Why your business's brand is important - even in the parking world

A business’s brand is very important. A brand isn’t just your logo and your colours, these represent your business’s personality, reputation, and customer experience.

In the parking world, a customer will almost always choose a parking lot based on either how close it is to their destination, or how much it costs. For parking operators, you will benefit more from customers who return again and again; so how can a parking operator generate more business in situations where their parking lot might not be as close or priced as competitively and turn a transient parker into a regular one? One way is by building loyalty - you need to give your customers a good reason to use your parking lot over another by creating trust and value associated with your brand.

Parking operators typically look to third party vendors of technology to operationalise their sites - for example digital payment providers that enable parkers to pay for parking using a mobile app. Mobile payment apps operate under their own brands which means that the third party brands interact directly with the parking operator's customer. The third party vendor’s brand retains the customer’s data, and takes credit for any positive experience the customer receives.   

In order to attract and retain customers, you need to build your parking business’s brand - so how do you do that?

‍Your brand needs to be front and center of the entire customer journey

From the moment your customer pulls up to your facility, to the moment they leave, your brand needs to be the brand they see, interact with, and remember. Brand awareness leads to trust, meaning the more recognition your brand has, the more likely they are to use your parking facility again.

With the Inugo digital parking management system, your brand is the only brand they will see - every customer touchpoint is white labelled with your brand.

‍A seamless customer experience is the new loyalty programme

Your brand is the sum of every interaction that a parker has with you, and it is your brand’s key differentiator - customer experience and brand are inextricably linked. When a business provides an excellent experience, to every customer, in every interaction, it becomes a growth lever. When you reach this level of customer experience, customers will actively seek your business out regardless of location or price and develop an emotional bond with your brand. 

When taking your facility’s payments and access solutions digital, you need to make sure that your digital experience is as seamless as possible. The Inugo digital parking management system provides your customers with a frictionless experience from the moment they enter your facility to the moment they leave.

‍Your customer and site data is crucial

In order to know what the best way is to retain your customers, it is essential that you know who they are and how they behave in your facilities. Having this information will enable you to personalise the way you communicate with your existing and potential customers.

For example, your data tells you that your customer ‘Susan’' is parking in one of your facilities three to four times a week as a transient parker. You could send ‘Susan’ a personalised communication offering her a special rate for a monthly booking at that facility. Not only would this make ‘Susan’ feel like she was valued as a customer, it would further ensure that she continues to use your facility over any nearby ones in the future even if they decided to drop their prices.

With the Inugo digital parking management system, all your site and customer data belongs to you and you can access it in real-time. Inugo is API driven and can be integrated into your CRM or ERP, consolidating your data to give you a single view of customer, and enabling you to manage your entire operation from a single platform. Customer data enables you to make personalisation part of your service, build your customer’s loyalty, and differentiate your brand from your competitors.

Get in touch with us today to find out how Inugo can help you build your brand value and loyalty with our end to end digital parking management solution.

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