I recently heard about a chain of restaurants called Dick’s Last Resort. It built a reputation on what the restaurant coins as being “socially unacceptable.” Patrons are fitted with white, hand-made paper hats covered with offensive insults. The servers are intentionally rude, and the customers love it! They’ve taken a negative perception of restaurants—bad service—and made it their unique selling proposition, which works! As a result, scores of people take pride in being humiliated by a Dick’s server.
The auto care industry fights a negative outside perception when it comes to women. Our feature “Torchbearers” makes the case that automotive careers are suited for women. You’ll meet Michelle Tansey, owner of Euro Clinic, and Hannah Kennedy, owner of Kennedy Auto Solutions. Each shares their perspective on being women in the industry, the contributions of women in shop environments and how they operate their locations. We also have a pair of women’s advocacy group spokespersons—Jessica Toliuszis of Women in Auto Care and Tiffany Scherado of Amazing Women in Automotive—to talk about why women-specific groups matter in the education and the upward mobility of women in the industry.
As the tech shortages grow and women continue to be primary shop consumers, the industry is in an opportunistic position to change those perceptions and open its arms to women who can humanize the business and in doing so, drive more individuals like themselves through the doors and into the offices and bays.
