Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Well first off-- are you operating at max capacity? Parking is similar to some other businesses I've worked with-- you can't sell yesterdays parking spaces. If you aren't selling out- the rev lost is lost forever.

I was consulting for a biz like yours-- and the way I got them to "get it"-- is to explain your business is more perishable than groceries. A restaurant owner might incorporate a poor selling special into tomorrows soup. A grocer, might extend sales life by cooking up a dish for take out. But again, your rev is gone forever.

Unless you are running at capacity, there should be no correlation between the program you describe and the transients. It would supplement. The only time it would is if you are at max capacity, and the transient would see the "full" sign and have to go elsewhere.

Carol
Sell Well and Prosper tm

Is it a problem for you the revenue is skyrocketing? I would not bother so much about it, unless your facility is meant for monthly parkers. Then if you have excess parking space you can hardly sell it's worth considering.Conversely if you happen to suffer from insufficient parking space in peak hours or some days then it's highly debatable. Anyway have a look at your inventory- so to say of parking places how it breaks down on respective days and hours. If you can get something extra out of it , ok go for discounting. Do not however discount when you do not have to.

Adam

I'm curious exactly what you mean by a "face to face" opportunity.

Off the top of my head, I wonder if a "discount coupons for repeat customers" could be a good sort of program - but discount coupons for other local businesses, not yours. Get some special pricing or time sensitive discount coupons from local merchants... you could charge them your cost of printing (or maybe more) - folks have incentive to be a frequent 'parker' which does not come out of your pocket... you develop closer relationships with local vendors who may refer business to you... you could have a special colored sticker or something so the attendant would know who to give the discount flyers to...

I think that telemoxie is running it the right direction. I would not try to convert to "monthly" until I was sure that was really what this segment wanted. Look at the establishments you are serving. Are they really the "monthly" type or are they the spur of the moment, once in awhile people? The discount coupons for the local proprietors will bring you repeat business. Even a discount for a future parking might give you a repeat customer whereas they might choose another spot the next time. Their next choice will be less random.

Stick with what you are doing and add some minimal cost incentives to have them visit you or send a friend in the future. If you can email addresses, you could send them emails to alert them to events happening near your garage!!

Your business is like the airline business. You want maximum spaces filled every day, and maximum yield per space per day.

Transients might be like first class passengers, sometimes paying 2-3 times the discount fare and allowing you to turn the space over several times a day.

You need to do some serious analysis on how the whole parking station performs financially before messing around with pricing on a gut feel basis.

Do some modelling of the numbers and "what-if" scenarios to see how the numbers your are proposing to change would stack up.

Don't forget your communications costs as well.

Don't get confused between wanting to know far more about your customer, and invading their space. Parking is a pretty low involvement product/service. You can increase the attractiveness-value of your station by having it cleaner, brighter, safer, drier, and thus drive high-value premium rates, rather than indulge in discounting and driving rates down.

If you need help with financial modelling, contact me via my profile (click my name above) and we can discuss how to do that.

Hope that helps.

ChrisB

Hi Kwalsh,

hope you're having a great day but more importantly a wonderful life.

From my own experience when I was doing a lot of parking in downtown Chicago it just so happen that my company was paying for it. But reading what your intentions are I'm not sure you're going to actually gain the results you're looking for. While some individuals may look at giving their email to you as a good exchange for receiving discounts I'm not sure you're going to have the kind of results you're looking for. When parking the only face to face time that was gained generally came the few times I needed to talk to an attendant which was very rare. This is not to say that you can't get a window of the parking customers time by printing discount information on the coupon but getting their attention will be very slim as most people don't really read the backs of their receipts for that level of information. I think you'll have more impact with the times that parking customers can pull up to an attendants window and talk with them. That's my take on it. REMEMBER... our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future. I'm only an email away from you if you need my help. Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant,

Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)