It’s not the virus that threatens to kill your operation. It’s competition based on a perception of safety, whether or not parkers see you as the safest parking option.
Face the facts. In parking operations, there is no normal to go back to. 70% of your revenue had been long-time permit parkers. Remember how they stopped showing up during lock-down? Fewer than half are ever coming back. Their employers have figured out that it’s safer and cheaper to let them work from home.
You can’t survive without that 35% of revenue. But wait, it may get worse. The other half of your permit parkers have no brand loyalty in the face of deadly or debilitating infection. They will unhesitatingly walk extra blocks from a garage to work if the more distant parking option is perceived as safer.
However, there is a silver lining to this deadly storm. One, there is a small but significant number of newly driving commuters who don’t feel safe carpooling or taking public transit. Two, every other parking operation within walking distance of yours is losing their previously faithful parkers to this quest for safety.
If you can capture these “up-for-grabs” commuters, then there’s hope. To do that, they have to find you both online and from the street, read or hear only good things about you, and during their first visit they need to perceive you as truly safe – safest among all the other walking distance parking options.
From signage touting your extra-mile hygiene practices, to seeing every attendant with a mask and gloves, with extra masks and hand gel for customers, social distance lines on the floor, easy touchless ticketing and payment (or an attendant present and visibly cleansing equipment after each use), and an invitation to every daily parker to become a permit parker at your parking operation… the safest in the city.
Everybody needs those up-for-grabs potential permit parkers, and your survival will be determined by you winning enough of those individual competitions. You have one chance to get them to visit and decide that you’re safe enough to come back and stay.
There just won’t be enough parkers for every operation to survive. Let Servimer help you see how the competition is playing out at your location with COVID-Toolkit parking mystery shops, and get the intel you need to survive, thrive and win.
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