As the National Director of First Class Valet (FCV), Lesley-Ann Horton understands the importance of customer experience. She is also passionate about sharing her extensive knowledge of valet parking operations and services to educate the retail and shopping centre industry.
“How do we choose the right valet parking options for our shopping centre?” It’s the question we get asked constantly as shopping centre managers look to differentiate their centres from their competitors through enhanced customer experiences. In this article, I’ll give you the top ten things to consider as shopping centre managers and owners.
- Choose the best location: Just like all real estate, the idea of location, location, location applies to valet too! Place valet parking at the most convenient and accessible entrances to maximise usage, visibility and ease of access. Customer services should be in high foot traffic locations, so customers can easily access the service.
- Ensure easy ingress and egress: Many centres choose the wrong location, making it inconvenient for customers to access valet parking. Designate specific areas for valet use to avoid congestion and ensure quick car retrieval.
- Make allowance for peak periods: Ensure the allocated area can be expanded (or reduced) to cater for peak and off-peak periods. This sounds simple – but is often forgotten. Choosing a location that has flexibility can maximise your parking for all customers.
- Engage professionals and experts: Most shopping centres use the best in the business when it comes to design, marketing and leasing. However, parking services are often not treated in the same way. Hiring experts in their field to plan your valet parking services is critical to get the best outcomes and provide industry best-practice knowledge. Regarding recruitment, many hiring companies that do not have valet parking as their core competency often miss the brief about finding the best service professionals who are friendly, personable, efficient and have the right insurance policies in place.
- Assess customer demand: Parking is a big pain point for many shopping centres and causes angst for their customers. Analyse the parking needs of your shoppers to ensure valet service is a worthwhile investment.
- Make sure customers know about it: If the demand is there – tell your customers about your valet program! It’s a “no-brainer” that one of the initial stages of any excellent valet parking service is ensuring customers know about it and how to find it. Everything from the right brand, signage and communication needs to be considered. Many shopping centres we have worked with, including Eastland last Christmas, used influencers to communicate the new valet parking service to a wide audience in their respective states. We provide clients with a toolkit to market their valet parking services effectively, and we share the best examples we have seen from our other clients.
- Pricing: Many factors come into play when deciding on the price of valet parking, including competitor analysis, demographics and the cost of running a valet parking service. Critical to the decision-making of price, is the careful analysis of the end-user and how much they are willing to pay for the convenience of valet parking. Research here is key. Generally, most successful valet operations charge between $10-$15 per car. However, other centres have preferred to offer this at $50-$60 per car, as their strategy isn’t volume-based but instead providing a premium service.
- Offering a premium service: If valet parking enhances your brand and builds customer loyalty, it could be a valuable addition to offer this quality service. Some high-spending customers will pay for this service at any cost to enhance their shopping experience. We are the licence holders of the only paperless valet parking system in Australia. Customers love that the control is through their smartphones, while our clients love the instant reporting.
- Keep your NPS scores high: There’s not a successful service business that isn’t 100% focused on customer service. A skilled team trained in customer service and problem-solving can significantly enhance a customer’s service. Our hotel clients, including our new client the W Hotel, Sydney are very committed to keeping standards high.
- The right strategy: Good insight into your goals is essential for valet parking and ensuring the correct operations are in place. Many of our clients provide valet parking as a must-have solution to create better operations in their business. They value how a valet service not only enhances their customer’s experience but also, by outsourcing this, it also frees up their own time so they can get on with their own job. Our clients in city car parks, hotels, and car dealership sites are examples of this, and this approach ensures their space and time are maximised for productivity.
Many shopping centres are differentiating themselves from their competitors by improving the services being offered to customers. Providing an excellent valet parking service can create an impressive and memorable experience for customers and resolve parking challenges, especially during peak periods.
First Class Valet was established in Australia more than ten years ago, bringing together international best practices and technology for valet parking. We offer contract, labour hire, event, recruitment, training and stand-alone technology services to improve the valet parking experience.
To request a complimentary operational review of your shopping centre, contact the team at First Class Valet here.
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