I hired a female mechanic and my business is suffering from lack of work. Although she is a very good mechani?

Question

My wife even says that I have disgraced myself by hiring her and the customers just don't seem to wan't a woman to work on their cars. Is this the last line of work women can't break through. I ask before if anyone on here would let a woman work on their car and the response was 100% positive. But in the real world it just isn't that way. What if it really was your car and a girl was really fixing it. How would you feel. Please be honest.

Answer 1

When I was still working automotive on of the better mechanics I ever had the pleasure to work with was a woman. She knew her trade extremely well, flagged more time than most of the other techs and was very professional in both her appearance and her attitude towards the customers. In fact most of our women customers asked for her specifically. Just to clear things up before someone says it she was married and her husband had no problem with it at all, he couldn't turn a wrench to save his life.
But some areas are just not ready for the equality of seeing a woman turining wrenches.

Answer 2

My assessment of the job would be how well the vehicle performed after the work and the total cost of the work. When I take my wife's car to the dealer for service I don't know who is working on it and don't care as long as it is done right and at or near the estimate. Could it be that there are other factors involved with your slow work? I just can't see that a female mechanic would cause a decline in business. Might be time to look hard at the whole picture. Over the years the one thing that always bothered me was failure to meet the estimate. In general people would rather be surprised by a lower job cost than surprised by a low estimate. Store front is another big issue with most people. You could poll previous costomers, you could be surprised by their comments. Just some thoughts.

Answer 3

Is she good, does she know what she is talking about, does she have a good attitude with the customer, explain what needs to be done and why with the customer, honest by not doing work not needed? If yes than why the problem, she can work on my car as I wouldn't have a problem with her. I only have problem when I take my care someplace and then find out later they lied to me. For sure I don't go back there and I live 4 blocks from them.
I worked with a girl who would do work on cars that even I wouldn't try, so don't tell me they can't do the job.

Answer 4

Female mechanics are serving in the Armed Forces today repairing the trucks that are driven on the battlefield. So, yeah no problem with who fixes the vehicle. Just as long as it gets fixed right? Based on your town, small town and the social structure may be the problem. Just give it time and continue to support your mechanic. When your prices still beat your competitor, the people will be back. Beef up on advertisement to draw in more customers.

Good Luck

Answer 5

I've been a mechanic for the past 15 years, and i have never had anyone complain about my work, in fact I am the only mechanic that my boss man has at his shop besides hisself, and business has never been better, and men don't hesitate to ask my opinion about fixing cars, and women are usually impressed by my work. I felt uncomfortable about becoming a mechanic at first, my dad said I would never make it, he said that I would not be able to handle it, well daddy , look at your little girl now, she's handling it just fine. maybe I could teach him what I know. Anyhow I say to any female who wants to do this, go for it, I'm very happy with my work.

Answer 6

Well, as a girl who grew up right under Daddy's arms, I know quite a bit about cars and even more than a lot of the guys I hang out with... So, I am sure that with some official education that I would be just as capable as the "next guy", so yeah, if she was qualified, then sure, I would let her work on my car any day. I believe that any one can do anything with the right education and tools. Hope this helps you, good luck with your business.

By chance do you live in a small town? Not to be stereotypical, but small towns typically tend to be more close minded to things out of the ordinary. Does not make it right, but its just something that has to dealt with unfortunately...

Answer 7

You can't change the sexist attitude of your clientele, but you can capitalize on your asset. A competent female mechanic would be an ideal representative to deal with female customers, who most likely have had to deal with male garage operators who either overcharged or possibly billed for excessive or even fraudulent repairs assuming a female would not be knowledgeable enough to know the difference. Direct your advertising toward female customers, it will pay off.

Answer 8

You wouldn't believe all the women that build them. If they can build them, then they should be able to fix them. I've known some women in the trades that will work either just as hard or better than some men.

Personally, I don't care. Although, I can imagine that some men may have a hard time because they couldn't fix it and had to let a girl fix their macho machine. A little tough on the EGO??????????

Answer 9

If I didnt work on my cars myself I would let a women work on them in a heartbeat. Alot of the mechanics at dealerships now days have no damn clue what they are talkin about,I said alot not all of them.Almost all the mechanics you see that dont know what they are talking about are guys.Women usually will say if they dont know how to do something,most guys if they dont know how to do something wont ask for help and end up screwing something up.You are right about alot of people probably not wanting women to work on their cars.Which is not right but its the way it is in alot of places.

Answer 10

I don't have a problem with it. Maybe the problem is the economy. You don't say how big your shop is. How many mechanics you employ or how large is the community you operate in. Find her specialty and run a sale on it. Say brakes or something. Make word of mouth get around about her excellence in her specialty. Use the parts suppliers for this also.