Dealer's Edge Features Ask Patty
Published Feb 12th 2007, 4:46pm by Jody DeVere in Pressroom Articles
Web services, automakers help women get more recognition in dealerships
Sites like Ask Patty seek to make women more comfortable when buying or servicing a car.
Representing half of all new car buyers and wielding increasing
economic clout, women are commanding more respect from automakers, car
dealers and their service departments – but experts say there’s plenty
room for improvement. And seminar services, Web sites and magazines are
sprouting up to help women demand it, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“We do not feel respected,” by the male-dominated industry, said Jody DeVere, president of AskPatty.com, a Web site about cars, geared toward women.
The site says it offers “a safe place for women to get advice on car
purchases, maintenance and other automotive related topics,” through
interactive e-mail, blogs and “Womanars,” Web-based seminars delivered
by female automotive experts.
Ms. DeVere said she is confronted all the time with the
question “why do women need a special Web site, special marketing, etc.
– cars are cars, right?”
Sales tip: Try non-confrontational selling
Women spend more time on the Internet researching cars – preferring
to avoid the high-pressure, confrontational experience of a dealership
until they’re armed with information, said Courtney Caldwell, publisher
of Road & Travel Magazine.
“Women and men want the same things from a car, but they prioritize
them differently,” said Ms. Cald-well, whose online magazine content is
oriented toward female readers.
For women, a vehicle’s safety is the top priority. For men,
performance and styling are high-priority with safety an afterthought.
One of the top drivers of traffic to the female-oriented sites
is discomfort with dealers – inappropriate sexual comments, a “bring
your husband back when you’re ready to buy” attitude, and the suspicion
of being ripped off, get mentioned often.
Everyone, including dealers, say that’s bad business.
Women drive CSI scores
According to some estimates, women fill out 85 percent of the
“customer satisfaction index” forms that consumers return after a car
purchase or repair.
“They are more likely to complete those forms, because they tend to be less confrontational,” Ms. DeVere said.
“In general it’s a male-based industry,” said Karen Riveros, a
regional service manager for Volkswagen of America Inc., whose job it
is to make sure local dealers are keeping customers happy.
Part of that, she and others said, will come from having more
women auto executives, engineers, designers, mechanics, service
managers and dealership owners.
Progress has been slow but steady – Ms. Riveros for instance,
is one of a handful of females in her position nationwide, out of about
50.
Ms. Caldwell recalled that when she approached advertisers in
1989 with the idea of a car and travel magazine for women, “There was a
lot of laughing at me.”
Today the magazine, which several years ago went to an
online-only format, is flush with ads and expects to log 10 million
page views this year.
Volvo took the unusual but well-received step of handing over
the drafting of its “Your Concept Car” to an all-female design team,
unveiling it in 2004. The non-production car included
fingernail-friendly capless fuel and washer fluid doors, swappable
interior fabrics, and gullwing doors for easier entry and exit.
Kevin Mazzucola, executive director of the Automobile Dealers
Association of Greater Philadelphia said that today’s dealers know that
“the days of ‘look at that vanity mirror’ are long gone,” when it comes
to marketing cars to women.
While the dealer’s group hasn’t launched any specific outreach
efforts toward women, he said the group has designed its advertising
buying to lure female attendees to the association-produced
Philadelphia Auto Show.
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