The Feminine Touch:
How Women Are Taking On More Decision-Making Roles in the Industry

by Tammy Neal
NOLN Staff Writer

The fast lube industry has traditionally been a man's world, but imagine if that wasn't the case.

It's no secret that most women like to shop. According to she-conomy.com, women account for more than 85 percent of all consumer purchases and spend about $5 trillion annually — more than half of the U.S. GDP. In the automotive segment alone women spend more than $200 billion each year on new cars and vehicle service, plus women account for 52 percent of a typical fast lube's customer base, according to the 2011 Fast Lube Operators Survey.

Now ponder this — wouldn't it be interesting if the fast lube workforce reflected its customer demographic?

Tom Morley, president of Lube Stop in Berea, Ohio, raised this same question, which led us on a search for the answer to how a feminine touch affects the lube industry.

The Pioneer
More than two decades ago Jay Costas ventured out of the supermarket business and opened Oil 'N' Go in Valparaiso, Indiana. When Costas' manager of the quick lube quit, Beverly Cavinder wanted to transfer from Costas' supermarket to manage the quick lube.

"I thought it was ridiculous because she's not mechanically inclined, but she is really driven and good with people and customers," Costas said. "She's really a bulldog, and she kept at me. Finally, I gave in just because she kept grinding me."

After she was hired Cavinder attended Joe Haggard's quick lube school in Florida — and that's when Oil 'N' Go first saw the impact of a feminine touch.

"At that time our quick lube was fairly high car count but we sold practically nothing. We never sold an air filter," Costas said. "After she came back from Joe Haggard's we sold 35 air filters the first day!"

Costas said he believes females add a different element to the fast lube industry.

"Obviously they can relate to female customers better," he said. "And I think there is a little better trust factor in having female employees and managers."

Today, Cavinder is still at the original Oil 'N' Go, and the second location of Oil 'N' Go is managed by another woman, Anne Geary.

The Owner-Operator
Being a female owner-operator in a business where all your employees are male can sometimes be a challenge, but Jennifer Romeo has faced it head-on at the helm of New York-based Xpress Auto Care for the last 10 years.

Romeo said she believes that good management is not gender specific. An excellent owner-operator is determined by the individual. You put into it what you expect to receive from it. The larger the sacrifice, the larger the reward.

"Females are from Venus and males are from Mars — that principle holds true in our organization," Romeo said. "I am the only female, and I am the owner. This creates an interesting dynamic with the employees and the customers. With every new hire, I have to put on a uniform and change oil to earn respect, but as for any other male, it does not appear to be the same for them."

With some customers, Romeo has found it just as easy to step aside. "I cannot build fleet business, and there are some customers who won't allow me to work on their vehicles," she said. "This is hard to swallow at times. However, it is for the greater good of the organization to step aside and let the employees that I have trained attend to them."

It's Xpress Auto Care's female customers who appreciate Romeo the most.

"They appreciate another female in the shop," she said. "I get compliments like 'Woman power, hear me roar.' Most female customers just love to see a woman in a 'man's world.' They also love the attention that they receive and believe that most females are more honorable and trustworthy than men. I am sure this is because of the years of dating research collected in their mind."

The Crew
Lube Stop has been working hard to employ more female workers in their store ranks and currently has more female employees than at any time in recent memory. In addition to several female technicians, Lube Stop has two female store managers (out of 37 stores), a female manager trainee, two female assistant managers and one of their four field trainers is female. We were lucky enough to talk to five of these female employees to get their perspectives of being a female in the lube industry.

"It's kind of give and take," said Christiana Kline, master technician. "You have some people who are really cool with it, but then there are others who are stuck in their ways and are a little more difficult to get around. They'll question you a little bit more than if a guy was working on the car. But everyone I work with is really cool about it. They all know that us girls…

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