Top 5 Benefits of RFID Automatic Parking
Fans don’t enter a venue when they walk through the door: they enter it when they turn onto your property. The first and last attendee experience you control is your parking lot. RFID automatic parking systems benefit your venue’s financial, operational and marketing goals by improving the fan experience, security, revenue and costs.
1. RFID Parking Tags Enable a Seamless Fan Experience
Knowing how important first impressions are for memories of places and events, something as mundane as parking can have an outsize role in a fan’s impression of your facility or event.
RFID parking systems smooth out many of the inefficiencies of venue parking. Attendees with an RFID decal on the window or parking tag on their rearview mirror barely need to slow down as they enter and exit your parking lot. Coming in, they don’t need to stop, press the button and get the ticket. On the way out, they will no longer get stuck behind that one driver who seemingly forgot that he needed to pay, and spends what seems like an eternity digging out his wallet and counting the cash. Better yet, smart parking systems using RFID ensure that no attendee has to worry about being “that guy” themselves – the tag that got them in is the tag that gets them out, seamlessly and efficiently.
This eliminates a common chokepoint and potential source of frustration or negativity as your fans enter and leave your venue.
Now if only you could do something about the traffic on the roads.
2. Collect More Data and do the Right Things With It
A common concern, and sometimes an objection, to any new piece of technology is “What are you going to do with my data?” That’s a valid question, and your answer should be: “Make your experience better.”
When someone enters your parking lot with an RFID tag, you know it. That’s great for security, but it’s also great for hospitality. When fans arrive, you can text them with up-to-date information on promotions or pre-game activities, and direct them to the least crowded entry points. If an arriving driver is a season ticket holder or VIP, the RFID tag lets you know that they are only minutes away. Now you can welcome them with their regular food or drink order waiting for them when they reach their seat.
The smart parking system using RFID data also lets you learn more about your facility’s infrastructure. You may find that certain entrances or exits are being used more than others. This may tell you something you didn’t know about where your fans are coming from and how they move through your venue. And, if you notice long-term trends, it may be the basis for improving the large-scale transportation and parking infrastructure on and around your property.
3. RFID Parking Systems Enhance Safety & Security
RFID parking controls mean you always know who is on your property (or at least whose cars are there). After an event, this information can help you determine the appropriate staffing levels as you gradually close up for the night.
Knowing how many cars remain and the identity of the drivers can help you identify possible safety or security incidents, or simply a chance to once again enhance a customer experience: the owners of any cars remaining after a certain amount of time can receive a text checking in to see if they are OK and require any assistance.
In the case of crime, a severe weather event or terrorism, the data provided by an RFID based automatic parking system could be a matter of lives, legal investigations, liability and millions of dollars. Knowing who was on your property and when can enable close cooperation with law enforcement and insurance companies seeking to understand what happened, and whether your venue did everything that you could to meet your duty of care.
4. RFID Tags Can Open New Connections for a Greater ROI
Sports fans and concert attendees like souvenirs. Everyone knows this, but over the last 10 years the move to digital ticketing has cost fans one of the oldest souvenirs in the industry: actual tickets! A ticket would get you into the event, but the real value could come later as that ticket stub became physical proof that you were there for the band’s final concert, for the extra-innings walk-off home run, the historic shut out or the game that people would talk about for years to come.
RFID parking hang tags are both a contactless technical innovation and a physical souvenir for your ticketholders. At the end of the season they may hang their old tags in their office or man cave so they can show their friends that, yes, they were there.
Not only do tags give you a longer-term physical presence with your fans – RFID tags offer that presence to your partners and sponsors as well. Teams and venues can sell space on the parking tag to a sponsor who also wants to be part of each fan’s ongoing experience. The tag can have a QR code for special offers on the sponsor’s website, or the tag itself could be reusable coupon for a local vendor, much like ticket stubs used to be.
Each year or season is an opportunity to use the RFID parking tags to project your property’s brand and partnerships. This opens the door for new revenue streams as well as all the benefits that come from long-term, physical connection points with your fans.
5. Reduced Personnel & Overhead Costs with RFID
Smart parking systems using RFID reduce the number of staff you need on event days. Drivers with RFID parking tags do not need to interact with staff on the way in or out, so the wider the adoption of the system, the fewer parking lot attendants you need. That, in turn, minimizes the need for and expense of parking lot attendant booths.
On the back end, the automatic data collection and cashless payment reduces the amount of administrative work that goes into operating your lot: less manual data entry and analysis, payment processing and inventory management.
Ready to Learn More About RFID Parking Systems?
WWL, Inc., provides every aspect of RFID parking control systems, from the physical infrastructure to the tags themselves. Visit our RFID based automatic car parking system website for quick, competitive pricing. Or, contact us here to work with one of our experts on a custom solution for your venue, just as we’ve been doing for the last 120 years (not all of them with RFID, of course).