How Data Can Transform Your Parking Operations

Data driven decisions are essential for any business looking to grow and become more efficient, whether that means doubling down on current operations or expanding your services. For parking companies especially, data is critical to understanding not only occupancy but customer behaviour and profiling. Insight-driven decisions are simply a critical part of any business and marketing strategy. 

‍Data as a driver of growth

There is no denying that the crux of any business or marketing strategy is access to good data. Without it, you’re running a ‘finger in the air’ operation, and let’s face it the wind changes direction all the time. 

Software like Inugo can pull a huge array of insights, but here are a few that are essential and lay the foundations for a good growth strategy;

• Occupancy (or un-occupancy): Understand when and how your customers use your parking facilities so that you can critically review fee structures and utilise promotions to increase occupancy during quieter times 
• Dollar value of a customer: How much are your customers worth? Know what an average customer life-cycle looks like and measure your return on marketing and operational investment
• Customer frequency for loyalty and retention: Capitalise on existing customers by creating or maximising a loyalty programme. Earn more ‘sticky’ customers and learn from those that are in-frequent
• Customer profiling: Use consented customer data to re-market via third-party platforms

If you choose the right parking software partner, then you get access to data that’s clean, accurate and usable to inform decision making. For example, Inugo can feed data into an existing CRM or ERP platform and or create a custom dashboard so that you get the analytics your business needs instantly. 

‍Understanding your ROI 

After 8 years, we’ve worked out what parking companies need to make smart and economical business decisions. Here’s our essential list of factors which contribute to a positive return on investment when it comes to parking software systems; 

• 0 Capex model is key: This means there is no initial expensive outlay so it’s quick and cost-effective to install. Hardware is covered by a low monthly fee, so it's a 'pay as you go' model (instead of paying one hefty instalment) which reduces your investment risk.
• Measure and optimise: Use your data to inform a marketing strategy and campaign spend — and then use your data (dollar value of a customer as mentioned above) to measure against campaign success

‍Automate and integrate

Efficiency is the reason that any software should be automated and integrate seamlessly into your other systems. Software should support, not compete, and here's why.

• Integrate into your existing CRM or ERP system. Inugo can integrate seamlessly into all CRM and ERP systems including Salesforce, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, or even your own custom-built system. And, if you’re running existing loyalty programmes, Inugo can plug and play into these too. 
• Overlay software instead of replacing systems. You’ve already invested in existing parking management systems, so it makes sense to overlay a system like Inugo. This means there’s no costly removal of equipment and can be implemented quickly (in some cases, just 24 hours). And of course there’s always on option to gradually phase out old equipment too. 
• Receive and capitalise on data immediately. Time is money and there is no need to wait for a manual data download when you can access it instantly and in real-time.

Data is the obvious driver of business confidence so we’ve developed a best in class product offering that provides the analytics and insights parking companies require to support business growth instead of limiting it. If you’d like to learn more about how Inugo could support the operational efficiency of your parking business, get in touch with us.

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