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Marketing to Women – Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?
In their book, Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?, co-authors Brian & Jeffrey Eisenberg help marketers understand how to deal with the reality that the customer is in control. They suggest becoming your own customer and going through your own shop customer process. Pretend that you’re a prospect just at the beginning of a purchase, searching for information. What search terms would you use? What stores would you visit? What questions would you ask the salesperson? Then, how does your business line up to this?
Shops that want to succeed must take every interaction into account and understand that for today’s consumers, it’s action not words that motivate. (Especially when it comes to women, who make73% of car repair decisions.)
“The experience becomes the brand,” say the authors, “…it’s about experience… theirs”, and I couldn’t agree more.
According to the authors, like cats, today’s consumers are independent, unpredictable and finicky but many marketers are still approaching them as if, like Pavlov’s dog, all they have to do is create a compelling message. However delivering an outstanding experience for women is the best marketing of all.
Three Quick Tips:
1. Be Patient:
Women take a bit longer to decide before making a purchase decision. They’re a lot more cautious and careful than men are and usually take longer to make their decision. They’re going to perhaps get a second opinion or ask for advice from a trusted source. Refrain from high pressure closing tactics, be patient and don’t rush her process.
2. Listen:
Women buyers like to tell “their whole story” to service people. Having outstanding listening skills help build a relationship, understand her lifestyle and create a friendly, enjoyable experience.
3. Trust:
Women have become nearly every family’s chief purchasing officer. She looks for a shop who wants to be a part of her repair and maintenance process, who shares her values regarding honesty, respect and trust.
According to a study called “Elevated Expectations: The New Female Value Equation,” 97 percent of women expect good customer service everywhere they shop. Eighty-three percent buy more when in a store with good customer service. The study also found that 89 percent of women choose one store over another, with similar merchandise and prices, if it offers better customer service.
When women have bad customer service experiences, 80 percent say they will not go back to that store, even if it was just one bad encounter. And 94 percent say they will tell other people about the bad experience. Women expect “Nordstrom-quality” service everywhere they shop, but they rarely find it.
There is great opportunity for shops to raise the bar by focusing on how to improve the experience of women customers and increase their shop positive “brand image,” grow market-share and increase positive word-of-mouth, both on and offline.
About the author
Jody DeVere is an internationally recognized speaker, trainer, often quoted industry pundit and spokesperson for the automotive industry on the women’s market. She has been featured by the New York Times, NPR, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox Business, Forbes Women, Oprah Magazine and Parenting Magazine to name a few. As CEO of AskPatty.com, she provides automotive education to women consumers and an interactive online Certified Female Friendly® certification training program for automotive retailers on how to attract, sell, retain and market to women. Jody DeVere is a champion for women in the automotive industry, and her company AskPatty.com, Inc. serves as the first point of contact for many women who are seeking the very best experience to buy a car and service by visiting Certified Female Friendly® automotive retail locations across the United States and Canada.
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3 Replies
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As a shop owner with an ever-growing population of female customers, I really enjoyed and confirmed Jody DeVere’s observations on women customers. A few years ago an article of mine, “The Female Customer” was published within the industry and excerpts from it may be of interest to Jody’s readers as well:
“Women are a little different. I can say this with total confidence. Perhaps because I am one (a woman, that is). Also, when I’m not on the job at my own repair shop, I am someone else’s woman customer. This gives me a chance to see the issue from both sides of the service counter.“Can we talk? Women customers are coming from a totally different place intellectually and emotionally. Our circuitry is unique and different from a guy’s. Trust me, this is not necessarily bad. And while I don’t mean to reinforce stereotypes or speak unkindly of my own gender, nevertheless, girls, I think we must admit that we can sometimes be a pain in the pinfeathers.“When we go to a repair shop, we can ask more tough questions than Barbara Walters. The line of reasoning here is I suppose that the best defense is a good offense. And if in our past dealings elsewhere, we believe we were unfairly treated, we can be frustratingly suspicious, hard to reason with, and defensive. ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ applies here, in spades.“When we bring along a guy for back-up (who by the way may know only slightly more automotive technology than your Aunt Gladys) we are waving the yellow flag: proceed with caution. However, once your shop has passed through these checkpoints and your credibility has been established, women can become your most valuable, supportive and loyal customers, and a substantial percentage of your customer base. …“A frequent comment by women customers is that technical people can be condescending or patronizing. It is always a pleasant surprise to a woman when she is treated as an intelligent life form even though she doesn’t know about cars. …“Recognizing the gender differences and developing communication skills that help women understand and feel comfortable about their repair decisions will help you win them as loyal, repeat customers.”Lynne CardwellCar Care CenterSacramento, CA -
Lynne,
Great point of view and comments!
Best Regards,
Jody DeVere
CEO
AskPatty.com, Inc.
http://www.askpatty.com
http://www.jodydevere.comPH: 888-737-8599 x 6
Cell : 805-208-1008
Fax: 805- 435-2609
eMail: jdevere@askpatty.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/askpattyAskPatty.com Certified Female Friendly®
http://www.certifiedfemalefriendly.com -
Ask Patty may be a great resource for General Repair, but as a transmission specialty shop, we didn’t receive any phone calls off our tracking number for AskPatty.com. Perhaps to help a shop with branding or some other perceived value, but we couldn’t correlate any sales inquiries by phone, let alone any sales.
We gave it a fair run, but in the end, the tracking phone number told the tale. We discontinued our relationship with AskPatty after we discovered we could not tie the monthly investment to any sales. Whatever you do with ANY website you are paying to put your name on, make sure you use a tracking number to tie offline activity with your online marketing efforts.Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disputing whether or not AskPatty is a good investment for other shops. All I’m saying is that we couldn’t justify the cost because of the lack of phone calls.
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