What can your LDS do to bring in more women divers?

[chillyinCanada]

New diver breakdown over the past six months in our store is 47% female. We have female Instructors, DMs and salespeople. We currently have more female DM candidates than male ones. Layout of our store is targeted to both sexes; compressor is hidden in basement; Gear displayed for both sexes. Lots of pink. Our aim is to make the shop friendly to all kinds of divers. Seems to work for us.

You think it's the pink? Or could it simply be that bright colors attract most people?

Myself, I like to see the bright multiple hues of the ocean, offset by white sand, coral colors and vivid yellows and greens. I don't care if it's wall colors, fin display, furniture, throw pillows or simply large travel posters, this attracts me, makes me happy and makes me want to spend my money.

 

[Nettie-NZ]

Not pink! Please! I do like lavender however . Unfortunately I lost my lavender mask and the only option I had was to replace it with a black one

 

[urbaneve71]

I hate pink, but .... I have to say it did save us kinda one dive when it was murky --- no one could see past 10 feet except for my pink fins. hence 14 yrs later i still use pink fins

 

[Laene]

As long as the shop looks clean and professional, I could not care less whether it looks like a hardware store. I don't even really care if there's female staff. What I look for in a dive shop is a combination of excellent reputation and service, convenient location, good equipment selection, and competitive pricing.

I'm still a new diver, but I've now worked with/bought from 5 different dive shops. I don't know if I've been really lucky or what, but every one of them treated me with respect whether I was with a man or not.

Like several previous posters, I do appreciate seeing gear in a variety of colors because it makes it easier to identify people underwater - I just got a blue dive cap and yellow strap cover for me and a red and purple combo for my husband/dive buddy. Clown suits are fine as long as we can pick each other out of a crowd in less than a second. (I do avoid pink because I feel like it reinforces stereotypes, plus I genuinely don't like the color).

I definitely agree that designing wetsuits so that I have to squash my tuchus through the waist is the _worst_, but that's an issue for the manufacturers, I guess

 

[FinnMom]

Not B. A sounds OK, always nice to actually be able to find what you were looking for because of an adequate inventory.
C is fine too as long as the guy isn't unfriendly, or have some other sort of attitude/service problem. He might not be the greatest for someone just starting out though: he might scare them off because the shop looks like a place for insiders, not beginners.

RE post #9: the girlfriend coming into a shop only because of diver boyfriend. This made me think these occasions might be a very important opportunity: the tag-alongs that think they know about the sport and therefore know they are not interested. Maybe the shops could hook a lot more of the tag-alongs (sex irrelevant) if it were more clear from displays etc. that scuba has awide range of different things to enjoy. Lots of friends and family memebrs might not enjoy the diving we do, and therefore think they are not interested in diving. They have no idea all the different kinds of sport diving can be. Exposure to new things like underwater photography, spearfishing, historical wrecks, might be interesting. And try dives should be frequently available, probably for free, and with excellent people for the job: calm, friendly, reassuring, easygoing types.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I am a little late to this discussion, but I think that if a dive shop wants to attract more female customers, the following would be reasonable steps to take:
1. Have more female dive staff - more female instructors and divemasters.
2. Have all of your staff complete a sexual harassment training course and make it clear that you as a shop owner will not tolerate bad behavior.
3. Stock a range of products in sizes for women, not just one "women's bcd"
4. Have a clean, well organized stock area.
5. Consider offering some women's only dive outings/trips

I think that those would be a good start - I think that 1 and 2 are the most important.

Jackie

Had to quote your comments.. #2 is so huge! both male and female employees - stop it with the condescending attitude. I am not some new diver just off the boat, totally clueless. Treat me with respect, and maybe I will buy more than just airfills from your store.
Oh, and while you're at it, quite trying to make a killing on every sale. When I can buy on Amazon the for $9.99 the exact same trinklet you have for $18.99, where do you think I'm gonna buy? Makes me wonder about your other products too..

Let's say you've got OW, AOW, Nitrox, a BCD, reg., fins & a computer plus a wet or dry suit. Other than periodic regulator servicing, do they see you?

Richard.

Usually not. Sometimes I go into a store just to see what's there.. but mostly, because I have all my gear, I'm not shopping. I'm looking to maybe meet new buddies. Yeah, SB is great (and have met so many awesome people on here, met new friends, etc.), but it's still nice to meet other locals.

 

[Caveeagle]

Well, I have two daughters and a wife that dives and used to work in a dive shop. They don't really read the forums, but I get an earful sometimes of what they like/dislike in shops.

a) Obviously hate the condescending attitude. Trust me that you have NO idea what a customer's experience level is just by outward appearances and you can loose a customer forever treating them like an idiot because they might not fit your stereotype of a typical diver.

b) Prices need to be clearly marked (personal pet peeve). I will often just skip an impulse purchase because I just don't want to ask what the price is. Plus, it starts to feel like there really is no set price, and its really just a crap shoot.

c) Lay off the supermodel advertising and all the "eye candy" that we know is there to attract the men. This may not offend all women, but I can guarantee it will tighten up the purse strings with some.

d) Have trips and class dates and pricing clearly posted and easy to see. Another thing we hate to ask about and will probably not wait around if your helping another customer.

e) Make sure you have highly qualified female instructors and divemasters available or on staff. I had both my daughters certified a year ago, and I went out of my way to find them a female instructor, that had good credentials and plenty of positive feedback. This is not a slam against all male instructors, but I have just seen way too many that treat new students like a re-loadable dating pool.

f) Fair pricing.. Scuba_Jenny said it well. We all know your LDS cannot compete with the Mega Scuba Net, but I think some shops need to understand that they are better off earning fast nickels vs slow dimes. I travel a lot, and sometimes have free time in the evenings after work. If I stumble across a LDS, I will sometimes stop in just to look around. Just this last month, I was in such a situation and remembered: "hey, I could probably use a spare reg mouthpiece". They had your typical Trident on the rack for $22, when I am positive I can get that sucker on amazon for <$10 and it will beat me home. >>NO SALE.

*some of this is not 'Female' specific, but then I don't really think the goal of "targeting" females for diving is going to turn out well.

 

[FinnMom]

The above post is very good. Below are his points, some of my comments.

Eye candy posters are trash. If you don't think so, add equally many pictures of men in painted-on speedos and see if that helps you notice the poor taste. Most people aren't thrilled to do business with a mental 13-yr -old.
Some customers are looking for a guy to do pool instruction with their 13 yr-old daughter - would your store's posters turn them away?

Pricing needs be clearly marked. Women in particular don't tend to appreciate tinkering for the correct price. If you marked a price that is actually more than what you are happy to sell the item for, my conclusion is that you tried to dupe the customer. So my "bargained-down" price is not a pleasant surprise, it's proof positive that I can't trust you. Obviously prices might change as part of a package or for some other good reason, but if almost all marked prices aren't the hard prices, I'd be happier just not doing business with you.
If prices are not marked, especially in advertisements, I asume that if you don't want to tell us the price because you know it's not good news. Price is essential, basic information; hiding it is a waste of the customer's time and a general indication that even you think your prices are bad.

 

[DMDavid]

I know of four different types of Local Dive Shops and whether they attract women or not is not for me to say but I can tell you what a smart diver should be looking for regardless of gender and that would be quality (life support) gear.

Type A: The dive shop that looks more like a sporting goods store because they have some dive gear, tennis equipment, bicycles, camping gear and in general they do not specialize in any one particular sport.

Type B: This is the low budget shop that has just about all the dive gear you could imagine finding at Wally-World with no high-end quality gear but lots of cheap plastic stuff that shouldn't be used for real diving.

Type C: High end, high-dollar shop with lots of money spent on the appearance of the shop but no time spent in training the staff to be customer service friendly. Their prices are normally sky high and as soon as you have to ask "How much?" they roll their eyes and assume you're not worth their time.

Type D: Mom & Pop run shop is my personal favorite, this is normally a family run business where the entire staff loves to dive and the gear on hand is middle to high quality with just about anything you can think of from scuba tanks to wetsuits and everything in between. These are also the type of shop that offers great layaway plans for those of us that want quality but can't afford to pay it all off at once. An added bonus is when they're not locked into one particular training agency and can offer the customer several different training options.

As for appearance, the best shops I've ever been to have had gear everywhere in the shop where there was a square inch of display space to be used. One of my personal favorites is near the University of Miami.

ETA: My favorite shops are the ones with the lowest prices on air fills and a nice inventory to checkout while I wait for my tanks to be filled, yes I did say wait for the tanks to be filled (some shops will actually fill while you wait). That way while I'm waiting I may also end up spending my money on another gadget I don't really need.

 

[Caveeagle]

The above post is very good. Below are his points, some of my comments.

Eye candy posters are trash. If you don't think so, add equally many pictures of men in painted-on speedos and see if that helps you notice the poor taste. Most people aren't thrilled to do business with a mental 13-yr -old.
Some customers are looking for a guy to do pool instruction with their 13 yr-old daughter - would your store's posters turn them away?

Pricing needs be clearly marked. Women in particular don't tend to appreciate tinkering for the correct price. If you marked a price that is actually more than what you are happy to sell the item for, my conclusion is that you tried to dupe the customer. So my "bargained-down" price is not a pleasant surprise, it's proof positive that I can't trust you. Obviously prices might change as part of a package or for some other good reason, but if almost all marked prices aren't the hard prices, I'd be happier just not doing business with you.
If prices are not marked, especially in advertisements, I asume that if you don't want to tell us the price because you know it's not good news. Price is essential, basic information; hiding it is a waste of the customer's time and a general indication that even you think your prices are bad.

..I will add: that I have a vested interest in promoting 'female diving'. That's to say that I get to dive a lot more and buy more gear when my wife and girls are motivated to dive.