Wye valley visitor
centre
Beset by misuse and abuse that affected capacity fro paying customers, parkingeye helped this popuar tourist attraction make the most of it’s car park facilities.
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About Wye valley
Suffering from misuse and abuse the car park being used by non-patrons to avoid paying at other car parks nearby. Lindsay Hayes, Partner and Co-founder of Wye Valley Visitor Centre stared research for a car park management provider that could offer them legal compliance, technical competence, consistency and cost-effectiveness.
ParkingEye implemented a number of technologies and provided training to help improve the car parking experience at Wye Valley Visitor Centre and eradicate abuse.
Background
A thriving tourism hub, the Wye Valley Visitor Centre has been offering visitors fun activities in the countryside, and creating opportunities for employment, since 1981. Made up of four attractions – the ‘aMazing Hedge Puzzle’, a butterfly zoo, miniature golf, and a laser tag battleground, as well as a café and outdoor picnic area – Wye Valley Visitor Centre is very popular, but non-customers were at the root of their problems.
The car park was big enough to meet the needs of the attractions, but many of its spaces were used by non-customers, leaving some paying customers with nowhere to park. Partner and co-founder, Lindsay Heyes, talked us through the challenges of managing the on-site car parking and the impact the issues were having on the business, as well as the solutions ParkingEye helped to implement.
Challenge
Misuse and abuse: During busy periods, the car park found itself flooded with people who were not Visitor Centre customers. At peak times, such as Easter weekend, many spaces were filled by people who parked just to walk into the Wye Gorge, simply using the Wye Valley Visitor Centre to avoid paying at other car parks nearby.
The car park is also situated close to a hotel and a nearby church regularly hosting large events such as weddings and christenings, placing further pressure on Wye Valley as the car park would be heavily used by guests and attendees of these events. To make matters worse, organisers of nearby sales events directed trader vehicles to park at the Centre and sometimes even touts set-up promotional events in the car park without permission. Pop-up bike and canoe hire operators with no local base would pick up clients at the Centre, leaving cars behind all day and one rogue trader even sold tickets for parking at the Centre when parking was actually free.
Lack of spaces for paying customers: “Our true customers could not find places to park during our busiest times, which was very frustrating”, Lindsay notes. Because of this, Wye Valley customers would have to use the neighbouring car park and pay for that. This inconvenience proved extremely problematic since Lindsay and his brother Edward had always wanted to provide free parking for their customers.
Thoroughfare blockages: The Wye Valley Visitor Centre is located close to a busy dual carriageway, so coach parties would stop to just use to visitors’ toilets.
Results
“I work with suppliers every day who say one thing but don’t deliver on their promises. ParkingEye are professional, helpful and honest – to the point where their on-site car park team have handed back 79 credit cards which were left in machines.
They help people out of cars or to work the payment machines and always maintain absolute professionalism, sometimes in the face of adversity. ParkingEye are more than a provider; they’re a true long-term partner and work collaboratively to resolve any issue that may arise around the clock.
Each complaint goes through a rigorous appeal process to ensure that, when extenuating circumstances do apply, these are considered, and a resolution is found based on the evidence of the case. They are flexible and adaptable to our needs – essential when working within a changeable Trust environment.
The team places customer experience above all else, even flagging issues that fall outside their remit. For example, informing us of broken lights in our car parks, to make the environment better and safer for visitors.
ParkingEye really kept their promises, from a seamless implementation delivered on time, to helping us educate visitors, staff and suppliers of the changes. They did everything they said they would and continue to impress.”
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