How to make a good car park great It’s easy to look at a car park and assume that it’s simply a place for staff and visitors to leave their car. If there are no complaints about services and the technology in place on-site is working, then there’s nothing to worry about, and there’s nothing to improve. That’s not necessarily true. Explore more While you might be happy with your site being ‘good’ it’s important to remember that customer’s needs change and technology moves on. In this blog, we’re highlighting ways to make a good car park into a great one and ensure your site doesn’t run the risk of falling out of step with what its users need. Understanding use ANPR data is a treasure trove of information about a car park. It helps businesses to see which payment options are most prevalent, when their site is busiest, and can even tell you the fuel types of vehicles parking on your site. This is all crucial data that can help you see how your site is used, allowing you to spot emerging trends and identify shifting patterns that might be important for your car park’s continued success. For example, your payment methods might be gradually moving away from cash and increasingly towards contactless payment. You can leverage this insight to justify testing the waters with a trial for other cashless methods such as autopay or pay-by-mobile. These give visitors to your site more choice and a greater sense of convenience when managing their parking. Evolving how your site operates also shows that your business is responsive to changing customer needs. Enhancing user experience By monitoring user behaviour, you can begin to identify where customer experience can improve. Perhaps your occupancy data reveals specific times when a retail site is busiest. This can equate to queues, not just on the car park, but in-store. By leveraging this data and adjusting your staffing, you can have more people on-site to provide customer service, man the tills or process click and collect orders to speed up the shopping experience and, as a result, improve the space turnover on your site during your busiest periods. While what goes on in-store might seem disconnected from what’s going on outside, keep in mind that the whole customer journey needs to be considered. If there’s a simple and efficient parking experience when a customer arrives and leaves, which is mirrored by exemplary service in-store, their overall impression of a business is going to be enhanced. Making them much more likely to return or recommend your services to others. Looking at the future It’s important to think about how people interact with your business or sector and look at any changes that could impact how your business (and your car park) perform. The data gathered by your ANPR cameras can help paint a picture of emerging trends and help you make decisions based on genuine insight. For example, by 2030, all new cars sold on British roads will need to be electric. Many manufacturers are committing to producing more electric rather than petrol cars before that date. This means there should be a steady rise in electric vehicles on car parks across the country and that businesses need to consider their EV charging infrastructure. Using fuel analysis data, you can plot the rise in electric vehicles on your site, allowing you to access new revenue streams through emissions-based pricing and identify the best time to invest in adding more EV charging stations to your car park. ANPR cameras can also empower the services you offer. By identifying visitors as they arrive, notifications can be sent to internal teams. This can help to drive click & assist or patient concierge services in a medical setting or support faster click & collect for retail businesses. Your car park suddenly becomes a powerful tool for better supporting visitors, patients and customers and streamlining some of the services your business offers. How can we help you make more of your car park? Your site can make a strong impression on visitors and serve as an incredible asset to a business. A car park can be seen as a purely functional space, but there are plenty of opportunities to make it deliver more for your customers and your business. At Parkingeye, we work alongside you, using our expertise to empower your parking management, utilising solutions to make your parking more efficient, unlock new revenue channels and improve your visitor journey. Make the most of your car park Our car park management solutions are perfect for so much more than just enforcement. Why not see how we can help you revolutionise your parking today? Find out how Stay updated... How does ANPR work, and how does it benefit your car park? Automatic Number Plate Recognition, or ANPR has been a mainstay of car park management for several years, but it does... Read more Why you need to embrace parking apps As a society, we have all become increasingly reliant on smart devices. It’s easy to see why. Access to information,... Read more Cashless Payments and Mobile Apps: Revolutionising Car Park Transactions Habits change over time, in 2022 50% of all transactions in the UK were made via debit card, and 37%... Read more
