There is very little about the parking industry that hasn’t been affected by technology over the past several years.  The operations manager role has transformed dramatically from being a care taker of the lot to now more of a consultant who analyzes data, leverages equipment to report trends, and adjusts pricing through yield management.  

For the fourth year, Parking Today has graciously dedicated an annual issue to Women In Parking. All the articles are written by members and more than a few organizations acknowledge female parking professionals in specially designed pieces.

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. 

My business partner, Colleen Niese, recently delivered an education session at the Women In Parking Annual Conference, and I was reminded of an exchange we had about this presentation when she first developed it a few years ago.  The program includes an exercise that is a bit risky in terms of how it will be received by the audience, and when she first developed it, she was concerned that it might upset members of the audience.  Every time she has delivered this program, not only has the WTF exercise been well received, it has been the most memorable part of the session for most participants and likely the catalyst for change for many of them. 

If you spend any time on LinkedIn or read business publications and trade journals, you’re likely to be inundated with information regarding millennials in the workplace. Topics range from how do we recruit and retain them to scrutinizing how they interact with other generations in the workplace and everything in between.

Well! It’s that time of year again: the vacations are winding down, kids are back in school and there’s basically two and a half months left in the year to complete the current year’s company goals, given it’ll be difficult to implement corporate initiatives once the holiday season is upon us.  If your strategic goals became a bit neglected over the summer months, try these tips to jump start and finish them up before the Thanksgiving Day parade.