Last week was T2’s company meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. We do this annually. Getting all the folks together under one roof is a big deal for us!
Why?
Because unlike many companies, only about half of the 50-or-so employees work in the company headquarters, while the other half are spread out across 11 other states (CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, LA, MI, NM, PA, TX and WI) and also Ontario, Canada.
The agenda for these meetings is pretty good. It’s a mixture of individual and team meeting time, guest speakers, fun events, philanthropic efforts, and Where-We’ve-Been-And-Where-We’re-Going updates.
I’m not sure how much it costs to get everyone together and “shut down” the company for a few days of meetings but I know it’s worth it. Admittedly our tech support folks go a little bit nuts trying to fit phone calls into the break time between sessions but I'd question their sanity to begin with (I'm kidding! They do a phenomenal job!)
With so many “remote” staff members you might wonder how T2 gets anything done at all. My guess is that it comes down to two things: having the right people, and having good communications. [Side note: While it would be easy for me to fawn over my co-workers I’m sure that some of them are reading this and I wouldn’t want them to get swelled heads; suffice to say that T2 hires the best people possible regardless of their location - ergo the high number of remote employees - and this methodology has been a significant contributor to T2’s past success.]
Anyway, I want to move onto the topic of having good communications – not just for our staff but also for our customers.
We focus a lot on communications. A lot. A whole bunch more than you would think is necessary. We have regular internal and external newsletters, conference bridges, high-speed Internet for all remote staff, e-mail, Intranet, webcams, and Instant Messaging. Different media for different purposes... and that’s still not enough to get the right information to the right people all the time!
At the company meeting this year one of our guest speakers was Nancy Ahlrichs Raichart from EOC Strategies LLC. She did a fantastic job presenting about generational communication.
As an introductory component of her session we played the children’s game of Broken Telephone. Oh, we all knew what was going to happen… but Nancy’s approach took a more mature turn: we focused on why the message was garbled at the end of the chain and we sought to explain how to recognize the issue and prevent it from happening.
Two items that stood out: the level of noise in the room, and the need for repetition of the message (not allowed in our version of the game).
Switch to thinking about your parking operation for a moment. You have information you want to deliver to your customers. At a minimum this includes rules and regulations, fees and locations. And more likely this also includes announcements, office contact information, special events, appeal processes, and how to pay for stuff.
Clearly an informed parker is a better parker. Informed parkers break the rules less, understand how the system works, and basically go-with-the-flow according to the parking habits you’re trying to encourage.
So you have the same problems as the Broken Telephone game: how do you get your information heard above the “noise” that parkers are already subjected to, and how can you repeat this information in ways that parkers will understand it?
You can produce the basics: brochures, letters, web site, and FAQ. But most parkers will ignore your attempts to inform them. You need to find ways to inform them in a more active manner rather than posting information passively. This means creating a web site that is interactive (make them want to visit your site), and put clear messages on the parking items they possess: hangtags, access cards, parking tickets, and the like.
In fact the best suggestion would be to hire an expert to perform this task for you. Find a Marketing Communications or PR firm to help – after all: you’re in the business of running parking not creating web sites. (It’s possible that your operation is large enough to support having somebody specifically in charge of communications; I’ve only ever seen this once before at the Transportation Services Office of Texas A&M University and they do a spectacular job of promoting parking and informing customers; check out their parking videos).
But I digress… let’s get back to Nancy’s presentation at our company meeting. Nancy also provided insight into communication by generation. She presented the generations in question (the actual definitions vary but these birth-years are within a year-or-so of most accepted definitions):
- Veterans (born prior to 1945)
- Baby Boomers (1945-1964)
- Generation X (1965-1976 - this is me, born in '67)
- Generation Y (1977-1987)
If you live in North America you’ll understand the significance of this right away. If you’re from Europe or Asia you might have a hard time understanding why this is important to us North Americans, how it impacts society here, and most importantly: what this means for your parking operation.
I’m not about rehash all the exercises that we did to identify the attributes and stereotypes of each of these generations. Suffice to say it was entertaining and highly informative, and that the information was presented in an understandable, non-biased way.
We discussed work ethic, leadership approach, view of authority, outlook and values for each of these generations in order to get a better understanding of how they think and therefore how best to communicate with them in a method that best meets their (collective) nature.
We also discussed each generation’s approach to technology. I found this to be most insightful for application to parking management. Again, these are sweeping generalizations here but Veterans tend to ignore technology, Boomers tend to be late adopters (light users), Gen X inventors of technology (early adopters), and Gen Y demonstrate a mastery of technology (heavy users).
Your individual level of mastery of technology has a profound impact on the way you communicate regardless of your generation. But so does your audience… you need to tailor your message and medium of communication to suit your audience if you really want to reach them. The medium is the message and the audience is the content, right?
I’ll go out on a limb here and say that most parking managers are Boomers, giving way to Generation X in the next few years. I’m basing this non-scientific statement solely on personal observation and perhaps a little bit on statistics: Boomers make up 42% of the American workforce, Gen X is 29.5%, and Gen Y is 21%, and Veterans are at 7.5%.
My observation has been that in the last 10 years technology adoption in parking has been much, much faster than technology adoption in the general public. This is not because parking operations are so far advanced, it’s more likely because older generation (a.k.a. Veteran) parking managers have been retiring and giving way to younger generations of managers – those who are more apt to apply technological solutions to their businesses.
But adding technology to your parking operation is only going to go so far because the level of technology available in the parking industry is not really best suited for all audiences.
Huh?
Let’s say you’re a parking manager. Then you’re likely a Boomer or perhaps a Gen X’er, thinking like a Boomer or X’er. You’re adding to your parking operation the technology that makes sense to you, and you’re trying to keep your audience in mind.
However you don’t understand your parking audience. Sorry. You think you do... but you don't.
You only tryly understand the generation that matches yours (or perhaps if you’re on the cusp between two generations you have some insight into how two generations think) but ultimately you just don’t “get” those other generations.
I’m not blaming you here. This is not an accusation. It’s a fact. Collectively those other generations view technology, authority, society, and the world differently than you do. Not right, not wrong, just different.
It’s Gone With the Wind versus Easy Rider versus Breakfast Club versus Napoleon Dynamite.
I want to better illustrate this point with a parking example:
Say you’re a Boomer parking manager running a campus parking operation. Now look at your parking audience. In a campus environment your audience is primarily students… Generation Y mostly, as well as the leading edge of kids in the next generation after that.
You’re going to install technologies like One Card gate access and wireless handhelds and interactive web pages. These are the modern technologies of the parking industry. This is as good as it gets for our business today.
The students will say “Well it’s about time!”
It’s not that the parking audience doesn’t appreciate your efforts. However to Generation Y these technologies are antiquated. They fully expect their student card should pay for parking and don’t understand why it won’t. They mastered the web seven years ago already. They're wondering why you can't give them a hangtag with a personalized digital photo of their dog on it.
And they’re looking for you to communicate with language and a medium that truly speaks to them. For example: a text message “lot M clsd 2day. OK 4 prking deck lvl 5 nstead”. This would make perfect sense to them, and they’re wondering why parking operations don’t already offer this feature.
Seriously.
I do associate with some Gen Y friends. I try to understand them; really, truly understand them. They agreed that this type of information delivered in this manner would be completely acceptable to them.
My Y-friends also said that when a parking gate is broken or stuck open then they immediately text message 150 of their friends to tell them, and those friends would tell their friends....
My Y-friends also added that at the beginning of the school year they have chat room discussions about navigating around the school (not physically - but figuratively regarding getting around processes and authority) including about how to evade parking enforcement.
My Y-friends are very communicative!
How can a parking manager manage against a networked army of students? Even equipped with the most modern parking technology tools available in our industry today you still don't have a sufficient arsenal.
Fortunately most other parking operations (municipal, airport, hospital and private) cater to a multi-generational audience. On one hand this is a blessing: the networked army of parkers doesn't make up the majority of the parking population. But on the other hand it means that in order to communicate effectively the message should suit the audience and a multi-generational audience will need multiple means of communication. That’s a challenge for any parking manager, which is why it makes sense to get professional help in crafting the message and the delivery medium.
Oh, and incidentally, those Gen Y friends of mine also think that my blogging about Technology and Parking is “like, so yesterday” and that I should “totally be podcasting instead”.
I don’t think so… I’m already too old for that! :-)
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