With the rise of contactless cards, mobile payments and pre-book parking apps, we’re no longer questioning whether digital currencies will one day dominate parking – but when.
Cashless parking matters because your business won’t last long without it. Convenience rules customer behaviour: coins clutter our glove compartments and impatience sparks road rage.
A piece of plastic or a souped-up telephone that can pay for parking with a single tap? Twenty years ago, those ideas belonged in sci-fi movies. But the future has dawned. Here are 3 reasons you need to keep up.
1. It’s the route to success in our digital future 📱
Just ask Amazon, Uber, Monzo and co. Today’s hottest commodities are bought and sold on the internet, where it’s almost impossible to offer the option of cash payment. We live our lives online, shopping, banking, learning, working and socialising. This innovation has spilled over into the parking process.
There are numerous options available. Whether your customers prefer contactless cards, Apple Pay, online pre-payments, or automatic ANPR billing, cashless solutions provide them with unbeatable speed and convenience.
2. We’re shifting towards a cashless society 🌍
Contactless cards were introduced in the UK in 2007. In 2015, electronic transactions overtook the use of coins and notes for the first time. With card payments now accounting for 54% of all retail payments by volume, the cashless momentum shows no sign of slowing.
Not only do you hold the power to spearhead change, but embracing cashless parking now gives you the chance to get ahead of the competition. Coins are a pain for you as well as your customers: they create queues at parking meters and present security issues with storage and the circulation of counterfeit currency. Make the switch now to save yourself scrambling towards a deadline. You haven’t forgotten the headache of GDPR, have you?
3. It’s what your customers want 💁
And you know they’re always right. Andrew Higginson, Chairman of Morrisons states that for customers, “convenience has been the key factor for the past 50 years”. If supermarket shoppers can demand 24-hour hypermarkets, online orders and doughnuts baked on the premises, then motorists should enjoy their favourite ways to pay.
Matt Cook of Newpark Solutions offers a word of caution before operators rip out their parking meters: “we don’t want to push the technology onto the end user, we’d like them to be able to choose for themselves”. So, parking companies should consider offering drivers a choice.
Never lose sight of who’s in the driving seat. That shouldn’t be the team in your office, but the customers who use your facility.
If you’re curious about the possibilities of cashless payment, why not trial your own pre-book parking page with our Booking Button? There are no risks, no charges and no contracts when you register on ParkMaven.com.