Diamond Parking

A Human Touch in an Automating Industry

At a Glance

Greg Harrison, Regional Manager for Diamond Parking, shares Diamond Parking’s experience providing customer service before partnering with Parker Technology, compared to the value the partnership has brought both companies.

Location

Seattle, Washington

Industry

Private Operator

The Challenge

Finding a strategic partner to bring premium customer service at scale

The Solution

Parker Technology 24/7 solution

Diamond Parking is one of the oldest parking companies in the United States. Spanning four generations, and still family owned, Diamond Parking was founded in Seattle in 1922 by Josef Diamond. Early in their history, as Josef Diamond found himself acquiring land through trade for his legal services, he discovered the concept of parking cars on their otherwise yet to be developed property. Currently, Diamond Parking operates in eight U.S. states and two provinces in Canada, managing approximately 2,000 parking sites and manage on-street and municipal contracts within the state of Washington and the state of Oregon.

Diamond Parking mostly focuses on property acquisition and partnership-based development of their commercial properties. They also provide parking management and operator services to a variety of premier property management companies. From all this experience, a fundamental principal for Diamond Parking has risen to the top: customer service.

"If people have a bad experience, they are either going to tell lots of people or never come back. Or both. We don't want that. We want them to have a great experience, even if they have a challenge."

Greg Harrison
Regional Manager for Diamond Parking

Automated Technology’s Impact on the Parking User’s Experience

Diamond Parking identified the need for full-time customer service early on. Providing parking attendants in their lots and managing parking through the personal experience began as much by necessity as design. Early on, it was simply the only way to oversee a property and ensure that revenue was collected. As their parking management business began to expand, they recognized that providing on-site assistance to parkers was integral to their management philosophy. But as technology advanced and more and more sites adopted the automation paradigm, business model considerations meant fewer on-site personnel, a great reliance on technology, and the need to provide service in a more dispersed and less constant basis.

Essentially, this was grounded in the reality that the automation technology provided a benefit to both the parking user and the parking provider. It made payments and access easier to facilitate, and it reduced the need for customer service intervention. Consequently, it also meant that when users encountered a challenge, whether with navigating the technology, completing the payment process, or even periodic failures with the technology, they would need assistance from an actual person. With the parallel reduction in on-site personnel this presented a challenge: How do you provide the support needed, and still take full advantage of your technology investment?

Using Tech to Support Users

Diamond identified the need for customer support and set ways to provide it. They attempted multiple iterations, from creating and staffing their own 24/7 customer service center, to outsourcing with another intercom answering service.

“We attempted to manage this ourselves but did not do a very good job with it. It just presented a lot of logistical challenges that are not in our core competencies,” Harrison said. Still needing a solution to address their customer service goals, Diamond began to look for a solution to address our customer service needs over a multitude of sites, throughout the western United States.

They tried other answering services, but found that their expertise was not in parking, and while they might respond to the call, they often did not strive to solve the customer’s problem simply beyond opening the gate and allowing exit. While this solved the issue for the parking users, it was not fully beneficial to the property owner. Diamond continued to look for a better solution and that is when they found Parker through and industry connection.

“We haven't come across an agent that we can complain about. In fact, I was once visiting a site when I witnessed a parking user access the customer service and heard the Parker agent answer the phone: 'Diamond Parking, how may we assist you?' It was not until then that I realized this was a standard feature, and a great one at that, as the fact that it was handled, and the way is was handled fits right into our offering."

Greg Harrison
Regional Manager for Diamond Parking

Customer Service, Reporting, and Revenue Capture

Diamond Parking’s primary focus is providing customer service and second to that they prioritize the reporting functions that Parker Technology provides to them. While revenue is certainly a concern, it is secondary to maintaining a high degree of positive customer experience.

“Our previous services were not experts in parking, and often the would simply open the gate without even inquiring as to why the individual was having difficulty exiting the facility. Naturally, this led to people learning rather quickly how they might get free parking. Simply push the call button and someone on the other end will open the gate, no questions asked. Because of Parker’s agents’ expertise, they do not do that. And while revenue has not been our primary or even secondary focus, I’m sure that is has been positively impacted by the fact that Parker Technology’s representatives inquire as to why an individual is unable to exit the facility, and is likely getting more payment for exit, when before it was just a free pass,” Harrison said.

An Example

The Station at Othello Park Apartments Garage came online just before April of 2021. Over the next nine months, the garage experienced 459 transient parker issues caused by a variety of reasons, including the enter/exit process, payment issues, lost tickets, etc.

Of those 450 calls, 180 were resolved to a successful payment method. That works out to nearly 40% of transient-related issues being resolved with successful payment collection. The other 60% were vended with management approval or by following standard, client directed business procedure.

The garage’s lowest ticket price is $7, indicating a minimum additional revenue of $1,260 (just for that one garage) for the initial 9 months working with Parker Technology.

Planning for the Future

Looking forward, Diamond is committing to the Parker solution.

“We have begun to require all new parking equipment that we purchase, and install, be capable of integrating with Parker Technology.”

“Diamond’s first equipment acquisitions were made with a requirement to incorporate a particular brand of intercom system. While at the outset of the Diamond Parking + Parker Technology partnership, Parker lacked integration with this vendor, Diamond was not dissuaded, and changed out hardware to accommodate Parker,” Harrison said.

Instead of going back, Diamond Parking and Parker Technology have continued to move forward. Diamond has expanded services to 12 additional sites in Hawaii and Washington within a year of the initial launch, and they have two more sites that will come online in early 2022. To us at Parker, that increased commitment to our offering is the greatest compliment, and we are proud to have grown our relationship with Diamond Parking and look forward to continuing to do so far into the future.

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