7 tips to prepare your retail car park for the Christmas challenge

Many shopping centres have already put in place COVID-19 safety measures for the festive season; but what about car parks?

Cristina Lynn of ptc. shares her tips on how retail landlords can set a positive tone right from the start, promote customer satisfaction and reduce traffic congestion.

1. Click and collect

Many shopping centres have allocated specific areas of their car parks for collection of online purchases. Over the Christmas period, it will be essential to have smooth traffic flow and sufficient queuing and parking facilities.

Ask your parking consultant to review the location of pop-up facilities to identify access and signage requirements, and check they are easy to locate and do not create conflicts with other parts of the car park and loading dock.

2. Pick up and drop off

Welcoming areas for customer pick up and drop (private vehicles, car share and taxis) will enhance the customer experience for those not wishing to park.

For instance, the design of a porte-cochere style area or covered entrance near the main entry of the shopping centre – with good signage, environmental graphics and clear traffic flow – will certainly enhance the shopping experience.

Short term parking access and management of spaces near the pick up and drop off area should also be considered for driver and pedestrian safety.

 3. Driver safety

The holiday period often leads to an increase in car park collisions, which are attributed to customer frustrations and reduced driver concentration. You can better manage these risks by ensuring regulatory signage and car park line marking is compliant and well maintained.

To boost customer confidence, we recommend looking at your formal car park management plan for efficient ways to guide drivers into and out of the car park. This may mean deploying extra traffic management staff to manage traffic flows, help customers find a parking space and more easily leave the car park at the end of their visit.

You can also inform your customers via social media about best times to shop at your Centre. This year is particularly important as more people may be choosing to shop during the week than in the past.

4. Touchless technology

For car parks controlled by boomgates, we suggest speaking with your equipment supplier to evaluate available touchless options, plus their costs and timing, to coincide with the release of Christmas campaigns and customer facing promotions.

Some options to reduce touchpoints and promote a COVID-19 safe environment are to:

• enable customers to tap in and out with their credit card – this eliminates the need to take a ticket and visit a pay station (where touching screens and keypads can be avoided);
• where license plate camera recognition is in use (and boom gates lift automatically at entry and exit), encourage payment by credit card at exit (to avoid a touchscreen pay station);
• provide hand sanitisers at convenient; locations (including pay stations) to promote good hygiene and clean hands – don’t forget to regularly refill the containers;
• review the use of your valet facility – check if the service offering promotes COVID safe procedures (for touching of car interiors and keys), and display these at the Valet Desk to help alleviate customer concerns.

5. Car park management plan

In addition, remember to check staff are aware of what to do in different circumstances, and detail any temporary changes to traffic flows (including temporary signage). As with all traffic management plans, this should be developed by a qualified professional who will consider all the risks and mitigation strategies.

6. Bicycle parking

Studies indicate cyclists shop more often and spend more per visit than drivers; yet bicycle parking facilities are generally substandard.