A Space for Customers
Release Date:
While it might not seem significant at first, securing a place to park your car is an important event. Sure, it’s not life or death, but during large events it can be time sensitive. Sometimes it’s the first experience people have when attending a concert or a large conference, so when the logistics are not working efficiently, it creates a frustrating experience for someone just looking for a safe place to park their car. But work to create a great employee experience and give them the tools to foster a customer centric mentality, you might have the recipe for an award-winning program. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Andrea Cedillo, head of customer support at ParkHub, to explore their award-winning CX program.
Andrea Cedillo
ParkHub
Connect with Andrea
In this episode:
- Chapter 1: Introduction and Importance of the Parking Experience (00:01 – 02:23)
- Chapter 2: ParkHub’s Business and Andrea’s Journey (02:23 – 04:55)
- Chapter 3: Customer Support Dynamics at ParkHub (04:55 – 07:36)
- Chapter 4: Award-Winning Customer-Centric Culture (07:36 – 09:36)
- Chapter 5: Management Approaches and Employee Engagement (09:36 – 11:59)
- Chapter 6: Training and Empowerment of Staff (11:59 – 15:09)
- Chapter 7: Data-Driven Decisions and Customer Feedback (15:09 – 16:59)
- Chapter 8: Results and Achievements (16:59 – 19:36)
- Chapter 9: Seasonality and Handling Diverse Events (19:36 – 19:54)
- Chapter 10: Take Home Value and Conclusion (19:54 – 21:24)
Highlights
The award-winning strategy: humanizing the experience
“…I think we were just being so authentic. We are so true to ourselves. We’re not scripted. And that’s, I think, one thing that that sets us apart. We are not reading from a manual, a script. Those definitely exist to kind of help give a guideline, if you will, for how we handle support requests. But we’re not scripted. We encourage the team to use their own voice, bring their personality to life, enjoy that conversation, and have that humanistic approach when they’re on the other end of the of a phone call, it can kind of be a hectic situation. So the team does a really, really good job of just humanizing that, that customer experience.”
Data is a core value
“So data actually is one of ParkHub’s core values. We make data informed decisions. The main thing I look at is volume. When are we the most busy? Are we staffed appropriately?… I also look at trends. Are we seeing the same things over and over? How can we minimize those redundancies if we’re hearing XYZ over and over? Do we need to make a help center article? Do we need to? Is there is there a bug even in our technology? Do we need to escalate that further? I also look at first response time. That’s really important for us here at ParkHub. We actually we don’t have the luxury of time. We can’t get back to our customer in an hour, and we surely can’t get back to them in 3 to 5 business days. So any high priority case, we’re actually averaging seven minutes on our first response…”
Transcript
Pat:00:00:01
It’s an industry you probably don’t think about very often, but likely have used many times.
Andrea:00:00:08
Whether it’s a concert or a sporting event, whatever it may be, when customers come to park their car, that is the very first interaction you have within that event. So you want to make sure it’s a positive one.
Pat:00:00:19
Building an award winning, customer centric culture, on this episode of The CX Leader Podcast.
Announcer:00:00:33
The CX Leader Podcast is produced by Walker, an experience management firm that helps our clients accelerate their XM success. You can find out more at walkerinfo.com.
Pat:00:00:44
Hello everyone! I’m Pat Gibbons and I am your host today on this episode of The CX Leader Podcast. As we do in all of our episodes today, we will explore topics and themes to help leaders like you develop great programs and deliver amazing experiences for your customers. You know, it might not seem significant at first, but have you really thought about the importance of parking? Well, it may not be life or death, but during large events it can be super time sensitive and it’s often the first experience you have when you’re attending a concert or a large conference or another event. So when logistics are not working efficiently, it can be a really frustrating experience just looking for a safe place to park your car. But when you make efforts to create a great employee experience and give them the tools to foster a customer centric mentality, well, you may just have the recipe for an award winning program. On this episode, I’m excited to welcome Andrea Cedillo, Head of Customer Support at ParkHub, a parking management technology company and gold winner of the customer centric category at the 2024 US Customer Experience Awards. Andrea, welcome to The CX Leader Podcast.
Andrea:00:02:06
Thank you so much. I’m very excited to be here. You know, the dust finally settled after winning that award. It was very much, pinch me, this isn’t real. Um, so to have been invited back here to speak on our experience is just reliving all of that positivity and wonderfulness that went into that award.
Pat:00:02:23
Well, we are glad to give you the opportunity to relive that because that is a big deal and we’ll get to that in a second. First, tell me a little bit about ParkHub because parking has a lot of different aspects. I know it’s the technology, but I mean, is it the people that are, you know, meeting me at the parking lot or what? What all does your company do?
Andrea:00:02:45
You know, a great question. So ParkHub at its core parking technology company, we are bread and butter is event parking. And it’s whether it’s a concert or a sporting event, whatever it may be, when customers come to park their car, like you mentioned, it is the very first interaction you have within that event. So you want to make sure it’s a positive one. And so essentially we provide an app that is on an iPhone that runs transactions. So ParkHub support is really dealing with not the people parking their cars individually, but the people running the parking operation.
Pat:00:03:20
Okay. So it’s it’s a B2B company. Right. And…
Andrea:00:03:23
That’s right.
Pat:00:03:24
…so but the end users, the people that I would be interacting with when I’m paying and so forth, like you said, I’ve probably interacted with ParkHub in the past without really knowing it. Right?
Andrea:00:03:39
Exactly. Yes. We we try to say we don’t want you to recognize the ParkHub name. We want you to have the most seamless experience and not even think twice about your parking.
Pat:00:03:47
Yeah.
Andrea:00:03:47
And that’s how we know, you know, it was a successful event.
Pat:00:03:50
Yeah. It’s like the best experience is the one that nobody really realizes. So…
Andrea:00:03:54
Exactly.
Pat:00:03:55
So. And tell me about your role and how you got into CX.
Andrea:00:04:00
Sure. So here at ParkHub, I am the head of customer support. Um, our CX department is broken into support and success. So we have a reactive team, which is support and a proactive team, which is success. But here on the support side, we like to think of ourselves as that frontline defense, very reactive. So when a customer is in event mode, they’ve got an event going on. They need help. They give us a call and it’s our team that answers. I also say that I started at ParkHub in 2017. I kind of have this unique story. Um, but I started actually doing this very role in support, um, just being a support agent back in 2017. Loved it, grew with the company, but I was so young, I was like, I don’t want to be in parking. This isn’t what I want to do with my life. I actually left but came back a few years later because of the culture. Um, you know, and so I know we’re talking about customer centric culture. It is ParkHub’s culture that that brought me back, um, but in a new role as a manager.
Pat:00:04:55
Yeah.
Andrea:00:04:55
So I kind of have this, this unique vantage point from just having done this role before and kind of knowing the pain points of of being in support.
Pat:00:05:03
Yeah. And well in in that role, obviously you’re fielding a lot of different issues, and it sounds like it would be all times of the day and night. Really. Is that right?
Andrea:00:05:15
That’s absolutely right. So events are happening nights and weekends. So we don’t have your typical Monday through Friday 9 to 5 hours. It would be too easy if that was the case. But we are open seven days a week. Holidays. Even so, we’re available to our customers every single day of the year from 7 a.m. central to 11 p.m..
Pat:00:05:33
Wow. Okay. So that’s a tough job I can tell. So I want to hear a little more about the award. I mean, I know about the US Customer Experience Awards and it’s a big deal, particularly to get a gold award and you have to submit materials. You also have to make a presentation. I’m curious, what was your story? What was the hook that they said, yeah, ParkHub gets the gold.
Andrea:00:05:59
Yeah, I think we were just being so authentic. We are so true to ourselves. We’re we’re not scripted. And that’s, I think, one thing that that sets us apart. We are not reading from a manual, a script. Those definitely exist to kind of help give a guideline, if you will, for how we handle support requests. But we’re not scripted. We encourage the team to use their own voice, bring their personality to life, enjoy that conversation, and have that humanistic approach when they’re on the other end of the of a phone call, it can kind of be a hectic situation. So the team does a really, really good job of just humanizing that, that customer experience.
Pat:00:06:36
Yeah. And it seems like, and I know we were kind of talking beforehand, this is typically and not just in your industry in every industry. It’s kind of a high turnover job. But but I think you’ve structured it where you’ve gotten people to stay at least a little bit longer. Right?
Andrea:00:06:54
You know that that’s very true. You know, again, high turnover. Um, we were looking at a shelf life, if you will, for uh, it was about a year, um, in this role. Um, It’s busy. You don’t have the best hours again. We have teams working nights and weekends. It’s not always sustainable, but when I took over the team, I really cared about fostering growth within the team, making sure that they are being challenged every day and just constantly learning within the role. And they’ve just found comfort and kind of found their niche sitting on this team. And so we’ve had, uh, we’ve turned our tenure from one year to two. I have someone going on three and a half years…
Pat:00:07:35
Wow.
Andrea:00:07:35
…on this team. Yeah.
Pat:00:07:36
That’s great. That’s a real testament to the culture, but also to the work that you’ve done. So and it sounds like it’s award worthy. So…
Andrea:00:07:45
Thank you so much.
Pat:00:07:45
Um, so typically, I think customer centric culture, I think it’s fair to say that it often starts with hiring the right people. So, you know, what are some of the things that you look for as, uh, in your role?
Andrea:00:08:00
Yeah. I really look for those soft skills that you can’t always teach. You know, you can. You can teach someone to craft a well-written email. You can teach someone to de-escalate a situation, but what I really look for is, again, those soft skills, that work ethic, adaptability, dependability, teamwork, integrity. And really, when I’m interviewing candidates, I don’t have these, you know, generic interview questions. I really just want to have sort of a casual conversation and just get to know a person for who they are. You can see a lot of that, that character, when you kind of take away the nerves of an interview and you can see their personality shine, and you can kind of get a glimpse of those soft skills that I mentioned.
Pat:00:08:39
Yeah. What about your approach, kind of as a manager, how do you help foster that culture then?
Andrea:00:08:45
I will say it helps to that I’ve done this role.
Pat:00:08:48
Yeah.
Andrea:00:08:49
I, Um, I’ve literally sat in their shoes, you know, and so I try to lead with empathy in that regard. And I always say you’re, you know, you’re so-and-so, the human before you’re so-and-so, the worker. And so knowing that they, they have a manager that cares about them outside of work and is their champion, ultimately, that they want to work hard for that person. So it’s just this mutual respect that that we have for one another.
Pat:00:09:12
Yeah. Yeah. Because I imagine, well, it could just be like a lot of jobs. It’s high stress. There’s burnout. Caring about the human makes a big difference, right?
Andrea:00:09:24
Yes, we’ll have regular one on ones, regular check ins. Um, just to see, you know, where’s your head? How are things? How can I help? What can I take off of your plate? And they really value that. They know that I have their back, essentially.
Pat:00:09:36
Yeah. Yeah. Great.
Pat:00:09:48
Okay, so as you bring people in and you get the right people lined up, what about training? Because they. I imagine they have to get up to speed on the platform. They have to know some of the common questions that that come in. How do you conduct a lot of your training?
Andrea:00:10:03
Yeah. When someone starts at ParkHub, their training begins with learning how ParkHub works on a good day when it’s actually working, and then we pivot to how do we troubleshoot it when it’s not working on a bad day. And that comes in many forms. There’s a lot of hands on in-depth training. They kind of see the ins and outs. They see what questions are being asked over and over. But my favorite part of training is kind of giving them that freedom or that trust. Okay, it’s time to fly. Let’s take those training wheels off and actually do do the job. It’s one thing to kind of see it and read about it, but it’s another thing to actually answer your first phone call. Right. Um, and what I really, really pride myself in is we have these we do have scripts, actually. We have we call them canned responses. So it’s just, you know, the most basic this is how you answer this question. But what I encourage the team to do is kind of color outside of those lines bring their personality. You don’t want kind of a boring email that that reads very plainly. Um, so again, that’s what our customers really love. They’re talking to a human. Um, that that brings their personality to their emails and their phone calls.
Pat:00:11:10
Do you find that it empowers them more that they feel like, yes, I’m being trusted to do this. Is that some of the reaction you get from from that sort of training?
Andrea:00:11:21
Oh, absolutely. Trust is essential. It goes both ways. They know that I trust them to do their job, and they trust me that, that I’m making sure that I knock down any blockers. So trust is such an important part of this team. But yes, they know okay, if someone’s upset, maybe I’m not going to crack a couple of jokes. They know not to do that. But if someone wants to vent about their day, they’ll just listen and sit in. And so they do a really good job of kind of I call it chameleoning themselves. They’ll kind of change in their tone or their cadence, even depending on the situation. So yes, they they love that they’re able to just be themselves and stay true and authentic.
Pat:00:11:59
Yeah. Well, and what about, you know, in any conversation we have, there’s usually something about data. You know, how do you use data in your role?
Andrea:00:12:09
So data actually is one of ParkHub’s core values. We make data informed decisions. The main thing I look at is volume. When are we the most busy? Are we staffed appropriately? Again, nights and weekends is going to be where we get the most of our volume. I also look at trends. Are we seeing the same things over and over? How can we minimize those redundancies if we’re hearing XYZ over and over? Do we need to make a help center article? Do we need to? Is there is there a bug even in our technology? Do we need to escalate that further? I also look at first response time. That’s really important for us here at ParkHub. We actually we don’t have the luxury of time. We can’t get back to our customer in an hour, and we surely can’t get back to them in 3 to 5 business days. So any high priority case, we’re actually averaging seven minutes on our first response…
Pat:00:12:56
Wow.
Andrea:00:12:57
…which is amazing. But you can imagine being in a parking lot if technology goes down and cars aren’t getting parked, people are getting mad, horns are honking, people are just not getting to their event. And again, that’s that, that first experience.
Pat:00:13:10
And I’m getting nervous just listening to that scenario.
Andrea:00:13:15
It can definitely be high pressure. We joke all the time. Uh, we’re we’re just parking cars, right? We’re just helping people park cars. We’re not doing surgery or anything like that, but it but it very much can be very high pressure. And we know that, uh, going into to our day, we, we don’t have the luxury of time. So I definitely look at first response time. And then lastly, I also look at the number of touches to resolution. How many emails are getting sent back and forth until this this ticket is finally solved? Can we cut some of those emails down? Do we… Are we asking the right questions? Uh, a big piece of feedback we’ve gotten in the past was, for example, troubleshooting the hardware piece of ParkHub. It’s essentially an iPhone connected to a reader so that the that you can take credit cards in the parking lot. Um, so a big part of what we do is, is troubleshooting. And customers will reach out and they’re like, you’ve already asked me these questions in the past. I don’t want to hear the same thing again. Don’t keep telling me the same troubleshooting steps over and over. So what we have then done is that, okay, can you let us know what you’ve tried? We don’t want to start from square one. We want to start from from where you finished. So what have you done so far and then we’ll pick up where you left off?
Pat:00:14:23
Mm. Very good. Yeah. What are some of the kind of results that you’ve seen in, you know, working with your team and working within the company?
Andrea:00:14:33
Here. Um, I would say our customer satisfaction score. We started measuring that in January of 2023. And it is at a healthy 98%.
Pat:00:14:43
Wow. Okay.
Andrea:00:14:43
And for context, industry standard is actually 78%. So we’re doing something great. Um, but also…
Pat:00:14:50
That’s award worthy, too.
Andrea:00:14:52
I absolutely agree, um, our customers rave about how quickly your service is and how friendly every interaction is. Um, but we’ll also get some, some feedback, right, some productive…
Pat:00:15:03
Sure.
Andrea:00:15:04
…feedback. And we’ll take that. And we’re very quick to pivot based off of our customers needs and wants.
Pat:00:15:09
Yeah, no. And and I know you mentioned just even retention. I mean, that’s a big deal is that it’s one of those silent costs that people don’t always see or understand. And just being able to to keep some of your best people on board. Um, that’s a pretty big deal. So I congratulate…
Andrea:00:15:30
Well, absolutely.
Pat:00:15:31
…you on that. Yeah.
Andrea:00:15:31
Thank you. Yeah,
Pat:00:15:32
Yeah.
Andrea:00:15:33
We call it the scary B word. The burnout. We we want to avoid that at all costs. And and again just get a get a feel and a pulse on on where our staff is so that they never reach that point.
Pat:00:15:45
Yeah. So I’m curious, is, uh, is there seasonality? I mean, I imagine there are times where it is just a busy weekend or a busy time period that you really have to manage things a little bit differently. Um, tell me a little about the seasonality of your business.
Andrea:00:16:05
Yes. So funny enough, we are just coming off our busiest weekend of the entire year, which is Labor Day weekend. Um, we service customers all across the country. Um, different, different sports, different concert venues, if you will. But we have a ton of college universities. And so Labor Day weekend is the kickoff for college football. And we had I want to say the number was 58 colleges relaunched. So have their first event, um, since last football season go live. And so needless to say, we were we were pretty busy with 58 brand new customers. Um, we even are offering support earlier. Um, so we start at 6 a.m. rather than 7 a.m. just to service those clients that start parking a little bit early in the morning. Um, but yes, summer, we, we see Live Nation concerts. That’s, you know, summer concert series. That’s when we can, um, get a little bit busy as well as New York State parks. We actually service all of the state parks in New York, and their season is also in the summer. And then we have our MLB season and NHL season. So just kind of depends on seasonality of of sports. But yes, Labor Day weekend is is our Super Bowl.
Pat:00:17:24
Wow, that. You know, I guess I wouldn’t have thought of Labor Day being the big deal, but when you mentioned all the colleges and universities, and I think that’s a great example of kind of the spectrum of the types of customers that you have, because, you know, when you think of sporting events. Yeah, college football is a big deal, right?
Andrea:00:17:44
It sure is. Yes. And that you actually bring up a great point. We have, you know, one platform one service. But different clients use them very differently. So it’s really great to just see how we can come together, you know, help us help you. How how can you use our product to the best of your ability for for your specific needs?
Pat:00:18:05
And so your team has to kind of understand the difference between handling a concert versus a football game or whatever the event might be. Right?
Andrea:00:18:14
That’s exactly right. They come with different sorts of questions. It can be similar, but. But you’re absolutely right. Just depending on the type of event or, um, or even the demographic of who’s reaching out. Funny enough, there’s a little bit of a learning curve. So sometimes there’s a little bit more handholding, uh, with, with certain demographics than others.
Pat:00:18:34
Yeah. I imagine there would be. All right, well, Andrea, we have come to that point. We ask all of our guests what we call take home value. It’s one piece of advice that you can share with CX leaders that ideally can be put to use pretty quickly. So, Andrea, what is your take home value that you would like to share today?
Andrea:00:18:58
I’d have to say, just truly understand the day to day of your team and their pain points. Don’t just rely on what the data is telling you. The best way to do this is just get into the trenches with them. Answer emails, answer calls, truly see what it’s like to be on the other end of support. I am always humbled when I step in and answer calls for a few hours. Um, I’m just wowed by my team. I’m like, oh my gosh, you guys do this day in and day out and you do it with a smile every single day. Um, so just truly being again, empathetic and knowing what your team does so that you can make those educated decisions and, and everything you do, you’re doing for, for the greater good of your team.
Pat:00:19:36
It’s terrific advice. Andrea Cedillo is head of customer support at ParkHub, a recipient of a gold award from the US Customer Experience Awards. Andrea, thanks for sharing your story on The CX Leader Podcast today.
Andrea:00:19:51
Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.
Pat:00:19:54
And if anyone of our listeners would want to reach out to continue the conversation, how can they reach you?
Andrea:00:20:01
Uh, LinkedIn, I’d say, is the best way. Let’s connect. Let’s chat. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. Yeah.
Pat:00:20:08
All right. And if you would like to discuss this topic with one of my colleagues here at Walker, or you have a great idea for a topic on a future episode, email us at podcast@walkerinfo.com. We always love to hear from our listeners. Be sure to rate The CX Leader Podcast through your podcast service and leave a review. Your feedback will help us improve the show and deliver the best possible experience to you, our listeners. Check out our website cxleaderpodcast.com. From there, you can follow the show and you can find all of our previous episodes and link to our blog, which we update all the time. The CX Leader Podcast is a production of Walker. We’re an experience management firm that helps companies accelerate their XM success, and you can read more about us at walkerinfo.com. Thank you for listening and remember, it’s a great time to be a CX leader, and we’ll see you next time.
Tags: awards Andrea Cedillo ParkHub customer centricity Pat Gibbons