How the 10 Percent of Operators Embrace Digital
While the rest of the mobility landscape adopts tap-and-go, mobile, and contactless payments, where does that leave parking?
Because cars, the act of driving, and parking have all historically remained the same in terms of process, the parking industry has not felt a deep need to embrace new technologies. It has only been in the past decade that this paradigm has shifted. The advent of smartphones, smart cars—and smart everything—has changed what consumers expect in a given transaction. It’s merely the 10 percent of parking operators that have realized this and have made the necessary steps to adjust.
While there are numerous benefits to adopting digital payments, three are prominent: ease for the customer, smarter business intelligence, and smarter integrations.
In many cases, customers see digital transactions as table stakes. This will grow, with the number of people using digital transactions estimated at 6.1 billion by 2023. Parking will eventually be no different—customers will want to save time and energy by not dealing with cumbersome technology or unnecessary interactions. What’s more, the methods of digital payments are expanding.
With Apple and Google Pay, major corporations are creating unique transaction experiences that enable payments without needing a wallet. Studies also show that QR payments will be returning with full force, something the cryptocurrency world may be accelerating due to crypto wallets being accessible by scanning a code.
Operators have also found that when accepting digital payments, valuable customer data is received that isn’t possible with cash or card. Accepting digital payments opens other lanes for information such as email addresses for marketing and easier access to data that shares customer habits. With digital payments, you also have integrations with third-parties. For example, you can connect with parking-finding apps like ParkWhiz to direct people to your door. These eParking reservation services allow somebody to pay for your service because you’re associated with another that they typically use.