Tag Archives: female friendly businesses

car dealerships, female friendly

Calling all girls looking for their first job…

Girls looking for a challenging career in marketing, sales, finance, technology and administration areas should seriously consider the UK motor industry; it is crying out for your talents in future.

My particular interest is to enthuse young girls who might otherwise imagine that the motor industry is a male dominated industry that has nothing to offer them. You’d be totally wrong to think this…

Yes, this is a male dominated industry as is, with a staggering 80% of employees male. Yes, I was personally shocked to find this after the 50:50 male:female leisure and tourism industries I worked in BUT I fervently believe that this is set fair to change for a more balanced future…

I believe this because I speak to and deal with so many good, well-intentioned and genuinely female friendly garages and car dealerships that want to employ more females in future. They realise that women trust women, especially in an industry which may well be the last male bastion. Not only can the very presence of a female in a business reassure wary women shoppers but this can also mean new female customers – serious added value for the bottom line; not to be sneezed at.

And there are so many female role models that have made it to the top – more about them in later blogs perhaps.

And now friendly female employees can promote friendly females they employ in customer facing roles; this is what FOXY Choice does with its Female Business Ambassador network of course.

I hope female recruits end up in a genuinely female friendly business of course – there are a lot that say they are female friendly, thinking that we are happy with male service levels 😉 – they haven’t got the message yet!

So if you are looking for a career destination and you’d like to know which motor industry businesses are likely to be the best ones to apply to, I suggest you contact any female friendly local garages or dealerships listed at FOXY Choice or those businesses that are ATA or AMA employers (see via the IMI website) because they have either signed the female friendly FOXY Promise or the IMI’s ethical Code of Conduct; both these commitments single out a business’ integrity over others who can’t be bothered.

Go for it girls – get in at the ground floor of the motor industry now. It knows it is in need of a female friendly makeover; the best businesses are looking for the best female students out there and they could be you learning on the job and getting qualified as you go.

All you have to do is get to work, roll your sleeves up and show the guys how the right women can help them make a genuine difference to service levels for ALL customers in future.

FOXY

female friendly, marketing to women, women drivers

Do we need female friendly businesses?

In an ideal world all businesses would be female friendly so that’d be a minimum standard for all.

But in male oriented environments like garages, car showrooms, DIY stores and computer/gadget shops among many others perhaps there is a need for these businesses to appreciate what women want and how they might attract more female customers in future.

Googling on ‘female friendly UK businesses’ and using the UK pages filter I find stories about making Lara Croft more female friendly, a female friendly cycle show in Hertfordshire and female friendly iPod and iPhone accessories.

Are they talking about a cynical  ‘pink’ marketing makeover and surface level message to attract fickle females 😉 or is this a genuine attempt to understand our shopping needs and give us what we want (to then benefit from our business…).

My experience is in the motor industry and there is a long way to go here.  Very few businesses are doing it right and when I talk to many car dealerships the word ‘complacency’ is the feeling I get in too many cases. There are huge opportunities here.

I’d like to see UK garages, dealers and franchised dealerships selling a message of safety, environmental issues and an ethical way of doing business in their future communications to women.  These are the underlying and influencing factors that can distinguish one business from another [complacent] one to pecuniary advantage.

I think that these aspects are MUCH more impressive than ‘women welcome’ signs at the door.

There is a risk in any female friendly marketing message of course that the business becomes too female oriented that it alienates its male audience –  it’s always a question of balance.

And businesses mustn’t patronise their female audience either. This is more complex I’d say. For example,  I have a personal problem with the use of the word ‘Madam’ for example. It makes me feel as if I am about to be awkward and it really offends me…

And many women insist on the use of Ms whereas others expect us to know when they are Miss – it’s not easy I accept.

As always the hunt is on for he or she that does it better, offering more for less.

Not just for women either but for men too.

Yet if the performance benchmark is set to satisfy fussy women (and aiming to please professional ie fussy shoppers is where customer service aspirations should be pitched imho…) then men are likely to be delighted as a consequence.

But beware of unintended consequence. I understand that a significant number of Sheila’s Wheels customers are gays and I doubt that was part of the Bank of Scotland’s marketing strategy when they came up with their TV ads. Or their underwriting risk portfolio for that matter!

FOXY

Find out about female friendly local garages, dealers and franchised dealerships here…

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
Oscar Wilde

car dealerships, marketing to women, women drivers

About female friendly businesses

2 Comments

I posted a topic in motor industry AM-Online’s forum about female friendly  car manufacturers and franchised dealerships marketing to women.

My personal opinion, based on everday anecdotal evidence, is that very few UK garages and main dealerships know what women drivers want or how to talk to us in workshop and car showroom situations.

The forum feedback remains 100% male to date and some are clearly supporting the status quo which is not good enough for men or women. Whilst I know that others in the trade were trying to be helpful they had not done their homework about my business or me before dashing into print – this is another characteristic difference between the genders – men dash in to sort it out and claim the glory/trophy whereas women take time to do their homework first and then to make the ‘informed’ purchase.

I am also used to the many so called ‘experts’ in the UK motor industry who know I am not a trade person and imply that their findings are the Holy Grail for me (gee thank you guys…) without realising that I might know something more useful for them to find out, to benefit their business.

No surprises there as this is exactly what the male oriented motor industry does – it patronises women drivers, thinks it knows best and carries on as before!!

Rather than waste discussion time with a ‘marketing expert’  (who knows less about marketing to women than me) I’d prefer to move on, to make a real difference to service levels for women who could have a great career in the motor industry and for female customers who often dread visiting garages, dealers and showrooms.

Yes the US is ahead of us in terms of recognising and attempting to address the power of the female purse but their business models aren’t the only way to go as the increasingly popular  FOXY Choice and FOXY Lady Drivers Club websites demonstrate.

FOXY

“Why should women have to apply to the head of state for the right to drive a car? Their husbands or brothers should decide.”
Colonel Gaddafi – June 2009 (like so many in the UK motor industry ;-), not quite at the cutting edge of feminism yet…)