DAY ONE. Videos are extremely important with 2020 around the corner. What is your strategy for the next five years?

Transcription

1 DAY ONE Opening Session Videos are extremely important with 2020 around the corner. What is your strategy for the next five years? Why does SMC take the time and money to hold a Forum? Click Here for Video. Manda in our office produces videos for our clients. Necessary for marketing as mobile evolves. Businesses should budget for a minimum of four videos annually. Helps SEO rankings. Networking among peers is essential in our changing environment. Get to know this group of people if you need to reach out for friendly feedback on certain business initiatives. SMC sets up National Programs to save our client s money (i.e. Constant Contact, Nations Bus, Pay Pros, etc.). Discounts come in volume purchasing. Introducing RESERVEC reservec.com new sister company to SMC. RESERVEC will market private businesses only whereas SMC Software will provide services to the U.S. Government. Two-day meetings are broken out as follows: Client Sessions Partner Sessions Technology & Marketing Sessions We will begin with Customer Service. Customer Service in the U.S. continues to decline. Here are some recent statistics on Customers are always right : Annual Cost of Unhappy Customers ($537B) Customers who will not buy businesses with negative online reviews (80%) Businesses that claim customer experience is a top priority (90%) Lost customers who say companies could have prevented it (81%) Businesses that deliver an excellent customer experience (3%)

2 #1 Client Session The Essentials to Customer Service. To advance your brand, companies must understand there are rules to serving, addressing and managing your customer (digitally speaking) by Thom Wierenga GM, Keck Parking, Des Moines, Iowa Background: 500 Self-Parking Spaces; no covered & no valet Right across the street from the airport 2 people on duty, 8 hour shifts 24/7 Best Customer Service in the Industry This is a customer service business; customer service needs to be company culture. Customer service is about attitude. Our people like working together. As owners nationwide customer service decline works to our advantage. When customer has cancelled flight we do not charge for parking. 3 Kinds of Customers: 1. Brand new customer 2. Regular customers 3. Customers for life You want customers for life no matter what. How to build from new to customers for life Customer flight changes and needs hotel. Offer to call hotel and try to get corporate rate Car breakdowns assist as much as possible Listen to what customers are saying. Find problems and try to solve them What do customers want? You have to listen to their needs. They want to know they made a good choice and this is what they look for: Convenience Fast service Consistency NOTE: Thom, GM drives the bus once a week. He does every job in the operation on a regular basis. Three operations in their company started because of what he heard from customers 1. Carwash - detailer 2. Hired kids to scrape windows on cars on snow days (no charge) 3. Car warming service Keck lot is 31 years old. Only one in the area until 1½ years ago. Then 2 years ago 2 new lots arrived and offered $2.00 cheaper. Keck bet on their customer service and didn t adjust their price. It worked.

3 Great customer service will make you bulletproof. Solution to all staffing problems: 1. Hire the right people 2. Manage your team properly; communicate often When you need a driver what do you do 1. Hire a driver wrong answer Hire a ridiculously nice person who smiles all the time who loves to talk to people is an incurable people pleaser who is able to carry luggage and teach them to drive a bus Hire attitudes then teach skills When you need to hire a cashier what do you do? See above Enable your staff to give great customer service. Your staff needs to know that they are important to you, Let them know they matter often. Staff cares: Customer lost keys staff member offered to drive home customer for life. Learn your regulars and pay attention to what they drive; build relationship. If customer leaves window down.cover window, leave note we are expecting rain tonight and noticed your window was down so we covered it. Other customer-related issues where customer service cards are place on vehicle: your tire flat; we have air inflator at office your lights were on; let our office know and we will jump your car make a card with hole punch and find reasons to put on cars to provide customer service Promotion to customers engaged - Christmas TV winner Whole month of December.fill spots build database Unhappy customers do not ignore, get to them as quick as possible, learn what can be done to make them happy. If reasonable (most are), listen and then offer free parking. Video testimonials take time on shuttle or at cashier to ask customers why they parked with Keck. Let your staff know what to expect; how to handle situations (tornados, scratched cars, etc). Every staff member has a file folder for communication. Always tell why you are asking them to do something. It s polite and it gets them involved with the lot. Keck has 37 page manual. Keck staff doesn t get incentives for selling services to customers.

4 #2 Client Session Incorporating Ancillary Services. Be a distinctive operator in your market by offering additional value-added services to help increase your profitability by Amanda White / co-founder & operating partner of Metro Shine Company. Metro Shine is a waterless and a green operation that only provides ancillary services to parking operators. An easy way to generate additional revenue & customer loyalty from a captive audience. Types of Service: Dry Cleaning Oil change Glass repair Carwash Anything you can offer that will save them time Benefits of Service: New revenue Customer loyalty Benefits to Outsourcing: Focus on your core business parking Branding High quality results No expense Minimize risk Parking Lots that try providing this service themselves don t usually do it well. Opportunity: Shared revenue focus Services offered through your existing reservation system Simple accounting and auditing The facility will benefit from becoming more than a parking location to regular visitors thus discouraging from trying other facilities About the Product: produced in the states from organic materials No maintenance issues No runoff dirt, toxic materials Spray is polymer based; makes barrier and doesn t scratch car.

5 #1 Partner Session Carvoyant The Connected Car. What does the future parking experience look like? As technology causes a vehicle to be more deeply integrated with its surroundings, information will be provided to drivers the moment they need it. The time is now to learn what s next in the rubber meets the road technology and how this impacts the business of providing a place to park these connected vehicles. Technology and the future parking experience. Carvoyant provides a platform for the smart car. The connected car will communicate with the world around us. Smarter than your smartphone. How will it work in parking? Car will prompt drivers for their habits; parking, cuisines, fuel stations, etc. The connected car will have a database. It will affect parking as it will notify you when you approach your lot. We want to integrate into the smart car. Aggregators want parking data for the connected car. Operators now have an opportunity to lead using the connected car What else can the connected car do? Directions Car to car communication Social Think of what has happened to the smart phone. The car is next and it is happening now. Benefits to the parking business: Know when the next shuttle bus is coming Know the battery is draining while vehicle is parked (send message to phone) Get service done while vehicle is parked (use concierge service) Connecting to your customers with and social media

6 #2 Partner Session Mike Coleman Constant Contact What is marketing and why is it important in the digital space? Pushing content and pulling a response in real time. How to create great content! What do I write about? What you know that they don t know. What you have access to that they don t. (I.e. information) Original isn t required just be interesting and relevant. How much is enough? Less is more Focus. People are very busy and do not want to have to wade through a bunch of stuff. A picture is worth.must have an image to attract attention. It increases the chances of someone reading your stuff by 85% Repurpose and reuse (use on fb, pinterest, instagram, twitter) Just be careful and change it slightly so it doesn t look like duplicate content. Resources Hypnotic writing by Joe Vitali; the ultimate sales letter by Dan Kennedy Four areas that people are spending money on writing 1. Content development(top) 2. SEO/VSEO 3. marketing 4. Social media (fourth) How to get your opened? Three little words that rule your world Now Later Never Who is it from? (No convoluted addresses; mjones@aol.com) Winning the battle of priorities. How will you be the most recognizable? Carry branding across all channels. What s the subject? Keep it short (minimal words) When do you send your ? 1. Monthly is most common 2. Ask yourself when are my readers likely to take the action I want? 3. Try different times/frequency. Segment your lists to send at different times/days to see which has the highest reads, click through rates, did they forward Practical advice 67% don t see images by default Text links don t get clicks Key action must be above scroll line Getting social to increase your reach; must use and social to be effective Tools to expand our reach:

7 Use share tool Simple share Social media buttons Online web signup tool Apps, I capture to capture addresses Have a calendar for all channels to set schedule for what is getting posted and sent and when building your list. At its core, marketing is about eliciting a physical and measurable response. The best 3 books on marketing all from 1920s. Good book to read: Scientific Advertising Claude Hopkins

8 #3 Client Session Secret Sauce for Demand Generation. Whether its hourly, nightly, or monthly parking, learn how one urban operator generated more consumer data while simultaneously increasing sales productivity by 50% year-after-year by Moshe Izadi, Owner, Park Right Background: Urban Operator in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island Manhattan Average monthly rate is $560.00; hourly transient rate is $45.00 per day It started with Phone Reservations: Regular customers began to request parking reservations Popular but time consuming Growing but difficult to manage Frustrating when parkers failed to show up Manual process Why we Implemented Online Reservations System? less staff less time consuming easy to monitor and manage customers can cancel or be charged service fee, 24/7 available, faster for customer, Customer disadvantage some say it is uncomfortable to pre-book on the internet; worried about hackers, Third-party Websites (a/k/a aggregators ): Parkwiz.com Spothero.com Parkme.com Bestparking.com Parkingpanda.com Aggregators destroy property value in long run a. By pushing the industry to compete more heavily on pricing b. They gain value for themselves c. They stand between you and the customer d. They do not have your customer message, your customer service, no way to distinguish yourself from the competition except by price. e. You cannot contact your customers through them If you are using an aggregator, it is like renting your company to someone else and paying them to do it. It is not wise to use aggregators; they do not have your interests at heart. NOTE: Drive up rates should always be higher than your online rates no matter what For urban parking operators, offer high-end restaurants the opportunity to bundle parking when customers make restaurant reservations.

9 #4 Client Session Putting the Future of Channel Partners in Focus. It's time to showcase the results of an existing market where relationships with corporate, travel agencies and associations prove to be gold by Paula McDonald, Corporate Liaison for A1 Express Airport Parking (Tampa). Paula s Background: In video and Hollywood film making Been with A1 Express for approximately 1 ½ years helping with media relations A1 Express Background: 20 years in Tampa right across from the airport Offers covered and uncovered and valet and self-park First to implement SMC s software in 2010 Outbound Corporate Sales Calling: Call Center opens the door with phone calls No high pressure coming from a place of helpfulness 60 second introduction call Some quick to sign up while others may take 4-6 weeks to convert From calls monthly Web-based CRM to keep leads and accounts organized Once interest is confirmed then a customized corporate landing page is set up Confirmation sent to new customer Then the new account is turned over to Paula for further assistance to attract parkers Paul s Position as the Liaison: NURTURING THE LEAD Prompt Personalized call; again from a place of helpfulness or support Make it as easy as possible to use the program Few may require additional support at first Follow-up up with branded intro Track on CRM to stay disciplined Follow-up and staying top of mind with customers Track monthly client customer activity Top customer thank you s Inactive account reintroduction Scheduled e-blast to continuously promote the program Respond promptly to any calls or s received Other essentials to stay connected online and face-to-face on a monthly basis: Public thank you via social media Responding to online corporate customer i.e. letting them know you like their page Spend 4-5 hours a month on follow-up Weekly communication with Call Center Sales Monthly communication with accounts Does not have to be a huge investment of time to make this program work; it just takes work.

10 In order to have a successful program, company must: Identify responsible team member to handle Dedicated phone line (google voice) and address Create marketing account (i.e. Mailchimp or Constant Contact) Provide social media account admin access Create master account list and track interactions Proved outstanding service and response time Developing great partners to help promote your business is not an overwhelming task but it does require care and attention. Important: If company does not delight the corporate traveler, they simply won t be back.

11 #5 Client Session Dealing with airport Access Fees. The airlines pay landing fees, restaurants pay concession fees, car rental/hotel/taxi companies pay access fees, and now the parking industry by Eric Lowman, Owner, Flight Park, Nashville. Background: Airport called offsite parking operators to handle their overflow during peaks Initial fees were $75 per month per operator 2002 consultant report issued to the airports; change annual fees to $200k for airport expansion Round 1: 2005 Attempted increase from $3800 to $400m000 (twice what consultants recommended) Resulting media coverage and public outcry resulted in an increase to $20k annually ($5,000 per operator) Round 2: 2011 (Segway to the big fight) $1.50 per trip fee to be implemented with hotels paying $1.25 (NEVER HAPPENED) per trip. We elected to not fight this increase because every user was paying close to their fair share. Round 3: December 2012 Informed as of march 2013 the per trip fee would be increasing from the $1.50 to $6.50 per trip. Again, extensive local media coverage and public outcry helped to temporarily reduce to $5.50 per trip tow.50 increases over the next two years It is important to note that during the meeting with the airport board it was revealed that in 2011 the hotels per trip fee was never raised to the $1.50. IT WAS SET AT 0.25 AND WOLD REMAIN THERE Metro Council became involved Airport committee established to look into the issue Round 4: 2013 / 2014 Hired a highly recommended consultant group to prepare our legislation Legislation said increased taxation fees has to be justified for operation needs, be fairly & equitably applied and any increase over CPI would require council approval Argument was: o This is anti-competitive o This is tax on local citizens o Airport pays $0 sales tax o Airport pays $0 property tax o Airport advertises via billboards and radio no fees no taxes and no hassles

12 Currently: 1. The House and Senate bills are being finalized 2. PAC formed 3. Sponsors identified 4. Lessons learned have been identified 5. Appropriate donations are being made

13 #3 Partner Session CONCUR (see presentation); global leader for travel and expense management with an online booking engine for government and corporate; records and tracks most travel expenses; flights, car rentals, hotels, parking everything If interested on learning more, please contact: Michael Kantor Cell No charge from SMC for integration NOTE: Concur owns TRIPIT.

14 DAY 2 #1 Company Session Mike Harley Corporate, Travel Agency and Government Travel Selling anything is all About Relationships. As for parking, a commodity with many choices, the relationship is everything to maintain loyalty and grow the business. Creating a bond is not easy particularly in an era where most business people are too busy to listen and implement a new program even if it means they can save money. emarketing247 launched an outbound call center service to make cold calls for our clients. Only a small few are capable to make 100 phone calls every day to be greeted by the following gate keepers: Busy & Sassy Hopeless & Helpless Attitude toward Life Those with an Attitude And much more People who answer phone normally cannot help you. So it is essential to get connected to someone in the company who can and will give you one minute. Cold calling should be less than 60 seconds. In that 60 seconds, one needs to peek their interest in the first 10 seconds to hold their attention. NO LONGER THAN 60 SECONDS! The goal is to provide the party with a visual ( ) of the program. The visual includes: Friendly introduction Sample landing page Video of your customer service Contact information If you reach someone at 10 am on Tuesday then call them every week (for 7 weeks) at the same time of day during the relationship building. Five tips for effectively pitching and building long lasting relationships with a referral partner who will send customers to your business. This is the ultimate driving traffic machine. 1. Do your homework Know your demographics, know your target accounts, know your services, know your offer and know your competition. This tip is self-explanatory. Don t go into calling a company without a plan. Prepare yourself for a very big challenge. Compare your offer to the competition. 2. Contact by phone, or social Most business people are too busy for a sales pitch. Respect their time. I know you are busy or in respect of your time, can I provide you with information on our program?

15 LinkedIn is a vital tool in connections. Look for corporate connections by area or industry. Never on Monday. Don t send mass pitches. Business people can smell an sales pitch a mile away. Most roll their eyes within 10 seconds of reading it. Keep it personal and include images and/or videos that support your service. Companies are being trained not to open trash, non-personal, and mass s. 3. Write the introduction of program for them. Write an introduction of the offer for the company to visualize (very important) the program in their minds. Removing the scary thought from the persona responsible for implementing and then promoting the program is essential. Respecting peoples time makes potential customer know he is what is important. IN RESPECT OF YOUR TIME I WOULD LIKE TO SEND YOU AN . IN RESPECT OF YOUR TIME is a very effective marketing message. Everyone is busy, so how do you account for using their time? You have to do everything for them or the company will not promote your service. 4. Persistence Pays Off Most of the Time Don t be afraid to continue calling and ing until you hear NO, not interested, get lost or we are happy with ABC. It s all about timing and attitude of the persona responsible for liking you and your offer. Remember, rejection is no fun. The person for this position must one who will not accept NO as an answer and will continue knowing someone will say yes eventually. 5. TRUST YOUR WORD Building a new relationship is not easy. So when a company says yes, we want to use your company, now it falls on you to give them your best. Careful bonding can eventually lead to long term business relationship and adds a residual revenue as long as the service is above bar. Takes practice, preparedness patience, persistence and a disciplined process to ear one s respect. Keep your all your staff informed and trained to be effective. THE PROCESS IS SIMPLE WITH DICSIPLINE Discipline in cold calling Min 100 calls weekly Follows up weekly Min of 7 consecutive weeks Coordinate the Announcement do the work for them Service traveler to earn loyalty emerald club (car rental service to corporate travelers) Concierge Relationship Mentality check in monthly. Stay close to the customer. How is service? Any issues? Customer Service HAS TO BE THERE to work. When something is wrong fix it and let the customer know.

16 #2 Company Session Mike Harley Marketing is evolving almost as fast as technology. Small to mid-size companies are unable to keep with with trending while operating the business. Yester-year Media (see chart in PowerPoint): Internet Television Newspapers Magazine Radio Website Promotion over the last 14 years (see chart in PowerPoint): Confusion (most businesses are not fluent with web strategies) Incoming Links Keywords Optimization Affiliates Social Media in Now: Marketing Information Overload Responsive Support Communication Networking DON T BE SHORTSIDED! WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR 2020? Search Engine Marketing; Organic, AdWords, Social, Blogging and Video best practices. Descriptions and Acronyms: SEO (Search Engine Optimization); organic VSEO (Video Search Engine Optimization); organic LOCAL SEO (Google Places and Bing Local) PPC (Pay-Per-Click); same as Google and Bing AdWords CMS Content management system Make sure you own your brand.do not allow third party companies to hijack your information for their rankings on the search engines. SEO/VSEO The higher the better, right? What does it take to get on the 1 st page and retain this position? SEO is science and a lot of work. A quick search on the internet will educate you on the process. SEO is about reputation.

17 VSEO and Video Marketing is the fastest growing marketing strategy. Why? Simple, people (especially the younger generations; X, Y and Millennials) will choose watching versus reading 8 out of 10 times. Companies should produce and incorporate a video strategy every quarter through Local SEO Claiming your business on the search engines is a must. Local SEO goes beyond claiming and companies must understand the importance of optimizing local listings. PPC/AdWords never send paid advertising to the home page. Companies must create a landing page strategy to track click thru s and conversions. RESPONSIVE WEBSITE: They are not all the same. Think of your website like a layered cake. Candles links, SEM, Social Content Frosting Info architecture top layer Platform / CMS middle layer Infrastructure base layer Check out portgalvestonparking.com. This is a new RESPONSIVE site. Responsive will resize the website for tablets and mobile. Very important in these times. SO, WHAT IS A GOOD WEBSITE? Clean and fresh content check spelling Public relations news every quarter or sooner Blogging even if you blog in pictures every 2 weeks (do your own); for example, do you really want to park in front of a hotel (pic showing vehicles under trees in front of lobby)? No broken Links Sitemap Reviews we want space for people to complain on our website so we can control and fix. Answer within a couple of hours Social (8 feeds) Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn Video all sites should have a minimum of video on first page Sign-up need widget on homepage Search Engine-friendly structure SEO PRINCIPALS Certain SEO principals should not be ignored; simply as a matter of site-hygiene. SEO is not going to get easier. It s going to get harder and eventually companies will have the most likely not be able to rank on the first page. If you want to rank high on Google and Bing, it starts with building a good site and then market it across as many channels as possible. OPTIMIZE MULTIPLE CHANNELS

18 Being consistent with keyword phrases within multiple platforms will not only help your branding efforts but also train users to use specific phrase you are optimizing for. Constantly monitoring, check rankings, it is hard and it is time consuming. More importantly, it is daily, weekly, monthly, etc. BE AWARE! Third-party Vanity Companies who hold domains hostage (called resellers) and resell domains at a high cost. Secure several domains close to the name of your company for protection. This includes.org,.net,.us, etc. For example, Rocket Parking should protect their online reputation by owning these domain names: RocketParking.com (.org,.net,.us) RocketAirportParking.com (.org,.net,.us) We created the content on this page for our clients. Need to study this site. This should be your business model. This is a simple read, however, fairly comprehensive. This is how to build and sell your business in 2015 and beyond. Find the illustration of fish surrounding hooks in the water to clearly demonstrate how businesses should launch several channels in the reservations system.

19 #3 Company Session LACEY RAE HERRERO Social marketing covering all media s with call-to-action for capturing a diverse generation. LEAD GENERATION Should I be using social media for lead generation? ABSOLUTELY 55% of businesses have closed deals from social media contacts. Major stats on social media audience. (See PowerPoint) More active Facebook users than there are people in the US. How are you reaching them? What do we need to do to use this to our advantage? 90% of consumers trust recommendations from their friends. Are your customers referring your company to their friends? Why not? Social media energy on YouTube.shows all stats. (See link below) FACEBOOK Facebook users engage with brands more on Fridays than on other days of the week! FOCUS = Likes, Posts, People Advertising Video up 25% 95% who come to your pages are qualified prospects TWITTER FOCUS = Links Clicked, Influencers, Top Interest Importance of feed on your website Do you have your Twitter feed on your homepage? Are you using hashtags and re-tweeting? Are you connecting with your customers? Tweet has link to lead to landing page (specific to each social media channel)

20 REMOVE CLICKS FROM THE CONSUMER..make it simple to get to your site! Use the information that people put out there to drive them to your business. Someone tweets Headed to Bush Airport Tweet back Hey don t forget to get your 10% off parking, and have a link to your landing page. You have to cultivate followers and/or hashtags Know your customers and what social media they use. INSTAGRAM What is a hashtag? Hashtags will drive customers to you #houstonparking. All searches for Houston parking will pull up your hashtag. How do Instagram hashtags work? Pictures are worth a1000 words If an Instagram user searches the term NYCparking you better make sure your parking facility has a picture posted with that hashtag and information or a link to your website for them to reserve. Hashtags DO NOT have spaces between words, but you can and should hashtag multiple words and/or phrases. EX: Looking for #airportparking this #holiday season in the #Nashville area? Look no further, #flightpark has the best #prices and #rates in town! #RESERVENOW! LINKEDIN Business oriented Lead generation Connect with other professionals and introduces your services. SMC is spending a lot of time on social media for themselves. Referrelkey.com A new website that you connect with your LinkedIn profile to invite your connections to join your referrals. Post daily deals, services, etc. LinkedIn will connect you to people you want to build relationships with, work with, bring in as customers, introduce you to people who can introduce you to people Google Alerts you must be getting google alerts.

21 Go to google and search alerts. Put in the words you want and the you want to get the alerts. Houston airport, Airport parking. Bush airport They will alert you when they hit. Fun Facts for Social Media 3 times a week provide info 2 times a week teach them something 1 time a week start a conversation with a customer Biweekly inspire them Monthly entertain them make them laugh, not necessary to have anything to do with your business FROM AN ENGAGEMENT STAND POINT 54% FROM SOCIAL MEDIA 25% 12% WEBPAGE People want engagement! PINTEREST A pictures tells 1,000 words Money talks pins with a price have a 48% chance of being liked Size matters Tall images are shared 67% more than short images Lighten up lighter images are repinned 20 times more than darker images Learn what works for you. Nordstrom s revenue increased by $2M since opening a Pinterest account. Verify your website Then they give you an html coding which we need to give to SMC if they are our webmaster. CLAIM YOUR BUSINESS ON ALL SITES!!! GOOGLE + Is Google + worth your time? If you care about your rankings YES!!! Google + - competing against Facebook. Google + needs your website to be secure. If it isn t it will affect your rankings. A secure website begins with https: Facebook requires SSL certificate to put reservation site on there. People like pictures and videos better than words!