? Because, as things stand, it looks as if some car manufacturers are competing with themselves to sell cheaper cars to the same audience.

Only time will tell if this catches on, with more brands joining in.

Steph Savill

stephsavill.co.uk
foxyladydrivers.com

This is a Top Ten Automotive blog 2016.

female friendly

The female train has arrived…

jeffreybarnardWhen asked why he never warned any of his many wives what they were letting themselves in for, the late, heavy-drinking, promiscuous and totally unreliable Jeffrey Bernard would only ever reply: ‘You can see a train when it’s coming, can’t you?’

I could say the same about the motor industry businesses who failed to spot that the number of women holding driving licenses has risen from 9.2m in 1995 to 16.3m in 2010.

That’s a HUGE extra 7 million females on our roads in just 15 years; they didn’t just arrive overnight, they aren’t men and they expect to be treated like women. Why is this still such an apparent surprise to so many men in the motor industry today?

‘Didn’t you see the female train coming?’

female train

Fortunately the astute motoring businesses noticed a growing female presence ahead of others and started to adjust their services when it comes to our buying cars, garage and accident services. Whilst women realise they now have a female friendly business choice.

And because women tend to organise most of the family shopping it makes sense that they’ll be booking their husband, partner and children’s cars too, not just their own, at servicing time.

Yes it’s good that many garages are picking up on this gender trend but I’m not sure they all realise what this means for their business. One supposedly female friendly garage states at his website ‘Any emails without phone numbers will be deleted.’ That isn’t at all female friendly, knowing that women don’t give out phone numbers willy nilly, for good reason.

If a motorist asks for a quote by email that’s how she wants to be replied to. Only after reading a choice of replies will she decide who she’s going to give work to or her phone number. Who can blame her? Website contact forms should respect her request for privacy.

Another new and murky area, when it comes to the supposed transparency of menu prices, is one of hidden extras; for the likes of courtesy cars or a local car collection. I’m not saying it isn’t reasonable to charge here but this isn’t always made clear on menu tariffs or when she’s initially comparing garage servicing choices.

Female friendly or not?

In many ways it’s flattering that garages are listing themselves as female friendly (even if they aren’t by FOXY standards) when ten years ago most garages told us they treated men and women alike as a matter of company policy. They saw this as equality, explaining that their service levels were good for all, failing to address the fact that too many women dreaded their garage or car showroom experiences. In so doing they missed the opportunity to be seen as genuinely better than the rest in female minds by upping their service standards to meet the FOXY Code.

Thankfully there were enough clued up garages and genuinely female friendly car dealerships to get it right straightaway. Which is why our independent FOXY Lady Approved badge can now give women the peace of mind they need to be able to trust a garage, accident repairer or used car dealer before handing over their money. And as the number of demanding women drivers continues to rise, so will the need for that reassurance.

As part of our FOXY Lady Approved scheme we look for signs of quality, value for money and a commitment to the FOXY Promise ‘to never overcharge, patronise or sell women anything they don’t need.’ We also carry out compliance checks re cleanliness, customer welcome and female feedback to monitor that subscribing businesses are meeting our standards. Only then do we promote them to women who know to tell us afterwards if they ever have any cause for concern.

FOXY

NB: Not all that apply are eligible to join.

garage services

Is your garage good enough?

Car safety is a topic I feel passionately about and few motorists understand that their garage choice could well be a matter of life and death. Choose a bad garage by accident and you could be compromising your family safety.

Last week a mystery shopping exercise (involving 62 cars with pre-existing faults) carried out by consumer watchdog Which? found ‘shocking levels of incompetence’ and ‘inexcusable dishonesty’ in UK garages where only 8 garages did the job properly and 90% missed at least one potentially dangerous fault.

Shocking yes but no surprises for those of us who know that UK garages aren’t licensed, mechanics don’t have to be qualified, many garages aren’t up to the job and are overcharging us by baffling us into forking out.

If you’d like to know what your best garages are by all means read the Good Garage Guide at FOXY Choice’s website. Where in doubt (and it’s a minefield I’m afraid), pick an ATA qualified mechanic over another whether in an independent, fast fit or main dealership garage. He or she has to stay up to date with the latest best practice, is tested every five years and has signed an ethical Code of Practice.

And don’t trust well-intentioned recommendations from friends; they’re usually based on the friendly welcome there – what you need is evidence of measurable quality of workmanship first of all, such as a professionally qualified mechanic.

You should also remember the following findings from the Which? exercise, that…

Even the best performing garage group (Bosch Car Service) failed to find 36% of faults

Garages from the Good Garage Scheme (don’t be deceived by the name – this is a B2B scheme to sell Forte engine flushing oils to garages, not to identify the best garages by any measurable indicators) performed worst of all, finding just 39% of simple pre-existing faults.

Yes, it’s a lottery out there with your life and purse at risk.

Be aware too that if you opt for a much publicised Motor Codes subscriber, odds are you’ll be directed into a dealership* (the code sponsor here is the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders representing manufacturers and their dealers) where you’ll pay more than you would to a measurably good independent garage. Motor Codes subscribers found 60% of the faults in the Which? Shopping exercise by the way.
*as at 30 August 2010 and using a 5 mile radius; in Glasgow 2 of the 58 subscribers are independent garages, the rest are dealerships; in Manchester 7 are independents out of 47; in Birmingham 5 are independents out of 45; in London 10 are independents out of 43; in Bristol 13 are independents out of 43; in Southampton 5 are independents out of 38; in Exeter 4 are independents out of 30.

Having studied garage safety standards all ways up I can’t see any other solution, after 60+ years of the industry failing to put its own house in order, than full blown Government regulation. We deserve qualified garage mechanics and retail garages (including fast fits and dealerships) that are regularly inspected.

The argument is that regulation will be expensive and the motorist will pay in the end but what price our lives in dangerous cars? And let’s see the cost facts within the context of motorists getting ripped off as the Which? exercise confirms is happening today.

I imagine someone knows how many of the massive number of annual garage complaints are to do with overcharging practices.

If you take anything away from reading this blog I hope it will be to do your homework seriously before choosing a local garage in future. And check out the local one you use, just because it’s convenient.

FOXY

Find out about UK garages that have signed the female friendly FOXY Promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women services they don’t need.’