The Future of Parking Payments is Mobile
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of many mobile technologies, especially in the application of mobile payments. As more and more people acquire and adjust to using mobile smartphones and smart devices in every aspect of their lives, the parking industry must also adjust to make the most of the opportunities afforded by these new technologies.
Businesses can capitalize on this shift by incorporating mobile payment solutions into their parking assets. The incorporation and integration of mobile payments into your parking assets, both physical and digital, can have tremendous benefits for both you and your parkers.
How Mobile Parking Payments Work
Mobile payments is an umbrella term that includes three different but equally important payment technologies. By adopting one of these technologies – which relies on phones and tablets – your business can add to your digital and physical parking assets.
Digital wallets are the first type and can be used at sales terminals like a credit card simply by tapping one’s phone. For the second type, customers use a parking app to make in-app mobile payments. The final option employs an in-person mobile point-of-sale device that includes an app and a card reader.
Mobile payments pass encrypted data between a phone and a card reader, utilizing an encryption technique called tokenization as well as radio frequency and NFC technologies. Mobile payment processing is both secure and speedy.
Faster Transaction Times
Parking transactions should be as quick as possible to ensure the optimal customer experience; after all, no one enjoys spending a long time paying for parking. Mobile payments are highly effective at expediting the payment process and creating a more efficient payment process for customers and parking employees alike.

Easier Payment Process
In addition to being faster and more efficient, customers have found it easier to pay for their parking mobile. In an era where convenience is paramount to keeping your customers satisfied and instilling loyalty, mobile payment options are a necessity.
One of the most common drawbacks of physical parking payment systems is the requirement of exact change in the form of paper money or coinage. People carry less and less money in their wallets and, as such, have no way to pay if the only acceptable payment method is by paying with antiquated physical currency.
In addition, another disadvantage of physical parking systems is the need to wait in line for payment, which can often take an inordinate amount of time and ruin your customer’s day. Your customers are more likely to return if they are offered added convenience through a variety of payment methods.
Less Stress
Finding and paying for parking has been shown to be highly stressful for parkers, so much so that a new term, “car park anxiety”, was coined to describe the whole negative experience. The process of finding and paying for parking has been greatly streamlined with the introduction of mobile payments, eliminating many of the stressful elements associated with the daily work commute.

Lower Operating Costs
When it comes to the bottom line of your business, accepting mobile payments can only help you out. Mobile payments easily allow you to lower operating costs and increase customer loyalty by providing easily accessible real-time data, allowing for easy customer incentive and loyalty programs, and saving money on credit card fees (some mobile payments charge less than credit card companies do for the same payment).
Dealing with cash payments is often slow, tedious, and less secure than accepting new technologies for transactions, and having cash on hand to make change can prove to be unsafe for employees. Mobile payments can provide a safer and more secure environment for your employees, and the time saved by their use can be used on other aspects of the business, such as streamlining operations.
Decreased Cash Slippage
On a day-to-day basis, parking employees face a highly chaotic and stressful environment, and despite this, they are often expected to provide fast and efficient service. With this context, it is easy to see how sometimes cash can slip through the cracks. Adopting mobile payments eliminates accidental slippage and creates a barrier to purposeful misappropriation of funds, boosting your parking revenue and helping out your bottom line.

Learn More About Mobile Payments
To learn more about the incredible benefits of mobile payments and how they can speed up and streamline your parking assets, talk to a parking expert at ParkHub today and request a demo to witness the ParkHub difference firsthand.