Transcript
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Hey, it's Kathleen and Shannon here, and this is Get In Her Lane.
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We are two automotive professionals diving deep into why women are so underrepresented in this industry and trying to make a positive change.
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So right along with us as we discuss ideas and takeaways that can help everyone further this effort in the automotive world and beyond.
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Hey Shannon, and welcome back everyone to another episode of Get In Her Lane, hey Kathleen.
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Yes, we are back.
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You know, we have just really been on a roll with these amazing guests.
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I know I personally am still thinking about our conversation with Susan Elkington from last episode and just what a role model that she is.
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Absolutely she is.
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Susan shared a bit of her incredible journey with us on the last episode her ups and downs, her successes and even those moments of self-doubt in her early career.
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It was super, super refreshing to hear that Susan, just like the rest of us, had to work at building up her confidence.
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Yes, and my favorite part that I have actually been trying to incorporate into my day today is her Q-tip motto quit taking it personally, and I will just say that is easier said than done.
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It is actually a lot harder than you would think, and today's guest is going to shed a little bit of light on why, biologically, that happens.
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Ooh, we love some science on this podcast.
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Who are we talking to today, Kathleen?
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So?
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today we're going to be talking to Katie Mares, who is a brand experience expert specializing in helping organizations create customer experiences to target female consumers.
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So Katie actually bases a lot of her advice in the science of how women operate and what they respond to when doing business.
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Yes, katie is just such a subject matter expert and actually she's going to also be sharing some stories with us from her book Custom Her Experience, which is just such a cute title Custom Her Experience, which is a masterclass on everything customer experience related and why that's becoming more important to our industry as it's more and more shaped by these female customers.
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Yep, completely, and that is why I'm so excited to dive into this topic today.
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Shannon, did you know we got a little fact here.
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Did you know that women influence 85% of all car buying decisions in the US alone?
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That?
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is staggering, you know, I did not know that, but just look at us go.
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What this means is, if you're a dealership, ignoring or underestimating the female preference can result in definitely a substantial loss of potential customers.
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Women are making choices that shape the design, the features, the marketing of the cars we see on the road today, so designing a customer experience that is inclusive for them is so, so important.
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Completely.
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And now that we've set the stage a little bit for why this is so important, let's dive into our conversation, as Katie talks to us today about the things females need from the experience, and she's actually going to get specific with us on what dealerships can do to meet those needs.
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So, without further ado, let's dive in.
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So, katie, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to focus on being a brand expert, and maybe highlight the work you're most proud of?
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Yeah, where do I start here?
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Whenever I'm on stage in the automotive space or in the industry, I always say I've never sold a car, I've never worked in a dealership, but I am a customer and I'm also a customer experience expert.
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And so what got me into the space is a really crappy car buying experience, which got me sort of digging down a rabbit hole of why the heck do we have an experience like this for the second largest purchase we make in our entire lives?
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I mean, unless you're really well to do, it's a home and a car.
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Well, maybe a boat if you need more money, but otherwise it's a home car right.
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So I had a really awful experience a few years back and I went to seven different dealerships.
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It's actually the opening story in my book and it was just.
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I couldn't believe what I was being handed.
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So first it was I went in with my kids and I was ignored and asked where my husband was.
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Second dealership is are you old enough to buy a car?
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I mean, I don't wear makeup and I'll walk in and my hugs and my hair in a bun.
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So nobody took me seriously.
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Is your dad coming?
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Yeah, yeah, and the husband question.
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And so finally I got to a dealership that treated me like a human and I couldn't believe I couldn't give my money away.
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I ended up saving money because I went with a brand that I didn't think I was going to go with.
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So I went with Hyundai and I wanted a high-end brand.
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I was ready to spend upwards of $70,000, $80,000.
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I ended up spending $40,000.
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So win-win for me, I guess.
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But it was the experience.
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They treated me like a human.
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They treated my kids with respect.
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They gave me an experience where my kids were taken care of so I could actually purchase the vehicle without having to worry about their little fingers being slammed at the car door.
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But what that did for me is previous to the automotive space.
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Where I kind of found my little niche was I've worked with hospitals.
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I've worked so I built Canada's first online educational platform for the dental industry.
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I worked in hospitals with patient experience.
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I've worked in hospitality.
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I don't know if you guys have heard of Celebrity Cruises it's just a little cruise line, but I designed their guest experience and I actually traveled for three years on board of their ships and trained their team members.
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So I come from a customer experience background and I mean, even if you were to ask my kids, my whole entire life I love making moments special for people, whether it's my kids or my friends or anybody.
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I like those little moments to shine, to break the script of life.
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And so it was an obvious alarm, sounding lights blaring and blinking opportunity with the automotive space.
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Because it is really quite sad that even like I was out speaking at a conference last week and there's quite a few women in the automotive space that came into the conference and she or they there was a couple of them told me that they still have awful experiences and then there was somebody overhearing and they didn't work in the automotive space.
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They're like I know I just had that experience.
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And then they read the intro of my book and they pull me aside and be like it's still happening.
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So, unfortunately, there is so much work to be done and that's what inspired the book, that's what inspired my research.
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Females we influence $43 trillion of worldwide spending.
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Yeah, that's a huge number.
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Huge.
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And in the automotive space it's not just that, you know when, in a coupled relationship, 86% of those decisions are made by women and we actually out-purchase men in new car vehicles 65%.
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So it's just the alarms, as I said lights blinking, alarms blaring.
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It's really time to show up and create an experience, not just for her, for the man too, but an experience in general.
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And unfortunately, just as recent as last week, I'm still finding those experiences in a place like Texas, which is one of the largest car markets in the world, is still not delivering those experiences.
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So that's how I got into the industry, that's why I wrote the book, because women deserve an experience they can't live without.
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It's really cool to hear that you had that experience.
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That was, I think it's safe to say, less than stellar.
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And then you were like no, but I want to make my impact on this industry versus like I have.
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So many people I'm sure would have that experience and be like you know what, I'm not going to buy another car for a while, I'm not going back, but you're like no, I can avoid this for 20 years.
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Yeah, exactly.
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So that's so cool.
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So with that, I know it's obviously you touched a little bit on the buying power piece.
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But specifically in the retail world, like what does that look like when you say, when we talk about a woman's purchasing power in the automotive space, she's the decision maker?
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What can our industry do better for tailoring these interactions for her?
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Everything?
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You know, it's just, it's like to put it, it's quite simple, that's the thing.
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It's low hanging fruit, like the industry can't get any more and like we can't do any worse.
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And so even just acknowledging her when she's in a coupled relationship, that's it.
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Shake her hand, acknowledge her, like that simple step will all of a sudden, you know, break down those walls that we put up, those barriers, those I don't trust yous.
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If you just acknowledge her, that's like one simple step.
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I did a, you know, many years ago, I guess three or four years ago, I did a survey and I surveyed a whole bunch of random women online about their car shopping experience and 98% of them went in with a man because they didn't want to go in by themselves.
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And then, of that 98%, 90% of them said the man was greeted first.
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Yeah, so a very simple thing that we can do to make her feel important in that experience or in that, you know, customer journey, is just acknowledge her.
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Don't just shake the man's hand, don't just ask him the questions, make it equal, or if I were them, I'd lean it a little more on her side.
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But that's one simple little thing that they can, that everybody can do, and it doesn't take effort, it's you're feeding anyways, right?
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So just make her part of the equation and a lot of what I know you focus on.
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Is the science part of that and I know that's something like Kathleen and I could geek out on forever Just like what's happening in the body that explains all of this.
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Could you dive a little bit, like so, like that interaction where the woman is greeted first, like based off research, what is that doing to improve that interaction?
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Not just you know it's polite- First of all, knowing that I was going into an automotive space as a woman, so male-dominated space as a woman, I knew I couldn't be a woman just saying women are awesome, right, because we hear that all the time.
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I couldn't just be that another woman that was going to get on a stage or point my finger at these men saying you need to be better.
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So I needed something to back it up in order for men to take me seriously and women too, by the way, because a lot of women in the automotive space, unfortunately, they've had to change who they are.
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They've had to reflect more male traits.
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So when a woman comes into the space, all of a sudden they're back, they stand up a little straighter and they're a little more protective.
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Those walls go up.
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So the science was really important to me.
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So, physiologically, our brains are completely Different.
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Like men are from Mars, women are from Venus, if it is, that thing holds true and it is down to the molecular level.
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So our brains, the limbic brain, for example, which is the emotional and memory hub of our brain a woman's brain In limbic brain is almost double the size of a man's.
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So we are meant to feel more, we are meant to remember, more we.
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We are meant to our spidey senses are on, more we.
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We communicate with both sides of our brains, creative and logic.
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So we don't just want the facts.
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So a man Communicates with logic one side of his brain.
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He just wants the utilitarian, the no touchy-feely.
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The facts just give it to me.
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Yep, and let me get out right a to be.
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Shortest distance, least friction, that's what a man wants.
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A woman actually wants to hear what they have to say.
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She wants to create that relationship.
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She wants a genuine human to interact with and that would feed her both creativity and logic, communication style, as well as her limbic brain.
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Yeah, so those are the two major physiological differences between men and women that really point To the experience that a woman needs.
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She needs to feel good about who she's interacting with, not what she's purchasing.
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The purchase is an afterthought.
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The journey for her is everything.
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That experience for her is absolutely everything.
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So I, when it comes to creating that experience, I always say you know, whether it's dealerships or anybody I'm speaking to is you want to cast your Experience net wide enough so you capture her, because you will not alienate him, because he doesn't care.
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Yeah, that's a good plan.
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He doesn't care right, she cares, he doesn't care.
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Yeah, so if you cast your experience net to, you know I'm not saying, go, design two different experiences, because I get that question all the time I'm like, well, gosh, I got a you know one set for a woman.
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No, design your experience for her, because he doesn't care, he's gonna buy from you anyways.
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And if he doesn't like the experience he's getting, he's gonna tell you Okay, just cut to the chase and then you can pivot.
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Yeah, it's easier to design it.
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I mean Exactly.
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If you design it for him, you lose her, and that's what we're doing.
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Wrong in the industry is we're, unfortunately, it's like, still 90% men up the top.
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We're still 80 ish percent, 85, 87 in there.
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I mean, depending on what study.
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You look at men on the sales floor, and so we have a, an experience that's designed by men for men, delivered by men, and so if we're designing it for that man, you're gonna lose that 85 percent.
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You're gonna lose that 65 percent.
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Imagine if you design an experience where she felt comfortable and she genuinely felt like you cared about her and her needs.
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Car sales would, would spike, in my opinion.
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But it's all backed by science.
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I mean if she is the world's most influential consumer.
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She is the chief purchasing officer.
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Yep, he is not.
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You know, even if you go all the way back in the day, even when women couldn't vote and women didn't work, the woman of the home told the man what she needed for the home and he went and bought it.
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So he might have made the money, but she told him how to split it.
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Yeah, he might have done the transaction Right, it's all that you know, the man is the head and the woman is the neck.
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You know, you've heard that saying where she tells him where to go.
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You know, and she's.
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You know the.
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She's the original social media.
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You can imagine back in the olden days where you had, like the, the wood picket fences, and you have a wife.
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The man's gone to work, the kids are at school and the wives are sitting on either side of the fence and they're talking.
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They're talking about what they've purchased, they talk about what they like, what they don't like and they influence each other and that's wildfire, because we like to communicate.
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Communication is the basis of who we are and we like to tell everybody everything about us as much as we can, as as often as we can.
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So if you really do want to impact, you know we look at referrals and you look at answering the customer experience surveys.
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Women are the ones answering them, men or not?
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Yeah, because men are like oh, I already did the transaction, I'm done now, but women are like let's talk about this experience that I just had.
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Exactly, and unfortunately, the experiences are far less positive in the industry than they are negative.
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The negative and that's what they're experiencing and they'll talk about it.
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Yeah, one thing, too, I think you just had me think about was, as we move into such a digital age, a lot of that in-person experience is Naturally being removed, so it's a reminder to dealerships to keep the focus on the experience.
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How can you still create an experience when everything is online?
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Because clearly it's it is really important to the female buyer.
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Well, here's the thing dealerships are already are already being handed somebody ready to purchase because of that online experience.
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So she's done all her research is compared every you know.
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She already knows the make, the model, the price, the color, the financing or leasing off.
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She knows exactly what she wants.
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So she's handing herself on a silver platter.
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Here is a car deal for you.
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All you have to do is be genuine and create an experience for her.
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She's going to say yes because she, she chose you out of all the different dealerships.
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She's already looked at on.
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Everyone sells a Honda, everyone sells a Toyota.
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What makes you know one dealership different from another?
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Exactly, and I always say you know to any sales or general manager or anybody that works in a dealership you can throw a pebble and hit another dealership that has the same vehicle as you do, just with a different brand on it.
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The only differentiator are the people and experience.
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There's nothing else that differentiates one brand or one dealership from another in an auto mall or anywhere.
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It is the people, it is the experience, and if you don't get that right, they're going somewhere else.
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I think so much of what you're saying, kathleen and I are just nodding, being like yes, thank you.
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This is exactly it, and I think you know if you simplify it right.
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We're just asking, like, be nice to people, but so like, let's say, I'm a manager right and I am either hiring for my team or I'm trying to train the team that I have.
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What should I be focusing on?
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Because a lot of these managers right Are probably not.
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They're used to training on the steps to the sale or this is how to close, but I don't know how many dealerships are doing like emotional intelligence training.
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You know, that's not absolutely.
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Yeah, so like, what would you recommend is the place to start when it comes to that, and like what, even what words Would you put to these traits that you're trying to describe?
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Going into the process, being genuine.
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But you know, and whenever I'm working either with a dealership or dealership group or I'm on stage, you know I always ask permission to be like radically honest and pretty frank, because I'm pretty frank speaker.
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I tell them sort of this is the way it is.
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I don't like to tell them, here's just, this is the way it is, yep, um.
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And so I always say you know who here feels like they can be genuine and genuinely care about the customer in front of them, hands go up.
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Well, why should I be genuine?
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I don't know them, I don't care about them, I don't know about their family.
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So I'll stop them and I'll say look the roof over your head, the lights that are on in your room, the food on your table, little Johnny's, soccer Practices and games Whether here it'd be hockey, maybe it's, you know, a football, whatever it is, your kids close on your back.
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The only reason why you have that is customers.
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So if you don't care about your customers, if you can't show genuine concern for your customers, then go get another job, because without them you have none of that.
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And that's where we need to start.
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Customers aren't a pain in the butt.
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They are the reason we survive, and so if we can't show genuine interest in our customers, then we are failing at so many levels.
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The other thing I always tell management experiential training is really important.
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So if you there's a study that was done, the age of 16 is when all of our habits are sort of set in stone.
00:19:05.788 --> 00:19:14.232
After that, in order for our habits to break or us to create new ones, you have to experience an emotional shift.
00:19:14.232 --> 00:19:19.772
So regular training isn't enough for these adults that are in the dealerships, that are set in their ways.
00:19:19.772 --> 00:19:22.811
It's just not, and so a lot of the times I'll train.
00:19:22.811 --> 00:19:26.808
When I train dealerships, I actually take them out of the dealership and I give them assignments.
00:19:26.808 --> 00:19:34.694
I want them to have experiential training because when they feel different and they feel a different experience, light bulbs go off.
00:19:35.266 --> 00:19:37.413
When you're asking them to go look at another dealership.
00:19:37.413 --> 00:19:38.234
Forget about it.
00:19:38.234 --> 00:19:43.473
You're just telling them to go do another wrong thing, like you can't look within your industry.
00:19:43.473 --> 00:19:50.914
If you want to create a five star experience, if you want to create an experience of customer man or woman can't live without you need to go outside.
00:19:50.914 --> 00:19:56.512
The competition in the industry isn't another dealership, it's the experience competition outside.
00:19:56.512 --> 00:20:00.855
So Amazon, starbucks, nordstrom, even Chick-fil-A.
00:20:01.005 --> 00:20:02.431
I was about to say Chick-fil-A.
00:20:02.431 --> 00:20:05.413
I will drive so much farther to go to Chick-fil-A, yeah.
00:20:06.125 --> 00:20:13.832
My pleasure, exactly when they spend their money, that they're leftover money, that they're going to treat themselves to Starbucks coffee or a vacation.
00:20:13.832 --> 00:20:24.192
Or maybe I took one time I was speaking at a conference and I had a couple clients with me to come see me speak, and so I took them this was on developing a five star experience.
00:20:24.192 --> 00:20:31.872
I took them to the Ritz Carlton and we had a meal at the Ritz Carlton and these were the leaders and I said, okay, I want you to point out all the steps.
00:20:31.872 --> 00:20:33.369
I want you to see the difference.
00:20:33.369 --> 00:20:37.229
I've taught you all of these things, but now I want you to see the match To feel it on your own, yeah.
00:20:37.605 --> 00:20:42.294
And then I'll have these people come back and say, okay, well, talk to me about what you felt.
00:20:42.294 --> 00:20:44.393
What did you feel was different?
00:20:44.393 --> 00:20:52.252
Because that feeling is the delta If you emotionally experience something different, then the light bulbs go off.
00:20:52.252 --> 00:21:04.310
So if you want them to know how to give a genuine five star experience that women and men can't live without, you've got to put them in an opportunity to be able to experience it.
00:21:04.310 --> 00:21:10.834
Ritz Carlton has like the best training program and what they do is even down to like the cleaners.
00:21:10.834 --> 00:21:16.009
They let them go for a week with their family at a Ritz Carlton resort.
00:21:16.009 --> 00:21:22.713
How can they provide five star experience if they've never received five star experience?
00:21:22.713 --> 00:21:24.891
They don't know what that difference is.
00:21:24.891 --> 00:21:26.430
How are they going to?
00:21:26.430 --> 00:21:27.513
They just they have no clue.
00:21:27.513 --> 00:21:29.391
So they give them that experience.
00:21:30.424 --> 00:21:37.470
So I think with dealerships and the industry, we can just do so much more to look outside of us, because if you're looking at the next dealership, you're going to fail every time.
00:21:37.470 --> 00:21:56.112
You need to look everywhere else that your customers are gathering the way an experience should be and you need to implement that and, if nothing else, just be genuine, because without customers you don't have a business, you don't have food on your table.
00:21:56.112 --> 00:21:57.611
You don't have a roof over your head.
00:21:57.611 --> 00:22:08.554
So if you can't take the time to really find a genuine connection with that customer standing in front of you, especially the female consumer, then you shouldn't be even bothering in my opinion.
00:22:09.065 --> 00:22:15.491
We know that females want to do business with organizations that they see themselves in.
00:22:15.491 --> 00:22:19.555
Obviously, the automotive space is predominantly male dominated.
00:22:19.555 --> 00:22:26.089
If you're a dealership, in your eyes, what can they do to make their workplace culture more female friendly?
00:22:26.089 --> 00:22:33.512
How do they create a space that can attract more females to work there and in turn, you know, provide a better experience, possibly to the female buyer?
