I had the opportunity to present at the New York State Parking Association Conference yesterday on sustaining a customer service culture within the parking industry. There are so many opportunities organizations can pursue to realize this goal that go well beyond annual classroom customer service training, and it's always great to be able to highlight them. I originally presented this session at the IPI Conference in 2016 and wrote a series of blogs then. To discover ideas you can use within your company access the series here:

Parking companies differentiate themselves from each other in a variety of ways, but one of the most effective is developing and maintaining strong client relationships.  When a company does this well enough to improve contract retention rates by 5%, a study published by Business Week demonstrated that this translated to a boost in profits of 125%.  Those managers who are successful at establishing themselves as trusted advisors play a key role in fostering positive relationships and retaining clients. 

I was invited to a meeting recently to discuss speed to hire tactics specifically targeted for recruiting parking talent.  Typically, the first half of the conversation centers around what hiring managers are doing presently in this space so we can then identify opportunities for improvement. Surprisingly, it's still fairly uncommon to find a great degree of uniformity across any given organization when it comes to the individual leaders' approach toward interviewing and evaluating career seekers looking for their next parking opportunity.

As the end of the year approaches, many companies are making plans for an annual holiday celebration. These events are opportunities for everyone to relax a bit and celebrate the accomplishments of the year. It’s not unusual for alcohol to be served at company holiday parties, which raises the question: does your company have a plan for a safe holiday celebration?