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Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has rich American history dating back to the Revolutionary War, with visits from founding fathers such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and members of Congress. Bethlehem was also the first U.S. city to adopt a Christmas Tree, receiving the nickname of “Christmas City USA.”
In a big comparison to what was once was a 18th century settlement, Bethlehem is now home to over 75,000 residents who utilize the city’s transportation system, which now has six parking garages and 17 parking lots.
Although the city itself is rooted in history, the Bethlehem Parking Authority (BPA), in partnership with Parker Technology, has transformed parking operations in the city.
Challenges Leading to Parker Technology
Paul Wagner, who has been with the Bethlehem Parking Authority for 11 years, began in the maintenance department and gradually evolved into his current leadership role of Operations Supervisor, where he oversees the entire maintenance team.
Where the first shift handled signage, meter maintenance, and garage maintenance, the second shift’s primary responsibilities were focused on janitorial tasks.
At the same time, the second shift is where the biggest influx of transient traffic passes through garages and lots, leading to the BPA team becoming inundated with help calls, hindering their ability to address their essential responsibilities.
“They were getting very little work done other than answering calls.”
Paul Wagner
Parking Operations SupervisorThese problems soon lead to the implementation of the Parker Technology Solution, aimed at combatting the influx of help calls and alleviating staff pressure.
“When our Executive Director heard about Parker Technology, he said, ‘this is going to save us time and effort and allow our second shift to focus on their job duties,’ which was huge for us. It’s been wonderful.” – Paul Wagner
Problems & Solutions Through Collaboration
The response from Paul’s team to the implementation of Parker Technology was ecstatic.
Collaborating closely with Tammy Baker, Parker Technology’s COO, the city ensured a seamless integration of Parker’s services, with the solution adhering to a strict operational call script.
“Early on when we first onboarded Parker Technology, I was working pretty closely with Tammy Baker. She was extremely helpful and friendly. We’ve got a pretty strict script for our garage, so if I saw anything that needed a little bit of tweaking, I was able to call Tammy directly. She immediately implemented the change and we saw results immediately. It’s been fantastic.“
Paul Wagner
Parking Operations SupervisorBeyond Parker’s implementation, Parker Technology’s support team still helps process over 1,000 script changes every month, handling each ticket quickly.
“Occasionally we’ll find a little spike in things that are off-script and I’ll contact facility updates immediately. I send that email and boom, they stop immediately. Like I said, ours is very strict.” – Paul Wagner
Addressing customer complaints has also been a streamlined process, with the ability to review call recordings to know what’s happening in their garages.
Paul had found that Parker’s CSRs have maintained a high level of professionalism, and even in challenging situations, Parker Technology’s team has been adept at resolving tough parking issues.
“People can be angry. They’re in a hurry. They want to get out. They’re impatient. Maybe they’re inebriated, whatever the case may be…Every one of those where we’ve had a complaint, I’ve gone back and reviewed it personally and I have not come across one where the CSR has been rude, impatient, belligerent, or anything of that nature.
They’ve always been professional, even when dealing with very angry and unpleasant people.”
Paul Wagner
Parking Operations SupervisorData-Driven Operations
One of the key reasons the Bethlehem Parking Authority has been so successful in its customer experience has been their commitment to data-lead decision-making.
With the implementation of Parker Technology, BPA received a newfound wealth of data to monitor the health of their parking facilities.
Every day, Paul utilizes daily call reports from Parker Technology’s solution, and maintains a detailed spreadsheet for each garage, providing a comprehensive overview of call volume, major issues and trends.
“I get daily call reports from each garage each morning, and I keep a running spreadsheet for each garage. I go through the spreadsheets, and I total up on my own spreadsheet what kind of calls we had, and if there were any major issues, equipment degradation, a gate down, and anything that might affect call volume and skew it for that day.” – Paul Wagner
Technical Challenges & Solutions
Beyond a normal day of help calls in Pennsylvania, a day involving equipment failures can be detrimental to the parking authority. The Bethlehem Parking Authority team runs on a small but productive maintenance department, who work to maintain 17 lots, 4 garages, and miles of sidewalks and meters.
On top of maintenance, the garages can face service degradation, gates getting hit, and hardware failures, causing numerous issues, and in a few cases, the Parker Technology’s CSR team has notified the city to alert them of the maintenance issue.
“The CSRs learned about [the maintenance issue] before we did, and that’s happened with gates going down or not functioning properly with tickets, not dispensing at the entrance, but the gate vending regardless.” – Paul Wagner
The proactive notification process from Parker’s team about technical issues has been invaluable by preventing disruptions, ultimately leading to faster hardware fixes, and creating a better experience for both parkers and the BPA team.
“Our experience overall has been extremely positive, and I really don’t have a lot that I could suggest to make it any better, in all honesty.
You’re a big part of what we do here. You’re the face to the customer for us.” – Paul Wagner
Conclusion
To many parking operators, the customer parking experience is everything – and for us, your experience is just as important.
To learn more about how we help facilities such as the Bethlehem Parking Authority provide a consistently excellent parking experience, check out this whitepaper about our robust solution, or read more client success stories.
Courtney Cooper
Events + Community Manager
Courtney Cooper has over 7 years of experience in marketing, copywriting, and campaign management. She holds a B.S. in Marketing and Business Administration from Ball State University.