SMC Client User Conference staged for January 2012

Who should attend this Conference, your Conference? At the minimum, the Owner, and if possible, the General Manager.

Why? Because you will walk away with so much information it will be difficult (more like impossible) to relay the wide range of messages and then execute the processes upon your return to the real world.

Why else? In speaking with so many parking companies across North America, I find that 90% of the owners rely heavily on the opinions of their General Manager.

I have attended a handful of NPA (National Parking Association) Conferences since 2002, and with respect to the off-airport parking meetings, there is one roundtable to discuss how airport authorities are taking action across the country. Don't get me wrong, this is good information, but there is much more to the parking business. Most off-airport parking owners choose not to attend NPA is simply because the information does not pertain to their business.

Serious Questions:

Do you want more customers?

Do you want to keep your current customers?

Do you want to be more profitable?

Do you want to grow your occupancy levels?

Do you want to measure your success?

The best question is, would you like to be around fellow off-airport parking companies who may share one idea to help your business attract one new customer a day - 365 days? Powerful!

Based on your quick feedback for attending the conference, we hope to finalize all arrangements this month and have invitations out by September 1, 2011.

Aggregator Websites: Consumers will always blame your brand for any confusion

NPA News Brief

Airport parking fees starting to multiply - posted in The Baltimore Sun Share

Like many travelers, Hal Frost is accustomed to being hit with fees everywhere he goes, from the airport check-in counter to the hotel front desk. But long-term parking used to always be pretty straightforward: the rate he was quoted was the rate he paid. Not anymore. When he parked his car in New York recently, he found several fees added to his bill, including a fuel surcharge fee, a customer service fee and an access fee. Click hear to read more.

Great Idea - Worth Sharing

Purchase Park2Fly

offers free weather-resistant luggage tags

for their parkers.

As a seasoned traveler myself, I believe this idea is out-of-the-box thinking. It makes perfect sense to keep your brand name in front of your customers.

Just another comment: If anyone has ideas to share, please send them to us. We would love to hear what is working at your business.

Welcome Purchase Park2Fly

SMC would like to welcome Purchase Park2Fly (PP2F) to its family of parking clients. SMC has provided PP2F with a turnkey solution to compete at the highest level:

• New Super-friendly Website (a must see - click here)
• POS/Ticketing Management System
• Real-time Reservations System

Congratulations to PP2F on their new business venture at the Westchester County Regional Airport near White Plains, New York. After starting up its operation on April 1, 2011, Bill Guerrero, President and his team have completed major milestones in his college community by offering superior valet parking services.

To learn more about PP2F, click here to watch a local news channel interview customers and Bill Guerrero.

Be Careful with Emails like....

Your UnitedAirportParking.com parking lot information has been updated. Please contact your administrator if you should have any questions regarding this update.

If your business does not respond with a response similar to "please do not use my company's information on your website" or "you are not authorized to use my company's information on your website", there will be consequences long-term for you and your customer. What are some of those consequences?

1. By not responding, you are authorizing a 3rd party company to use your company information.

2. If authorized, a 3rd party company will use your name in your market on the various search engines.

3. Using your name helps a 3rd party company get listed on the 1st page of Google and Bing.

4. Your website listing will be competing against the 3rd party listing who would love to incorporate a commission back to you (normally the first day rate).

5. Bottom line is, they want your customer's data.

In addition, these 3^rd party websites create mass confusion with their pre-paid program; charge-backs, refunds, auditing, and of course, administrative fees.

I cannot stress enough the importance of branding your business in the eyes of your community. Drive shoppers into your website, set the hook and then real them in one-by-one. Do not let other websites create the relationship with your customers. History shows this is not a good long-term strategy.

Example of a reply:

“You are not authorized to list any of my information on your website. We do not allow any 3rd party aggregators to use our branded and registered name for their own gain or to promote their website. This only leads to confusion for my customers. Thank you for your understanding in this manner."

Is your business still listed on a 3rd Party Parking Aggregator?

If your answer is YES, then please click here to read an article by Christopher Elliott. He is the author of the new book "Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals." He's also the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the co-founder of the Consumer Travel Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for travelers.

The same Chris Elliott wrote a car rental article several years ago where my former employer, Payless Car Rental, was mentioned as a culprit of misleading consumers on insurance coverage. The long-and-short-of-it, the "free" bad press was not good for the company.

If you want your business removed from outside interferences, please call me to discuss a "short" long-term plan to freedom.

Google+ Business Profiles Are Coming Third Quarter

Companies clamoring to build a presence on Google's new social network have a few more months to wait. Business profiles are coming to Google Plus around the third quarter of this year, according to a story on VentureBeat.

While Google hasn't revealed many details about what the brand profiles will include, a Google representative told VentureBeat that users should expect "a level of analytics and measurement that you'd typically find in Google products," hinting at the inclusion of analytics in business accounts.

Google is urging brands to wait for these official business profiles rather than set up their own, which the company said would not be able to be automatically migrated once the brand profiles launch.

"The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers," Google's Christian Oestlien said in a post on Google Plus. "Doing it right is worth the wait."

Google has said that they will continue to disable unauthorized business profiles ahead of their official launch later this year.