It has been a long time since I was on the other side of the bullet proof glass window at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Parking and Transit desk. I kid you not - both about it being a long time and about the glass! The University has since softened their look with a more welcoming window area, but to put it simply, there were days that I loved having that window in front of me.
Working in parking was no picnic. Particularly when I was responsible for parking appeals. I had freshmen cry, grown women yell, and even, one time, a man try and kick in our door. As I said, working in parking is no picnic.
It is critical that those in supervisor roles in parking do what they can to motivate their employees and improve their professional experience.
Last week at our User Group conference in Indianapolis, I sat with a group of parking operation managers and supervisors discussing this very topic. This thoughtful and staff-focused group came up with a number of suggestions for others in the room to take back to their organizations. Some of those ideas are:
1. For a smaller office, bring in breakfast once a week.
2. Motivate employees with a foot out the door to retirement by asking for their help in strategic projects.
3. Provide reward systems.
4. Have staff meetings where all can voice their ideas, then show how you intend to use those ideas.
5. Try an "employee of the month" program or something similarly celebratory.
6. Good marketing for a parking organization will translate to a better working environment for the staff. Get your policies out there: be an ambassador, not a dictator, of parking; provide good signage; offer real customer service (such as assisting in dorm move-in at Universities).
7. Provide role play opportunities to help staff work through challenging situations.
8. Training! Yep, it is that simple. Offer as many training opportunities you can to help them enhance their professional skills. Also, every employee should be confident in how to use their Parking System Software.
9. Have a career path. This is easier said than done in some state-run organizations where there are a lot of limitations on how employees can be financially compensated or promoted. If you are in one of these types of organizations, find other ways to allow for "promotion" of your employees.
10. It should be EASY for all employees to do their job. Have specific goals, clear guidelines, and provide as much support as you can!
Like I said. It is not easy working in parking. Make sure that your employees have what they need to do their jobs well and feel confident doing it!
I started at T2 Systems 11 years ago as an Application Consultant. This is similar to what the Implementation Consultants do now, but with a few more components. PowerPark had less moving pieces and parts, so it took less people to implement.
I worked with the University of Virgina, and the energetic Rebecca White, in 2000. This was one of the hardest and most rewarding parking software installs I have had the pleasure to be a part of. Every install has its challenges, but the sheer volume of their data meant we would be running conversion programs for hours through the night.
Becca knows how to make things fun. We started the conversions running at the end of the day, and a shopping cart ride (oh yes, there are pictures, Kendall), one large beer, several BBQ chicken wings later, we were back in the office at 11 PM to get the next round going.
We stayed pretty late, got a couple of hours of sleep and went back to it. A LOT of work, but always easier to do when you work with a group that knows how to pull the fun into it.
I don't do installations anymore, but when I think back to the early years here at T2 Systems (okay and last year at Portland State), these are some of my favorite memories.
Don't think the rest of you I worked with in the past are exempt. I will be blogging about you in the future!
Who says there is no customer friendliness in the world of parking?
Not our friends at Arizona State University. I had the pleasure of visiting them this week to work on their T2 Systems eBusiness project. While I was there, I got to hear a message left for Melinda Helton, the Assistant Director. A message, that well, shocked me.
It was praise! For a parking ticket! Well, not exactly for the ticket itself, but for the card that accompanied it that said "Gimme a Break". The call was from a parent of a prospective student. She thanked ASU for having such a program as it can be difficult to navigate where to park when you are not familiar with the area.
The program is designed to give a first offender a break. With the information sent to the handheld ticket writers, the officers know if the customer has been cited before. If not, they issue a $0.00 citation that "gives them a break". Of course if they park in violation again, a ticket with an associated fee will be issued. Melinda said that this was probably the third call she has had in the last couple of weeks. Can you imagine?
Thankfully the program is in place. My "Gimme a Break" was on my windshield as I left. :)
There is a new show on CBS called Undercover Boss (http://www.cbs.com/primetime/undercover_boss/) that everyone should watch. The first episode featured the CEO of the company that my husband works for. He works for Recycle America Alliance which is part of Waste Management. President and COO Larry O'Donnell picked a few different jobs and went out with staff level employees undercover as a new employee. Wow, was he shocked. He is a leader with great intentions, but didn't really understand all of what goes into making his company a success until he got down, literally, into the dirt.
Of course, I imagined our President and CEO, Mike Simmons fielding Support calls, and installing our parking management software and thought, BAD IDEA! The man is the President and CEO for a reason! He knows how to find the right people that can find the right people, that can find the right people (repeating for affect:)) to do the job well.
Our company is not as big as Waste Management, nor are the parking organizations that use our software. So, we shouldn't be shocked about what happens in our organizations. We should be able to be in tune with the day to day. Since everyone already knows me in my area, I can't exactly go undercover:). Instead, I have opted to step in for my staff several times in my management experience to be able to 1. help out during busy times and 2. stay current in what their roles entail. It is still eye opening to me and I am only one level removed.
Look at it a different way and think about what it means to be a parker and what they experience through our organizations. Sure, there are plenty of customers out there that, well, feel they DESERVE to park wherever they want. But think about the parkers that have the best intentions, try to follow the rules, and can't because of poor signage or badly written rules and regulations.
Yesterday, Linda Kauffman (VP of Industry Solutions) and I were visiting a customer in Baltimore. We parked in a garage (public garage, not our customer's) near where our meeting was being held and had difficulty parking AND leaving. The signage was difficult to understand, stairways led to the point of no return, and leaving- we drove through the parking garage for more than 5 minute trying to figure out where the exit was.
My point in this ramble is that we should all be trying to put ourselves in other people's shoes to do the best job we can. For our staff, the only way to advocate for them properly is to have a better understanding of their day-to-day. For our customers, the only way to serve them best is to understand their needs.
It is pretty simple isn't it?
We are in the thick of Permit Season! It requires capitalization because of the sheer craziness of it. Universities especially across the country are bracing themselves for the onslaught of students, staff, faculty, etc to hit their offices and their web pages to get their prime parking permits.
If you are just reading this, and haven't begun your planning, you might be in trouble. Grab the bottle of Jack and hide under your desk until it blows over.
In seriousness, there are a lot of things that you can do to get through the season with little pain.
1. Plan, Plan, and Plan. Run reports over the last year in this date range to see what sales you did, by customer type, by permit location, permit type, and location of purchase. This will help you to plan your communications to your customer. For example, if you had more purchases in your office than online, now is the time to communicate to your customers what a great web page you have and how easy it is to purchase a permit online!
2. Map it out! Consider laying out all of your permit configuration in a spreadsheet, for example. This will help you identify all of your pricing structures, rules around your permits, and keep you organized. It will make configuring them in your database easier every year if you maintain the copy.
3. Plan out what the week will look like. Staff accordingly. If possible, over-staff. There could be lines out the door. It may be useful to have someone handing out materials while you wait. Rutgers University used to have a tent set up to shield the heat and cold beverages while people waited. If you have to allow people to purchase in your office, this is fantastic customer service for a Department that is not always so liked by its customers!
4. If you do online sales, make sure that you have tested out everything with your new rules, permits, and pricing in a test environment. This includes test transactions through to your payment gateway and file transfers to payroll or the bursar. If any of your rules or software has changed, testing is key!
These are just a handful of tips. Make sure you plan early and involve all of your key players. Good luck!
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