Improving the shopping experience is on everyone’s action items list. As there are many different ways you can choose to enhance that experience, CBT News brought in Jody DeVere, Chief Executive Officer at AskPatty.com, to help you navigate how to expand your connections and approach to females in automotive whether they be shoppers, employees, and vendors while on your efforts for better practices in your dealership.
From October of 2017, the hashtag #MeToo has built an international voice and brought the world’s attention to the movement against sexual harassment and assault. DeVere has set up a program that has been designed to train and certify automotive retail and service center on how to attract, sell, retail, and increase loyalty with female customers.
DeVere was recently featured in CBT Automotive Car Biz Today Magazine where she wrote an article titled, Time For “The Talk”. Similar to our conversation in our interview with DeVere, the piece talks about having the #timesUp conversation in the auto industry and how it is never too early nor late to remind your dealership of inclusion and company policies.
Her passion to bring more women into the automotive retail industry is contagious. She explains to CBT’s Jim Fitzpatrick that the same way you will bring in a female to work alongside you is the same way you will get them in your dealership to buy a car, it goes hand in hand. Think about it, I a female does not want to shop at your dealership, why would they want to work at your dealership?
One thing you can do from your part is to become familiar with the movement, the vocabulary that is associated with it and effective communication when pertaining to women rights and equality, if not already. For intense DeVere brings up the differences between the #metoo movement and #timesUp, clarifying how one is to stop sexual assault and the other (#TimesUp) is focused around workplace sexual harassment and equality.
