In Case You Missed It: Managing with Technology Webinar
A Paradigm Shift in Parking Management
7 min read
It’s a well-known fact that technology has played and will continue to play a pivotal role in simplifying life as we know it. Technology is the backbone of almost everything we do, from online delivery and shopping services to social media and streaming platforms. Your parking management strategy is no exception to that fact.
As a property or facility manager, it is essential to understand the unlimited capabilities technology can provide for your parking facility and the tech-driven services you should be offering to elevate customer experiences.
We recently hosted an insightful discussion on how you can leverage technology and deploy intelligent solutions to manage your parking program successfully. The panel included technology expert Marc Saltzman, Lisa Ciancone, the Manager of Logistics, Parking & Internal Transportation at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, and Precise ParkLink's own Adamo Donatucci, Business Development & Strategy Officer.
We've summarized the key discussion points below in case you missed our webinar on The Paradigm Shift in Parking Management.
The World has Changed. Have you?
Technology has and continues to shape the world in which we live. Over the past three years, technology has advanced rapidly, driven by society's need to adapt to swiftly changing and unpredictable circumstances. We’ve witnessed technological transformations in almost every realm of our daily lives, including how we work, play, learn, socialize, shop, and bank. This is only the onset of a predestined shift towards an increasingly connected and tech proficient world. To a business owner or a manager, the advancement of technology may seem like an intimidating and perpetual concept – almost as if you’re scaling a mountain without the possibility of reaching the summit. However, organizations should keep in mind that as overwhelming as it might seem, technology is a valuable tool to help you save on expenses, add efficiency to your operations, and boost your overall profits.
Every industry has undergone an extensive shift in operational strategies to keep pace with technological progressions, and the parking and mobility industry is no outlier to that fact. We have observed various trends within the parking industry, including the development of parking and mobility apps allowing customers to pay for parking and reserve their parking ahead of time, along with smart parking solutions such as parking guidance systems and sensors. In the coming years, the most significant trend within this industry will continue to be hardware automation and hardware electrification as the population begins to shift towards electric vehicles. The demand for EV charging stations will overhaul the parking industry, creating a substantial profit-making opportunity for businesses.
However, this is only the beginning of the technological advancements coming to this sector. The evolution of Artificial Intelligence into “Digital Humans” and the advances of machine learning and automated holograms will send the parking & mobility industry soaring towards a technological revolution of its own rendition.
Market Update: Parking Occupancy & Management Strategies
Parking occupancy levels are slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels. Over the past few months, there have been some optimistic upwards trends in revenue generation and occupancy when evaluating monthly and transient parking data and the overall number of customers who are using parking lots. Nonetheless, there is still a long road ahead until pre-COVID revenues and occupancy levels are reached. No matter the industry, all businesses have been forced to pivot from their standard management strategies and depend heavily on technology partners to guide them through uncertain times and towards the inevitable future of a technologically advanced society.
Organizations have had to quickly adapt both smart hardware and software integrations at their sites, such as virtual connections to CSRs, touch-free and frictionless interactions with hardware components and the ability to provide immediate customer service via intercoms and scan-for-assistance signage. This has ensured that a business can meet evolving consumer expectations while continuing to provide seamless customer experiences from start to finish.
Case Study: Managing with Technology at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
The COVID-19 pandemic forced St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) to quickly re-evaluate its onsite parking strategy from an infection control perspective. SJHH comprises three different campuses, each with its own specific needs but each requiring a swift solution to an identical problem: How could access to their parking lots be granted with the least amount of contact and touchpoints? The answer was easy: adopting new technologies to streamline their operation while providing a safe and frictionless experience for patients and visitors.
SJHH quickly modified the gated systems at each site, integrating hardware such as touchless entry achieved through customers waving their hands over a sensor at the entrance column and tap-and-go technology for card payments. This enabled SJHH to eliminate all touchpoints from a customer's initial arrival at the site to their departure.
From the staff perspective, all hospital employees were switched over to RFID permit technology, using hospital badges or transponders to access parking areas rather than touchpoints on the entry and exit terminals. This permit technology also conveniently allowed SJHH to monitor their staff to ensure they complied with the set parking rules and regulations.
Implementing virtual customer service at their sites added a personal touch for patients. Working collaboratively with their remote monitoring system, this technological solution provided SJHH with the assurance of continuous backup support for their operation, particularly after hours. All St. Joseph’s sites are monitored, a proactive strategy and part of a client-centred approach to ensure first-rate customer service.
Understanding How to Successfully Manage Parking with Technology
Traditional parking management tended to rely on the performance of people and the requirement of having staff onsite. Today, however, technology can supplement everything from parking enforcement to customer service to marketing. As technology advances, the division between parking equipment and parking management seizes to exist. Ultimately, organizations and their consumers have expectations and goals that both seek convenient and worry-free experiences. Managing your parking operation with innovative technological solutions becomes a win-win scenario for business and customer satisfaction.
Here are the four main ways of leveraging parking technology to create a paradigm shift that focuses on crafting easy and efficient experiences for you and your customers:
Every parking operation begins with some level of technology. Whether it's gates or multi-space meters, technology is the foundation of any successful parking program. Be that as it may, parking technology has changed significantly from the conventional coin-based parking meters that lined city streets and parking lots. There are now a variety of intuitive hardware solutions that allow for a seamless parking experience and provide you with actionable data insights to help streamline your operation. Thanks to intelligent and connected gated and meter technologies, license plate recognition, parking guidance systems, and EV charging stations, property managers have unlimited access to onsite activities, allowing them to stay up to date on key performance indicators (KPIs) and the overall progress of their parking program.
Ensuring the needs and expectations of your customers are consistently met is essential to running a successful parking operation. For this reason, it is vital to invest in solutions that make managing your program and your customers' needs less challenging. Innovative technologies such as remote site monitoring and digital customer service ensure a 24/7 connection to your onsite operations and devices. This digital operation streamlines processes, reduces costs, and provides ongoing communication with your customers and your onsite equipment. Parking solutions such as immediate, multi-lingual customer assistance and device monitoring with back-end support guarantee that your business's pulse remains strong.
Having complete insights and control over your parking portfolio is easily achieved by integrating self-management tools that allow you to manage your parking program from anywhere at any time. Leveraging analytics and business intelligence tools, live system monitoring and application control, revenue reporting, validation, subscriber, and reservation management enable a unified strategy that allows you to connect, oversee, and maximize results. Smart parking operations need to utilize these tools to pinpoint what is and isn't working within their facilities and make the necessary readjustments or additions.
Parking facilities are no longer just a place for your customers to park their cars. They are destinations fuelled by creative strategies that drive impactful results. Implementing unified strategies such as digital marketing, signage and wayfinding, loyalty programs, advertising, and last-mile services will enable a next-level parking operation while improving your customer experiences and transforming your ability to manage your facility.
Leveraging technology is an essential component of running a successful parking operation. Integrating intelligent technologies will give you the insights to manage more efficiently, increase operational performance and deploy dynamic solutions.
If you couldn't attend Precise ParkLink's recent webinar discussing A Paradigm Shift in Parking Management, no worries! You can watch the complete discussion below.