Ensuring business continuity, preparing for a ‘new normal’, and even plotting a return to pre-pandemic norms have all kept businesses busy during 2020. But, without tradeshows and conferences to showcase solutions or business travel to connect with clients face-to-face, new strategies have been needed to ensure that progress is not hindered or opportunities lost. In our latest Quick Question series, our parking experts share their experiences of maintaining business operations during the coronavirus pandemic, from online meeting tools and virtual events to adapting to new markets and focusing on product development.
Andrew Sherstad, Hospitality Guru at TEZ
“I’ve continued business with more emphasis and focus on human connection. From presentations to virtual meetings, I’ve been approaching business with more compassion and empathy because it takes time to connect, and trust and understand individuals without the personal face-to-face connection. Additionally, I think it is very important to ask good, open-ended questions to learn what is important to that individual you are speaking with. We are given two ears and one mouth and we should use them in that ratio.”
Simon Wood, Senior Key Account Manager at CCV
“CCV have been busy working out what normal will look like and preparing our offering for the new world. We’ve been responding to significant growth in demand for contactless and touch-free payment solutions, especially in Germany. And looking towards an increasingly cash-free parking world.”
Alexandra Maillot, VP of Sales, USA and Canada Division at Survision
“When physical events were canceled one by one and travel was limited we had to rethink our way of doing business. We concentrated all of our efforts on doing different virtual events, webinars, remote training, and even fun virtual coffee breaks. Of course, virtual meetings will never replace the in-person experience but we can quickly find the positive impact. We found ourselves to be even more efficient, as we can serve more customers in one day by doing the training and webinars without losing time traveling.”
Nick D'Alessio, Senior Business Development Manager at Brother Mobile Solutions
“We have continued to innovate and figure out new ways that we can be at the side of our customers. We have spent a lot of time on virtual meetings with cameras turned on so we can engage and still maintain that personal connection with our customers. This doesn’t completely replace face-to-face meetings and we are looking forward to the days we can continue personal interactions, but for now, we’ll still be at their side.”
Joan Sarda, Marketing Manager at Circontrol
“It is hard for us to do business without seeing, our customers face-to-face, so that we can see each other and understand what are their needs, but not just by email. Nevertheless, we are working globally, so we are already used to dealing with customers who are far away. Besides that, we wanted to give a message that we are up and running all the time, and so we have done a lot of webinars and e-conferences, and working with digital platforms as much as we can.”
Guus Kerstholt, International Sales Manager at Parkos
“Because Parkos is an international, online comparison platform for airport parking, work can basically be done from anywhere, just as easily from home, as from the office. Of course, we find personal contact with our partners very important and normally we visit our partners regularly. We do miss this kind of contact at the moment, that is why we currently maintain online contact with our partners. In this way, we can still ensure that we bring the right offer to our customers at any time.”
Enrico Filippi, Product Marketing Manager, Global at HUB Parking Technology
“At HUB Parking we try to be as reactive as possible to new demands and adapt accordingly. We’ve amplified our digital channels to support customers’ new needs, such as safe, touchless parking with our digital and contactless solutions. We also have a strong digital presence with a suite of local websites along with our global one and social media touchpoints to communicate with clients and fellow HUB-bers around the world.”
Hans Puvogel, COO at Parkopedia
“Parkopedia had all the tools and processes in place when the lockdown came, which means we carried on at full steam. We made good use to develop the use of our products and services even further.”
Marc Boher, Chief Commercial Officer at Urbiotica
“For us, it has not really been a big change as we were already used to working online since we are selling globally from Barcelona. So we were quite used to it. Obviously, we miss meeting our customers, especially at conferences, tradeshows and events - we are looking forward to these returning”
Harvey He, Director of Parking Solutions at Dahua Technology
“During the epidemic, we have worked from home for several days a week and reduced unnecessary face-to-face meetings with customers. Thanks to the internet, much of our work can be achieved online. We have organized webinars to offer promotions and training for customers. And necessary measures have been taken when we meet each other, such as wearing masks and keeping social distance. Covid-19 has physically isolated us from customers but it cannot isolate us as a business.”
Jason Yu, Business Innovation Sales Specialist at Parkxper
“We continued our business by shifting our target market from private sectors to public sectors as only government-related projects are still moving during this period. And, since traveling has been limited we have focused more on generating new ideas and our product line. Shifting target markets and strengthening our product offering has become our main focus during the pandemic.”
Maarten Mijwaart, Business Developer Benelux and Scandinavia at Tattile
“Like most companies, we have started using online conferencing tools much more frequently. In addition, we have organized a series of webinars about topics like ANPR and smart cities, ANPR and the environment, and ANPR and ticketless and frictionless operations. Of course, we ensured that the factories remained open so that we could continue to ship products to customers worldwide without any interruption. We have won new projects, we have found new clients, so we are definitely looking at the future with confidence.”
Adrian Cseko, Sales Manager at Asura Technologies
“Professional events are extremely important for us as they are invented for networking and showing off our newest technology. Limited travel opportunities push us to get the most out of our online meetings, but honestly, nothing can replace meeting in person with colleagues and partners. But we continue to take efforts to develop contactless parking solutions that may help restore at least a small portion of daily life as it used to be.”
