Payment convenience ensures improved customer experience for motorists

Everyone has experienced it; you have a day out, park your car in a parking facility, come back and, unwillingly, join the long queue to pay for parking. Putting a damper on your nice day. All the more reason to stop using this parking facility and look for a location offering a more customer-friendly way of paying. As a parking operator, you risk bad reviews resulting in loss of revenue. And all this while it can be done differently by easily allowing seamless payments from your mobile.  

In this blog, Dries Calcoen, Global Product Marketing & Partnership Manager at WPS Parking Solutions, discusses the need for offering alternative payment options to motorists to increase payment convenience and lists the benefits of paying via the latest available mobile option. 

Customer experience drives revenue 

Parking at an off-street parking facility means the operator charges motorists a fee to park. Traditionally, motorists pay at a payment terminal. During peak times, this sometimes causes frustration among motorists. The payment may not go through properly or the machine may malfunction. The result: people have to wait a long time to pay and are not able to get on with their day. None of this contributes to a smooth customer journey and causes users to avoid the parking location. 

Parking solution providers, such as WPS Parking Solutions, and operators are continuously developing ways to ensure the parking transaction is as smooth as can be with the aim of optimising the entire customer experience. Resulting in higher occupancy rates and revenues for the parking facility. 

Impact of payment convenience on customer experience     

One way of increasing the customer experience among users is to offer more choice in payment. Paying via a payment terminal is becoming outdated and motorists favor a more simple solution: paying directly by mobile phone.  Paying parking fees with your mobile has been possible for a few years now. In Europe and the UK, there are a handful of providers that enable payment via mobile, these are parking and mobility apps such as 4411, Flitsmeister, ParkBee, ParkMobile, Yellowbrick, RingGo and Justpark.  

Motorists install an app, have to log in and confirm the payment. Only then the motorist is able to pay. Moreover, these apps often only work in the country of registration. For many users, these steps mean they have to face an almost insurmountable barrier to being able to quickly pay for parking. It is perceived as an extra burden. Also, not all payment methods that the user wishes to use are supported. Consider, for example, a Belgian tourist in Middelburg who is presented with iDEAL or PayPal as sole payment methods. Not being able to use any of the two or just preferring to use another option not listed, ultimately leading to great frustration. 

Also, the impact of adding an additional payment solution is difficult for the operator to assess. It often comes with extensive contracts, little room for flexibility and does not tie in with new (inter)national payment solutions that are launched regularly.

Offering more choice in payment is one step in the right direction. Ensuring that the choice offered also optimally meets the needs and wishes of both the operator and motorist is step two. It requires a radically new approach. A solution that increases the customer experience, but in a very accessible way for operator and motorist.

Turn payment convenience into a unique and scalable advantage  

Integrating payment convenience without any thresholds into a constantly changing customer journey. That was the challenge we took on as WPS with WPS PAY. Based on the open and adaptive vision, we started from scratch. With this innovation payment solution, we not only built a unique solution with Adyen but addressed the business model at the same time. The result is WPS PAY, a payment solution that stands out on five fronts. 

1. The motorist does not have to download an app. Thereby it is fully committed to improving the customer experience. Payment can be made by simply scanning the QR code on the parking ticket or through strategically placed signs at parking facilities with license plate recognition. The motorist is immediately redirected to an online web page of the WPS PAY platform.
2. One solution for different customer journeys. Whether the motorist enters with a parking ticket or by number plate. WPS PAY supports every user scenario.
3. The motorist can then easily pay using a payment method of their choice; such as iDEAL, Credit Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay or even Payconniq. Thus, ease of payment becomes an advantage rather than a barrier. Moreover, WPS PAY is built within an adaptive WPS platform. And therefore has the flexibility to add new payment options.
4. Free to activate for ParkID cloud subscribers. With WPS PAY, the 'payment threshold' has been removed not only for the motorist but also for the operator. All ParkID cloud subscribers can activate WPS PAY for free without the need for setting up a contract.
5. The final differentiator is that all costs are clear upfront. As an operator, there is a choice of two contracts. The standard version is called WPS PAY 'Pay-as-you-go'. Based on an all-in-one fee, the operator knows exactly where they stand. That means no volume commitments, no annual subscription and no additional settlement of transaction fees for payments. On top of that, with WPS PAY, the operator has the flexibility to upgrade to a Volume subscription at any time. 

WPS PAY's unique proposition allows the operator to deliver payment convenience to motorists during their current and future customer journeys. Simultaneously, providing cost savings to the operator by reducing the number of payment terminals needed. This leads to lower investments needed and lower maintenance costs. A win-win for the operator and motorist. And all that realized through WPS' open and adaptive parking platform.

Click here for more information and benefits of WPS PAY.