How to Protect Your Business Parking Spaces
Posted on: 6 November 2019
Parking is an important but often overlooked component to any business's success. Customers are more likely to visit a business that has ample parking, as opposed to a business where they will have to fight for street parking. If you have a parking lot, you're off to a great start. However, you'll need to take steps to create and enforce parking rules for the best results. Here are four things businesses can do to protect their parking spaces:
1. Create time limits.
Set reasonable time limits on the use of your parking stalls. When creating time limits, take into consideration the type of business you run. A convenience store can impose time restrictions of half an hour, while a restaurant would have to allow people more time to get their food and eat. Make sure whatever time limit you pick doesn't leave your customers feeling rushed and stressed since this can negatively impact your business. Post time limits in clearly visible places so customers are aware of your policies.
2. Clearly mark reserved stalls.
Customers need a place to park, but your employees do as well. You can keep your employees happy and make their workday easier by reserving certain parking stalls for staff use. In order to prevent customers from parking there, you will want to clearly mark these stalls as reserved. You can accomplish this by posting durable outdoor signs or by spray painting the word "reserved" directly onto the asphalt.
3. Ask customers to pay parking fees.
If your parking lot is particularly busy, you may want to enforce parking fees. Enforcing parking fees can free up parking stalls more quickly, since people are less likely to linger if they need to feed a meter. You can also make a little extra money using this method, which you can then reinvest in your business.
4. Enlist the help of a towing service.
In order to be effective deterrents, your parking rules need to be strictly enforced. If customers overstay time limits, park in reserved stalls, or fail to pay parking fees, you can have a tow truck remove their car from the lot. Find a local towing service that serves your area and have their phone number ready in case you need it. When you use a towing service to remove offending cars from your parking lot, you will want to ensure the contact information of that towing service is clearly listed. Customers whose cars are towed will then need to be able to contact local towing services to retrieve their cars.
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