How much attention have you paid to your female customers? Hopefully you are paying them some attention and not treating them exactly as their male counterparts. But how do you know you’re focused on the right aspects?
Margie Seyfer, owner of Impact Presentations and a longtime member of the independent repair shop industry, helped shop owners learn what women want in her presentation “Winning Women Customers” on Wednesday afternoon.
“There’s a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about what women really want and if shop owners and service advisors haven’t been paying attention in the last two decades, things have changed dramatically,” Seyfer says. “It’s not just being good at talking to female customers. It’s knowing exactly what they want.”
Why bother learning what women want? It basically comes down to your bottom line. “Women are the gatekeepers and the deal breakers. They influence the outcome of the purchase 82 percent of the time,” she notes.
There are many examples to explain just what this customer group is looking for, and many of them are simple. For example, in your restroom, which yes must be clean and nicely decorated, is there a hook on the back of the door for women to hang their purses or bags?
“I have shop owners say, ‘Oh, I’ve had women tell me that I need a hook on the back of the door, but I just didn’t pay attention,’” Seyfer states. “What I’m finding is they just don’t pay attention. Our needs are not dramatic; they’re little. But listen to us, please.”
Better customer service for your female customers starts with just listening. Seyfer explained to attendees that men speak as many words a day as women do. The difference is that women speak to connect with others while men talk more when they’re selling.
“So when a female customer comes into a shop, what happens is this is my domain because I’m the guy, this is my thing and I know what you need. And if not, I will have a technician that will tell you and we’ll do it as quickly as possible,” Seyfer offers. “That’s not what we as females are looking for. We would like you to at least ask us a little something about ourselves. We need to be talking, you need to allow us to talk at least the first four or five minutes. I tell guys to practice on their wives.”
She adds that many owners say if they talk to their wives for four or five minutes, it turns into 10 or 15 minutes and that speaks volumes of how they talk to their female customers.
This will help your shop employees — whether they are male or female — build trust with the female customers. Another way to build trust is to educate women, especially through women’s car care clinics.
“This is a great way to educate women, because women consider themselves to be lifelong learners,” she adds. “They do a lot of research, a lot of Internet research. They are much more into social media than men. They are reading all of your reviews.”
Think about other aspects of your shop’s appearance and make sure you’re conveying the right message. A full parking lot doesn’t necessarily shay you’re busy, but possibly that you’re disorganized or don’t have time to spend with the woman. Another simple idea is incorporating flowers in your shop’s layout and at the counter.
Seyfer says a statistic she’s intrigued by is that it’s estimated that 15 percent of women buy themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day. Give them a carnation when they drop off their car. People will ask when they got it and they will tell their friends.
Other tips include making sure your walls are painted, shaking the woman’s hand and making eye contact.
“It’s the itty, bitty little things that they’re doing to attract us that we really appreciate,” she says.
About the Author
Tschanen Brandyberry
Tschanen Brandyberry is Special Projects Editor for the UBM Americas – Automotive Group, moving into the position following roles as managing editor of Motor Age and associate editor of Aftermarket Business World. She joined the Automotive Group in 2006 after working in editing and writing positions at The Morning Journal in Lorain, Ohio, and The Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, in addition to public relations agency experience. Tschanen is a graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.