The impact that women have on the car buying experience extends past the sales department to include fixed ops and overall service profits.
Are women getting the attention they deserve when it comes to the car buying experience? If the answer is no, you may want to invest more in this audience.
In an interview with Canadian auto dealer, Women-Drivers.com and JoinWomenDrivers.com CEO and Founder Anne Fleming said women are an underreported market group that buys 45 per cent of all vehicles autonomously (for themselves) at franchised dealerships.
The sales advisor has the most impact on why they purchase at a dealership, along with the store’s reputation and the price of the vehicle.
“Women are shopping for the experience. She doesn’t want to be CSI-satisfied. She is shopping for trust, trust, trust. It continues to be the paramount reason that she shops at a dealership,” said Fleming, in reference to the survey used to calculate the Customer Satisfaction Index. “So reputation isn’t just reputation. It’s all about the experience.”
For example, the report shows that women can feel apprehensive, confident, relaxed, nervous, overwhelmed, intimidated, confused and even frustrated during the car buying experience.
They will leave the dealership without buying a vehicle if they do not like the way they are approached and treated, if the sales advisor is off-putting, or if their questions are not answered to a satisfactory level, among other reasons.
But they will share their experience with virtually everyone if they have a good experience, and this is where Women- Drivers.com comes in. The car dealer rating and review platform connects women to “Certified Trusted Dealers” who are able to consistently demonstrate through these reviews that they can provide a trustworthy, respectful, and unbiased experience.
The company also prepares long-form surveys for dealerships to give to female consumers, and helps dealerships receive insights with the information they harvest from the data, while also generating reports.
For example, its 2021 Women’s Fixed Ops, Purchasing and Digital Trends by Top Auto Brands report indicates that women in the United States use reviews 50 per cent more than men, and 92 per cent of customers will rely on the credibility of peer reviews to evaluate if a business is trustworthy.
A beta test with women conducted by Fleming’s team also reveals just how much women love to share—with family, friends, and again through reviews. For many women, convenience and trust are key.
A beta test with women conducted by Fleming’s team also reveals just how much women love to share—with family, friends, and again through reviews. For many women, convenience and trust are key. A confident consumer translates into a confident buyer who will gladly write a review about their experience and share it on social media and with friends and family.
“Ninety-four per cent of women who write a review go on to fill out a 25-30 question long survey about their experience at a dealership, with no incentive at all,” said Fleming. “The point is to help dealerships retain women, especially in fixed ops. And in fixed ops, there’s many different tentacles.”
Why is fixed ops an issue? According to the study, women account for an estimated 60-65 per cent of all service drive customers, while also noting that 15 per cent of women reported being dissatisfied with the greeting from the service advisor. This means there is a potential loss in sales of $650,000 when it comes to women customers in this area.
Another 24 per cent reported the amount they paid for service was not consistent with what was quoted, which equals $1,030,000 in potential lost revenue from women customers. And 18 per cent of women said they were dissatisfied with their vehicle’s cleanliness after picking it up—equivalent to $750,000 in potential lost sales.
“We work with about 500 dealers, and one in four women will opt out of fixed ops—and that’s with dealerships who are actually paying attention to this consumer,” said Fleming. “So our goal is to provide actionable insights where there’s financial opportunities.”
Why will nearly a quarter of women defect annually from their dealership’s fixed ops department? One key reason has to do with communication inconsistencies.
Consider the percentage of women reporting by (leading) brand and where they did not receive a follow-up communication (such as a CSI, review, “thank you” email, or educational blog) after their service visit: 30.3 per cent for Nissan, 27.7 per cent for Jeep, 23.1 per cent for Subaru, 21.6 per cent for Toyota, 21.0 per cent for Chevrolet, 17.7 per cent for Honda, and 9.4 per cent for Ford.
It is worth noting here that approximately 70 per cent of the women surveyed prefer email and phone calls. Specifically, 41.2 per cent prefer email, 32.3 per cent prefer phone calls, and 26.5 per cent prefer text when their vehicle is being serviced. When purchasing a vehicle, 51.4 per cent prefer email, 26.6 per cent prefer phone calls, and 22 per cent prefer text.
As for the percentage of women reporting by brand that they will not use the dealership in question’s service centre in the future, the numbers are 17 per cent for Chevrolet, followed by 16.6 per cent for Toyota, 15.1 per cent for Nissan, 11.2 per cent for Honda, 8.8 per cent for Subaru, 8.6 per cent for Jeep, and 7.9 per cent for Ford.
The percentage of buyers that want an overnight vehicle by brand is: 81.7 per cent for Subaru, 79.2 per cent for Toyota, 75.7 per cent for Ford, 75 per cent for Chevrolet, 73.6 per cent for Jeep, 70 per cent for Honda, and 66.7 per cent for Nissan.
Women do comply with visiting the dealership service centre several times during the warranty term and to remain current, but there are a number of working mothers out there and seven out of 10 want their service department to provide an overnight vehicle. They do not want to wait in the service centre or be chaperoned in a van, especially during the pandemic.
Home delivery sales and service are among the solutions that can help maintain and increase client warranty.
“Two-thirds of your fixed ops customers are women and 70 per cent of them want an overnight vehicle when theirs is getting repaired,” said Fleming. “If your dealership provides overnight vehicles, make this a part of your sales pitch. It’s a huge competitive advantage. Don’t keep this information for buyers to know after the sale.”
Overall, Fleming said dealers are focused on the Amazonian transformation that has taken place, and they have been doing an “extraordinary job” at this exponential shift over the past year and more.
“Two-thirds of your fixed ops customers are women and 70 per cent of them want an overnight vehicle when theirs is getting repaired.”
— Anne Fleming, Founder and CEO of Women-Drivers.com and JoinWomenDrivers.com
But there remains a lack of marketing towards women, which Fleming said has been a slow process due to changing market segments: dealerships have been considered, websites have been considered, and digital platforms have changed.
Millennials were discussed time and time again, nearly a decade ago, and the Gen X discussion is still around but with less intensity. Now, the industry is talking about electric vehicles.
“I think what’s happening now with the shift in digital retailing is that it’s all about conveniences,” said Fleming. “We can talk about what consumer first means, but to me, consumer first means we need to start paying attention to who the buyer or the influencer or the veto power is. And fixed ops is what everybody is talking about, because it’s not just retention. It’s resale.”
Overall, providing women with a more than CSI-satisfactory rate will be important, especially where dealership profits are concerned.
