We’ve spent the good part of two years focussed on being flexible, agile and solves challenges we never thought possible. Finally, things are starting to feel more normal, except now we have new challenges. Staff shortages, unpredictable demand and even weather playing its part in our operations.
The good news, retail is holding steady reaching another record level. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Australian retail turnover rose 0.9 per cent in April 2022.
Director of Quarterly Economy Wide Statistics, Ben James, said this is the fourth consecutive monthly rise in retail turnover this year. He said, “There were strong rises in both food retailing and cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services. This is a contrast to the consumer behaviour previously seen during the pandemic, where these two industries would consistently move in opposite directions as outbreaks and restrictions either tightened or eased.”
So, there’s no better time to start preparing for the peak seasons of retail than NOW, as it will be here before we know it. It’s time to impress customers with service at your shopping centres, to support your retailers during these periods as much as possible. It will take a long time to recover from the pandemic but any special customer experience offer will help to make customers loyal and spend more at your shopping centre.
Consider this, add valet parking as a service, remove the pain point of parking and that customer will spend at least 30 minutes more time in your centre.
Research has shown for any extra minute you can get customers to stay they spend another $1 per minute in your centre. As margins tighten in retail and cost of goods soar, improving any element to encourage customers to spend is a critical strategic decision to make at your centre.
First Class Valet works with your centre to work out the best solutions, but here are the common ways shopping centres use our services:
Labourhire services – We take care of the time consuming tasks of recruitment and training, so you can focus on your core strategies. This is the perfect solution to meet the peak demand periods as our team members can work together with your teams, or fill the temporary period of higher demand such as Christmas retail periods. All our team members are trained at the First Class Valet Academy, where we have high expectations on the level of service we provide. Plus, we only hire people that love customer service!
Pop Up Valet – We offer a temporary solution to wow your customers during peak seasonal periods or special events. We help you in finding the best operational solutions to be able to provide a valet parking service, and it’s a perfect way to test your market by adding this customer experience to the mix. We also offer hands-free shopping for that extra VIP service.
Licensed technology – At First Class Valet we have the licenced technology to manage the operations of valet parking that is ticketless and importantly delivers the ultimate in convenient customer service. This technology is wisely used in the popular valet parking market in the USA and offers a ticketless and seamless customer experience. The system is a one-stop shop for analytics and performance reporting allowing companies to assess their valet operations easily.
Operational assessments – If you’re undertaking a parking audit or considering offering valet parking, we can share our extensive knowledge by conducting an onsite assessment. This entails our team taking you advising on site locations and cost modelling, so you can make informed decisions.
If you visit most shopping centres in America, they offer valet parking as a ‘hygiene’ factor. Similar to the fact we in Australia now offer free wifi at shopping centres. And why do they offer valet parking? It fundamentally entitles customers to a higher value proposition – by saving time and hassle.
Our team have experience in shopping centre and retail, we understand the complexity of this fast paced environment so we can work on a bespoke service for your centre.
Give your higher value proposition the time it deserves. Most customer experience strategies that aren’t well thought out or rushed will often fail. Well planned valet parking offerings not only benefit the customer, but they can actually be commercialised. Start investing time into organising your valet service now and put your budget to good use.
Give us a call to find out more
