At the end of the day, what are you trying to accomplish with all of the bells and whistles of your parking program? If we had to guess, you don’t spend thousands of dollars on LPR enforcement because you love cameras, or require parking permits in designated lots because you enjoy keeping track of them. At the end of the day, these are all means to one end - parking compliance.
Although enforcement is a necessary part of ensuring there is compliance, what if the key to fostering it is as simple as making it easy?
Here Are 3 Ways to Make Parking More Convenient:
Start With an Internal Audit
More often than not, the key to improving processes is to refine them. Outline the customer journey from start to finish, identify bottlenecks, areas for improvement, etc.
Reduce Points of Friction
Are permits available online? Is the website accessible and reliable? Is signage on site clear and proactive? If at any point the customer becomes frustrated, chances are good that they will give up, contact your office, or proceed anyways.
Give Them Options
Finding a balance between price and convenience is difficult because perceived value varies between customers. To combat this, give them options! If permits are typically sold monthly and daily, why not offer a weekly option as well? This applies to methods of payment, permit types, having a validation program, and more.
Not only will solving for convenience lead to increased parking compliance, it will also free up internal resources and it can lead to increased profit margins. Research shows that people are willing to pay a premium for options that are more convenient to them (any Amazon Prime members here?!).
These are just a few of the many ways parking programs can become more customer-centric. Offstreet is proud to work with innovative campuses, operators, and more to implement technology solutions that make parking easy.
