The “population” inside body shops has been nudging its way to looking a lot more like the population as a whole than it did decades ago. Shops generally report that the number of female customers equals or even slightly outpaces men, for example, and though male workers still greatly outnumber women, that continues to change. With the challenge of finding production workers, and the desire to make sure the front office is a comfortable place for female customers, shops are increasingly hiring women to fill the need.
We asked shop owners — male and female — around the country about what they are doing to make their business an appealing place for women to work or to have their vehicle repaired.
Focus your marketing on families
Wherever there are kids, there are generally “moms” who make decisions about the family’s vehicles. That’s why April White of White’s Collision Service, a 4-shop MSO based in Dallas, Ore., said she puts a lot of her company’s marketing efforts toward “kids’ stuff.”
“We primarily support local children’s functions,” White said. “Lots of youth sports but other extracurricular activities: church camps, Future Farmers of America and 4H as well.”
Joe Wheeler of Wheeler’s Collision & Paint in Kelso, Wash., said one of the most cost-effective marketing methods he’s found is advertising on shopping carts in the local grocery stores.
“Those are excellent for advertising,” he said. “It’s like a billboard every time they shop.”
Patty Rauch of Professional Auto Body in Bend, Ore., said her shop supports school athletic programs, and allows churches and youth groups to hold car washes at the shop on weekends.
Cultivate online reviews
Several studies have found that in terms of service providers like plumbers, roofers and automotive repair, women tend to seek out and rely on online reviews.
Rauch said an employee recently told her that she’d met a woman at her daughter’s school who told her she’d just posted on Facebook asking where to take her wrecked vehicle, and almost everyone had recommended Professional Auto Body. “That made me feel good,” Rauch said. “We do have an excellent reputation.”
Organic positive reviews, such as when someone uses social media to ask for referrals, are powerful. But so too can be the types of reviews posted to services like Yelp, for example. Cultivating such reviews can be a low-cost and effective tool to reach more female customers. As customers pick up their vehicle at your shop, give them a hand-out with basic instructions on how to go use one or two of the online review sites to share their opinion of the quality of the work and level of customer service they received.
Certify your shops as “female-friendly”
The website AskPatty.com focuses on helping automotive businesses learn how to better attract and retain female customers — and can even certify trained businesses as “female friendly,” helping promote such businesses to women.
“The program is going to change the culture of your [shop] by providing ongoing training, help with your marketing, and help you reach women online through social media and other online initiatives,” company founder Jody DeVere said.
The program begins with a 3.5-hour online course with testing for employees who interact with customers. A library of webinars then offers ongoing training.
AskPatty.com also offers training and other support for women working in the industry to help them succeed. Check it out at www.certifedfemalefriendly.com.
Don’t overlook your restrooms
A clean restroom isn’t likely to make a difference in whether a woman chooses your shop to fix her car, but it may influence her decision whether to recommend your shop to her friends. If you’re unsure what elements (other than cleanliness) women like to have in a restroom, ask some female friends or family members to check your restroom and offer suggestions.
Get active on social media
Women tend to outpace men on many of the social media options out there, both in terms of sheer numbers and their level of activity. So as you use social media to market your shop, think about the types of content most likely to be of interest to women. That is probably not pre- and post-repair photos of vehicles.
A few ideas: Use the automaker information websites, like www.crashrepairinfo.com, to post informational information about their vehicle in relation to collision repair. Share articles about great road trips for families or improving the time in the car that parents spend with their kids. Do you know when your customers’ birthdays are? Get your crew together for a quick video singing “Happy Birthday” to post to that customer’s Facebook page.
Consider a change in pay-plan and required work hours
In terms of attracting more female employees, shop owners say there are a number of things that can help. The shift away from flat-rate pay for individuals to team-based production and pay can also help open the doors to more women working in production. It gives them a chance to contribute and earn a fair paycheck long before they might be able to do so in a competitive one-tech-per-car shop. Segmenting out the work and working as teams allows all employees — male and female — to focus on the aspects of the job at which they can most excel.
Younger men and women place more value than ever on work-life balance, so a team structure also makes it easier to allow employees more flexibility with work schedules. This can help them, for instance, get their kids to appointments and activities, or to attend day-time sporting or other activities in which their kids are involved.
Speak at youth events
Having a woman who works at your shop speak at school career days or youth activities like Girl Scouts can be a great way to introduce the idea of working in the industry to young women. But even male shop owners can have an impact talking to students or letting them tour your shop. Many shops offer basic car care workshops for women, and much of the same information can be applicable to older students. Talk with students about what to look for when buying a used car; show them how to spot good repair work versus bad.
When Jeanne Silver of CARSTAR Mundelein in Illinois finds a school isn’t interested in a speaker from the collision repair industry, she asks to speak as a woman business owner, particularly one in a non-traditional business. It’s a topic welcomed at school career days, yet still a way to discuss technical careers in the industry, too.
Give them a chance to work their way into the industry
Joey McCollum said one of the things that sets McCollum Auto Body apart from other collision repair businesses is a willingness to hire younger employees — men and women — who may not have much if any experience in the industry.
“I think we do a really good job of presenting opportunities to young people and helping them,” said McCollum, who along with his brother and father operate four shops based in Portland, Ore. “There’s a woman here who is 25 and has been here about three years, but came here with no industry experience. She’s been promoted four times. She’s now the lead repair planner for one of our direct repair programs here. And she’ll probably manage one of our stores one day.”
McCollum said with the lack of people coming into the industry, too few shops seem to take the time to offer an opportunity to young men and women.
“Spending the time and effort on these younger people pays off,” he said. “I see a lot of loyalty from those people here, where a lot of people don’t see a lot of loyalty among that generation.”
Team up with a local trade school or women-in-trades group
Many cities have organizations designed to attract and mentor women in construction and other traditionally male-dominated trades. They may be looking for help in adding collision repair as among the trades to which they introduce women.
A community college or trade school also can be a good partner in helping attract women to jobs in the industry. The Okanagan College Women in Trades program in British Columbia, Canada, for example, provides encouragement to women looking to train in a number trades, including collision repair. Over its 7-year history, the program has trained 850 women in different skilled trades.
Nancy Darling, a coordinator of the program at the school, said research showed the school that often the barriers to getting women into trades-related training are minimum; she said often just a few hundred dollars for basic tools can make the difference in allowing a woman to start the program. And she said the women in the program are often among the most motivated students, because of their determination to prove themselves and earn a better living than they often will in other fields.
Even without this type of formal program, just mentoring a student can help ensure they enter the industry. Gigi Walker has often had female painters and apprentice techs on the staff of her business, Walker’s Autobody, in Concord, Calif. She said one way shops can encourage more young women to continue their training and enter the industry is to offer them an opportunity to work at your shop while in school.
Build a culture
One woman who eventually left the industry said her two years in community college collision repair training was a positive experience; she’d even earned scholarships — including one from an industry organization — that encouraged her about the opportunity for her and other women in the industry.
But she found a very different reception when she went to seek work after completing the college program. It took her more than six months to find a shop willing to give her a try as a painter’s helper; more than one shop owner she talked to, she said, told her shops don't want to hire a female technician.
Neither of her brief experiences at two different shops over the next 18 months were positive, she said. She said her treatment by employees and management did not rise to the level of sexual harassment, but was certainly “hostile” and “unwelcoming, at best.”
She asked that her name not be used because although she has no involvement with the industry herself, her current employer is an industry vendor.
“I had really worked hard and looked forward to eventually working as a painter in a shop,” she said. “I hope the shop environment is different now than it was then, or else shops are really missing out on a source of talent.”
Her advice is for shops to build an “inclusive culture” whether or not any women work there. Have and enforce good policies about sexual harassment and discrimination. Don’t tolerate inappropriate posters or calendars. Bring in outside training, if needed, to help employees understand what types of pranks, jokes and conduct aren’t professional or acceptable and will result in discipline.
“Neither shop owner I worked with said they had any complaints about my work,” she said. “But they weren’t willing to address the workplace environment. Like most women, the last thing I wanted was for anyone to try to make any of the work easier for me because I was a woman. Either you have the skills and physical ability to do the work or you don’t. But I do want my employer to expect everyone to treat all the people they work with respectfully. That’s a culture that has to start at the top.”
That culture can be important whether or not your shop ever has female employees. One industry consultant said a client shop actually lost a direct repair agreement because a male shop manager made inappropriate comments to a female insurance company representative.
“That hasn’t happened again, once the shop instituted a zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy and made sure all employees understood it,” the consultant said.
A lot of those who offered input for this article noted that most of their suggestions for making your business attractive to women are also just good business practices that can help improve your company — whether or not you’ve set your sights on appealing to more female employees or customers.
