Are you the owner or manager of a parking asset looking to grow your income and build a more lucrative business model? Are you on the hunt for an integrated parking system? If so, you’ve come to the right place.
Maximizing revenue from car parks can be challenging, we get it. Therefore, we’ve compiled a brief list of strategies to increase your parking lot revenue, using an integrated smart parking system.
There are several effective methods to boost your earnings. This piece will outline various integrated parking systems, as well as some good ol’ industry knowledge, to enhance your car park’s profitability quickly.
Parking lots are crucial for any business, whether large or small, and their importance will only increase over time. Each business is unique, and developing a successful parking management strategy that maximizes revenue potential requires a tailored approach.
This article will cover some ‘broad strokes’ on general strategies, however, please feel free to reach out if you’d like a more personalized strategy developed.
First up, you need to make the effort to know your customers.
Your parking space holds significant untapped potential. To optimize your car park earnings, it’s crucial to understand your customers, and the market that you are operating in.
- Engage with your customers: Talk to people who use your parking asset. Ask them for improvement ideas, things they like/dislike and so forth. If you’re struggling to get results, try offering incentives like complimentary parking in exchange for survey participation.
- Identify usage patterns: Analyze who is using your parking lot. Are they primarily local, or do they come from other areas? If you can, make sure you know how long they stay, what times of day are busiest and so forth. If you don’t currently have that capability, hold that thought, as we may have a solution for you.
- Assess your competition: Investigate nearby car parks and their pricing to make sure your rates are competitive. This will help to both attract, and retain, customers.
Secondly, you need to think about an end-to-end integrated parking system
Now, I know that sounds like gibberish … what does that even mean? It’s actually very simple. It’s parking software, or parking technology, that talks to each other – hence, an integrated parking system.
Think about technology such as a parking guidance system
It guides drivers to available parking spaces in a car park and uses things like parking signage and LED lights to signal if a parking space is free. It aims to make it easier and faster for drivers to find a parking space, reducing the time spent driving around and improving the overall customer experience.
There is a lot of information on parking guidance systems, what technology should be used, the accuracy rates and more. Don’t let it distract you, you’re probably better off to speak directly to a parking management provider, who can understand your car park and advise accordingly. However, essentially, to break it down…
Outdoor parking guidance sensors rely on vehicle detection technology to let drivers know where available parking spaces are. For example, FrogSensors are embedded, and they communicate wirelessly and transmit data to our FrogHub dashboard.
An example of how information like this includes generating maps of available parking spaces within a parking lot. Thus, allowing drivers to see where they should go next. These maps can be displayed near entrances and exits on signs or digital displays, or they can be transmitted to smartphones via a parking mobile application.
This is just an example so you can understand how it all fits together as an integrated smart parking system. The system helps you optimize car park occupancy, which allows you to maximize revenue, and reduce the amount of time that your customers spend looking for a spot.
Parking software is a valuable resource for anyone in the parking game.
It provides a wealth of information about your facility and its operations, including real-time monitoring and analysis of all parking activities. Back to my point earlier, if you don’t currently have the capability to identify usage patterns, parking software like FrogHub may be the perfect solution.
It provides an overview of all transactions, occupancy, revenue, surge pricing strategies and so forth. I could go on for ages. Essentially, it empowers you to track revenue and expenses with ease. It is scalable and modular, therefore serves the perfect canvas for further integrated parking systems.
A good example includes, compliance and enforcement software (FrogComply), or perhaps parking validation software or parking permitting software (FrogValidate/FrogPermit). When you look to ‘build’ more software to your parking management solution, you’ll have access to more information about what’s happening in your facility at any given time.
Thirdly, implement a surge pricing, and dynamic pricing strategy ASAP
Variable pricing is another excellent strategy to increase your parking lot’s earnings. This is made so much easier when you have an integrated smart parking system in place.
For example, if you’re in a retail area, you may want to charge more on weekdays than on weekends. Likewise, if there is an event that will be taking place near your parking lot, you might want to raise your prices to accommodate that. Additionally, you can use variable pricing to encourage customers to use off-peak hours.
It is so important that you are keeping track, and maintain control, over your parking rates. I cannot stress this enough. Don’t let an external vendor, or a ‘middleman’, take your data or be allowed too much control of your asset. If you want to maximize revenue from your parking lot, keeping track of parking fees is essential. This requires an examination of such metrics as occupancy rates, parking times, and revenue per space. By doing so, you’ll be able to more easily identify patterns that can inform your pricing strategies.
Lastly, offer multiple payment options
We all know that drivers’ expectations are rising and to ignore it, is at your peril. Having the possibility to choose their preferred payment option is something that customers appreciate. It’s a great way to increase customer satisfaction and grow revenue.
Cashless parking payment terminals are no doubt, the way of the future. Payments through smartphones, credit cards, PayPal, or even WeChatPay are becoming more common. Cash payments, on the other hand, are getting more outdated. Accepting multiple forms of payment not only helps you increase your revenue, but it also enables you to stay ahead of your competition.
Offering digital payment options is also a very smart way of lowering your company’s risk. As more people start using digital payment methods, there will be fewer chances of theft and less need for cash handling by employees. Not to mention considerable savings in maintenance expenses as fewer moving parts, and no ticket stock requirements on a digital parking payment kiosk.
In conclusion, increasing your carpark revenue requires a strategic approach combined with integrated smart parking systems. It involves monitoring your data, implementing parking technology & parking software, creating surge pricing strategies and backing that up with multiple payment methods.
Improving parking revenue is an ongoing process, that requires pulse checks and tweaks to make sure you are ‘always on the money’ (pun intended). Once that foundation has been laid, and you’ve implemented an integrated smart parking system, all you have to do is keep your eyes open for new opportunities and tweak your strategy as needed.
At Frogparking, we provide a range of parking management solutions. With our help, you can focus on your core business while the smart parking system handles the day-to-day management of your carpark.
Take a leap into the future with us – where the possibilities are endless.
Until next time,
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