Skip The App Store, Ditch the Meter & Pay With Guest Checkout: NYSPTA Webinar Recap
HONK’s Senior Vice President, Kacey Siskind, hosted a webinar with our friends at the New York State Parking & Transportation Association (NYSPTA), where they dove into the beast that is contactless payments and discussed the importance of going beyond the app and offering guest checkout.
There’s a lot to navigate in the payment waters, but this webinar featured everything there is to know about the topic. Kacey walked attendees through the latest payment trends, consumer demands, and how implementing app-free contactless payments increases compliance and customer satisfaction — all while improving the bottom line.
We’re sharing some of the learnings from the webinar below, but we also invite you to watch the full 50-minute webinar:
Consumer behavior: trends and takeaways
What should come as no surprise is that contactless payments are here to stay — and this phenomenon is only growing in popularity every day. This form of payment was already on the rise before 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed its growth into acceleration mode. Consumers now expect contactless ways to pay for, well, everything. And if you consider most people are used to paying for their coffee via contactless technologies, why shouldn’t they have that same quick and easy option for parking?
The proof is in the pudding
Sure, we know the invaluable benefits of app-free contactless payments. But what better way to showcase its power than by painting a picture with a case study? One of our dear customers, Kevin Wood from Port Jefferson NY, joined the webinar and demonstrated how implementing a city-wide contactless payment system via HONK helped decrease his monthly expenses and increase his bottom line.
To provide context to attendees, we walked through what the parking landscape looked like before HONK came into the picture, and explained what the implementation process entailed. From signing the contract to the date the changes went live, Port Jefferson’s transformation only took four short weeks. The two big takeaways from their contactless metamorphosis are as follows: (1) Port Jefferson’s existing infrastructure was converted into HonkTAP smart stations by retrofitting the oldest meters and turning them into virtual parking kiosks; and (2) Customers are accustomed to going to physical meters to pay for parking and they’re already familiar with QR codes — so turning the parking meters into virtual versions of themselves didn’t require any education when it came to what the parker had to do. It turned out to be a no-brainer!
High level results included removing 50% of their pay & display machines. (Yes, that’s right — Port Jefferson removed half of their machines! Think of the monthly savings: No more money spent on paper, modem, communications, maintenance, or insurance.) Plus, mobile adoption jumped from 3% to 45% of total parking transactions in just 6 short months — and it’s growing every day. How’s that for a success story?
Curiosity piqued? Want to learn more about our app-free contactless payment solutions?