Can Garages Be Female-Friendly?

The garage environment can be a terrifying domain for women to enter, even in our modern world where misogynistic and sexist behaviour is seriously frowned upon. Mechanics as a whole continue to struggle under a wide-spread perception that they are not friendly towards women.

From the moment of the first contact, many women’s guards are up, ready to be patronised and pressured from the off. Some resort to having a male friend or family member involved at some stage, for perceived protection from evil-doers. Others even make up male companions to toss into conversations, alluding that someone is keeping an eye on what happens from afar! Confused.com state that over a third of women motorists worry that they will be ripped off by a mechanic. That is a worryingly high number! 

The main problem that women face is high-pressure tactics, whereby jargon is employed to make the customer feel stupid. This makes the customer believe that their questions will sound ridiculous due to lack of knowledge and any attempt at negotiating will be laughed at for being way off base.

A bill can be thrust on a customer and many reasons are given why the work has to be done, and now. Alleged safety issues raised in a slightly alarmed voice by a mechanic can be a huge tug on a woman’s heartstrings, especially when she has children to drive around. But trust us, not all garages and mechanics are rude to women or try to take advantage of them!

Here at Bertie's, we know that a large number of women still feel uncomfortable when taking their car for repair, due to the technical language many garages use. This is something we've taken onboard and want to make female customers feel welcome and comfortable. We are proud to have a female-friendly reception and our cosy waiting area is always staffed by a woman and is completely separate from the workshop. It has magazines and books to help customers feel relaxed away from the dirt and loud noises.