Tag Archives: female friendly garage

women in the motor industry

Wirral based Garage appoints Female Business Ambassador

Wallasey based, Paula Dutton, Service Advisor for Village Motor Company has been appointed a Female Business Ambassador by female friendly business website FOXY Choice.

Village Motor Company joins the UK’s only network of garages and dealerships who have signed the female friendly FOXY Promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women services they do not need or want’.

Female Business Ambassador Paula recognises that many women feel ill at ease in garages and wants local women drivers in Wallasey to know that she is there to help and advise them if need be.

David Hiles, Village’s business owner, explained that this appointment is a part of the garage’s commitment to high standards for all motorists when it comes to quality workmanship, value for money, customer service and a friendly welcome.

“Whilst some people might wonder why we have singled females out for special attention, this is because women are very important customers for us and we know that too many ladies find garages to be intimidating and overly male dominated places. We want them to know that we are a genuinely female friendly garage and that they (and men too of course) can speak to a woman if they would prefer to. We know that happy females refer us to their family and friends so this makes sound business sense for us.”

FOXY Choice’s Director Steph Savill added “I am always surprised that so many garages and car dealerships continue to market to men and women alike, forgetting that women are increasingly independent and wealthy, with different needs and expectations. So much so, I am confident that garages who are promoting proven female friendly standards and services like Village Motor Company will soon see a lot more female customers at MOT, car servicing and repair times. Just as soon as they realise they have a female friendly choice.”

You can read more about Paula here and why she chose a career in the motor industry.

car dealerships

FOXY goes female friendly in Dorset

Last year we were contacted by the Ford Accident Repair Centre network with a view to their dealership members joining FOXY Choice’s Female Friendly garage network. We were delighted of course.

This was our first introduction to Wool & Bovington Motors, a Ford dealership based in Wool in Dorset. As you might expect, they easily met our standards in terms of quality with ATA accreditation, OFT and manufacturer approval.

They also employ females in customer facing roles and, as was proven last Friday, they also organise excellent Ladies evenings in the heart of their community. So off we set to sample their hospitality and to take FOXY off the beaten track in Dorset…

The main dealership showroom had been emptied of its usual cars (no mean feat this) and given a pink makeover including balloons, tablecloths and distinctive cocktail glasses.

All ladies were given a gift bag on arrival and could then wander around the various stands. FOXY Lady Drivers Club was the only motoring-related one but we were in good company with a local Wedding Planner, hair straightening sessions thanks to Mary at Snippets hair salon, an aquatics centre and a local jeweller.

Casual and friendly at all times, the evening programme included a trip round the neat and tidy service and repair garage area with the opportunity to see the chassis and underside workings of a car up on a ramp as well as some examples of typical car parts we’re likely to have paid for without necessarily knowing what they look like – such as car springs and plugs.

All this whilst Paul and a team from Purbeck KungFu were showing ladies in the dealership how to defend themselves, using hairbrushes and perfume sprays as deterrents, should the worst ever come to the worst…

After two hours the crowd started to thin out and by 9pm the displays were being dismantled. Everyone agreed it had been a good night and as I left I heard a mention that Ladies Evenings are likely to be a regular occurrence.

Undoubtedly this will have been good for business for Wool & Bovington Motors because, as was all too evident on the night, women talk and they will tell their family and friends about this afterwards.

From FOXY Lady Drivers Club’s point of view it’s always good to attend these sort of evenings, to tell women about our specialist services and to add this experience to our review of the Female Friendly garages on our network.

Full marks and special thanks are due to Bob Flint (representing the bodyshop team) and Amanda Pyne who made us all very welcome on the night.

FOXY

car dealerships

Good jobs for girls in Gateshead

Leading franchise car dealership Vertu Motors is advertising 19 new jobs at its Gateshead headquarters to handle increasing sales enquiries from across the UK. Men and women are equally as welcome to apply of course but I noticed that the majority of staff working in their North East call centre are female so clearly these roles have considerable appeal for local women who must also see Vertu as a female friendly employer.

The majority of the vacancies are to book cars in for car servicing, MOTs, mechanical and accident repair work via their contact centre but there are also two roles for receptionists.

Vertu Motors was the first Top Ten UK Dealer Group to sign up to FOXY Choice’s female friendly garage network in 2011. They commit to ATA, Kitemark and OFT quality schemes so they instantly ticked our criteria for measurable quality standards. They also seem to employ more than the industry average of female managers and service staff. So it wasn’t at all surprising that they wanted to display our FEMALE FRIENDLY logo to reassure local women and promote their time saving and stress busting services both inside and outside FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

Joining the FOXY Choice female friendly garage network was therefore a shrewd tactic to grow its car servicing, MOT and repair work and profits by marketing these more effectively to women and through them to their family and friends.

During the early part of the recession Vertu had specifically targeted older vehicles through lower pricing; a foxy strategy that recognised that many motorists driving older cars suspect that they cannot afford dealer prices.

As an aside – this is no longer always the case. At least if you go to a dealership you can be sure that the mechanics looking after your car have been trained to manufacturer standards whereas this isn’t necessarily the case with independent garages because anyone can set up a garage business without a license, the industry isn’t regulated and mechanics don’t have to be qualified. Which is why the industry makes so much of its complaints procedures I suppose.

Vertu has 83 dealerships and passed the £1 billion turnover mark recently.

Even Robert Forrester, Vertu’s Chief Executive Officer (seen in the photo), has been surprised by the extent of the Group’s continuing progress in such tough trading times.
“When four of us founded the Group from a single office in Newcastle in late 2006, it was difficult to imagine that we would quickly employ nearly 3,000 people across the UK.”

Undoubtedly Vertu is doing better than many in bucking the trend. In my experience, businesses that are lean and flexible are quicker to spot sales opportunities and respond to demand.

Assuming that Vertu employs more women than men in these customer service positions, this proves they are both a female friendly employer and entitled to their place in our female friendly garage network because of this. I say this because women (customers) tend to trust women (staff) more than men in a male dominated industry like the UK’s garage industry.

It therefore makes sound business sense for car dealerships’ MOT, car servicing and repair work to be trusted by women, knowing they are the gender spenders and that the aftersales side of the business is the one that makes the lion share of the profit, not the car sales side as it once was…

FOXY

women drivers

How FOXY helps women drivers…

I am reading a letter from a lady we helped recently, whose daughter was a member of FOXY Lady Drivers Club and introduced us.

It says ‘We have had a full refund of £949.99 and the missing zinc discs have now been fitted so the matter has been fully resolved. Without your invaluable help and expertise I am sure we would not have had a successful outcome. Lady drivers can be reassured when they have FOXY on their side.’

In this situation we worked with the garage concerned to identify a staff failing and to rectify this.

Had we not been contacted in the first place, as a result of a member checking this situation with us, I wonder if the garage would have discovered this personnel problem before something even more serious happened.

I am confident now that the garage has done the right thing by the customer and, a little later, by resolving matters with the member of staff. This also highlighted a training need which is now being addressed.

This is the sort of area FOXY gets involved in when women drivers are in trouble, to do with garages, fastfits, dealerships and bodyshops. Supporting female motorists when they need it and counselling garages when it’s clear that something has gone wrong. We are diplomatic, we check to see if the business is a member of a trading association to involve, we advise the lady but we don’t take sides at the outset and we certainly understand that mistakes can occur!

In my experience the sign of a good business is one that accepts a mistake has been made, recognises its responsibilities, learns from its mistakes and addresses the matter fairly from a customer’s point of view. The sign of a reasonable customer is one who understands that mistakes can be made on both sides, that their expectations might have been too high in the first place and is willing to give the business a fair chance to put things right…

However, having waited for a reasonable time period and actively encouraged a fair outcome between supplier and customer FOXY’s tone will change if it seems the business is being uncooperative. In fact, if we detect a garage/dealership or car insurer that doesn’t care, that isn’t willing to be reasonable or was misleading customers in some way, FOXY will have no hesitation but to blow the whistle about them within the Club. In a feminine way of course.

How else would Club members know which businesses to steer clear of in future*?

FOXY

* I hasten to add that this has yet to happen involving a member of the FOXY Choice female friendly garage network!

women drivers

Female friendly garage is Unipart’s Car Care Centre of the Year

Hundreds of motorists have voted to find the UK’s best garage in the Unipart Car Care Centre of the Year competition. Out of a network of some 700 independent and typically owner-operated garages, the accolade finally went to Holders of Congresbury near Weston super Mare and Bristol.

Holders Garage represents the SEAT franchise which is part of the Volkswagen Group; not only are their workshop staff qualified to demanding manufacturer standards but they are also an ATA (Automotive Technician Accredited) employer which reinforces this business’ commitment to maintaining quality workmanship standards and requiring technicians to undergo frequent accreditation through skills testing.

They scooped top prize across the Unipart Car Care Centre network because they received the most votes in an industry-organised customer satisfaction survey which was carried out by Motor Codes who operate an OFT Code of Practice service and repair scheme for franchise dealerships and independent garages. This looked at a range of important criteria including estimate and quotation processes, replacement parts used and staff assistance.

Rex Jeffrey, managing director of Holders said: “We pride ourselves in providing a friendly, trustworthy, family-run business that our customers can rely on to provide them with value for money and excellent customer service.”

As you might expect, Holders is also a member of the FOXY Choice female friendly garage network where we approve and promote their services to local women drivers and members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club. Any customer who might prefer to talk to a female can ask to speak to either Diane or Jenny Gibbens, twins and Female Business Ambassadors who represent the best interests of women drivers. It’s that kind of attention to customer service we look for and appreciate, confirming that Holders recognises the importance of treating women like women not men.

This is because the industry is seen to have a male bias being mainly run by men (80:20 male:female employees). But a female friendly garage is a great find for men too, because garages that make it on to the FOXY Choice network have to be some of the best there are, satisfying occasionally demanding women and inevitably exceeding male expectations in so doing…

Congratulations to the Holders team in the photograph as well as to Unipart and Motor Codes for putting the spotlight on quality in an industry where garages still don’t have to be licensed or mechanics qualified to repair our cars.

FOXY

Valid until 31 March 2012, any female leaving current feedback about female friendly garages at FOXY Choice will be offered a free subscription to FOXY Lady Drivers Club, worth £23, as our way of saying thank you for your time.