ParkMobile uses intelligent event data to boost parking reservations
Since ingesting PredictHQ data into their platform, ParkMobile has saved 90% of the time dedicated to collecting and surfacing events
Use Case
Dynamic Pricing, Demand Forecasting
Industry
Parking
Products & Features
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Introducing ParkMobile
Founded in 2008, ParkMobile was built on the philosophy that you shouldn’t have to think much about parking at all. Over 15 years in business, they’ve grown to become the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in North America, helping over 50 million customers easily find, reserve, and pay for parking.
ParkMobile is split into two business units: On Demand, which allows the user to start a parking session in a parking space using our app – and Reservations, which are parking spots booked in advance through its online platform. One of the company’s main goals this year is to grow its business by converting a portion of its millions of active On Demand users to make parking reservations in advance. Unlocking even 1% of its users to make reservations just once per year would represent millions in annual revenue for ParkMobile’s reservations business. To do this, the key is to improve the user interface and customer experience to make reservations a more accessible option to its users.
Incomplete venue data impacted the ParkMobile user experience
ParkMobile has found that for people searching for a place to park, venues are an optimal way to display search results, along with events taking place at that venue on the same web page. The problem was that much of the venue and event data was incomplete in its online platform, leaving the customer experience lacking.
If users visit Parkmobile.io, click on a venue they’re going to, and there are no details on the page, they can easily assume the company is unreliable, outdated, or even defunct – significantly reducing the chances of them coming back.
The primary roadblock ParkMobile faced in optimizing the user experience was the manual data entry required to build out hundreds of event and venue pages. Its approach to completing the data on its website was reactionary as opposed to proactive – typically, as the team was overwhelmed with tasks, it would add missing event data as customers would request them.
ParkMobile used to have two people on the team dedicated to auditing and tracking their venue coverage, which was done with a spreadsheet. The process would entail comparing the venue’s own web page to the ParkMobile site to identify what events were missing, then manually enter the detailed data about the venue, the event, and the parking times and rates – which was tedious and prone to error.
How the team discovered the gaps in its event coverage and why ParkMobile needed more to power more reservations
The ParkMobile team knew it needed to get access to more event data, at scale but the true moment of realizing the gaps in event coverage was made apparent through a data comparison with PredictHQ, an intelligent event data company.
After finding PredictHQ, the teams compared ParkMobile's existing solution and PredictHQ. The results? PredictHQ had three times more event coverage, and significantly higher data accuracy for event names, dates, times, and more. This analysis made the decision to incorporate PredictHQs event data into ParkMobile’s platform an easy one.
By integrating intelligent event data into their process, ParkMobile's team is now getting event and venue data into their system faster and with far fewer errors.
The team has automated the process to ingest the data, significantly reducing the manual effort and man hours required to update event and venue data in the system.
For ParkMobile, wider event coverage means the team can go after all venues that are relevant to the users – even smaller venues – as the process now eliminates the manual burden associated with ensuring a positive user experience.
Automatically populating event data in the ParkMobile site has also served as an enticing selling point for their clients. The fact that the team has a reliable process for building out event data on the website gives clients an idea of what to expect in terms of market trends and expected return for venues, which adds significant value to their offering.
Since ingesting PredictHQ data into their platform, ParkMobile has saved 90% of the time dedicated to collecting and surfacing events.
PredictHQ data unlocks higher conversions for ParkMobile reservations
With the addition of intelligent event data, the company has also powered a new search experience for its native app. The app now displays a full list of events starting with the highest estimated attendance events first.
This way, if site visitors are going to a show at the Austin Convention Center for example, when they open up the app, they're likely to see that event within the first couple screens – and if not, there's a simple search feature.
This provides users with more context around parking prices, and to share relevant information about what's happening around them – important factors in establishing trust with the ParkMobile brand and reserving a parking spot.
ParkMobile’s future plans for PredictHQ data include a full integration directly via the API into their forecasting models to further streamline and enhance how the team incorporates intelligent event data into its platform and increase the value it receives.
