Fixed Ops Journal - August 2021 - F14

FIXED OPS JOURNAL
A mission to get women working in service lane
O
ne of the fi rst jobs Roger Conant
had in the auto business was sitting
at a dealership lot on Sundays
collecting contact information
from the tire-kickers for the sales staff to follow
up on Monday.
It was the late 1980s, and Conant noticed
that most of those car-shopping were women.
He fi nally got up the nerve to ask one why she
was there outside the store's normal business
hours. " Because they're not here, " the woman
told Conant, referring to the mostly male
dealership staff .
Th e notion that women were intimidated
and turned off by the prospect of dealing with
men when buying or servicing a vehicle stayed
with Conant. " Th at got me, " the 75-year-old
Houston resident says. " Th at was it for me. "
Conant, who had earlier careers selling real estate
and working in auto lending at a credit
union before joining Group 1 Automotive's Service
Development Center in 2013, formed an
initiative in the late 1990s called Her Auto to help
Conant: Can't
fi nd women
for fi xed ops?
" Baloney. "
touch customer service.
A Facebook page and website are being developed
to support the project. Conant also is enlisting
his friends in the fi xed ops business - of
which there are many - to amplify his eff orts.
Conant says he knows dealership leadership
will want to see how more women working
in the service department will positively
impact profi ts.
" We'll have to quantify how a diverse work
force contributes to the bottom line, " he says.
And don't try to tell Conant that fi xed ops
dealers better engage with female customers.
Conant also was a customer experience manager
at Beck & Masten Buick-GMC North in Houston
from 2015 to 2018 before rejoining Group 1.
In April, he announced a new undertaking,
called Women in the Service Lane. Its purpose
is to recognize dealerships that have at least
40 percent female service advisers, share the
successful recruiting and hiring practices of
these stores, and encourage others to hire
more women in all fi xed ops positions that
departments can't fi nd interested women.
" Th ey say, 'We can't get women here,' " he
says. " Th at's such baloney. "
Conant shrugs when asked how he came to
lead this eff ort. He says he has been " surrounded
my whole life by women " - his wife
and two grown daughters.
" Th is interests me, " he says. " I don't like to
play in the middle. I look for areas where I can
improve things. "
- Dan Shine
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PAGE 14 AUGUST 2021

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Fixed Ops Journal - August 2021

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