In many cases you would think that a bigger company is better than a small company. But from my experience, smaller airport parking companies may be better. Here, I will explain why.
I recently ran the office for a relatively small but busy airport parking company. I met hundreds of customers every day, and customers often compared their experience with past experiences at other airport parking companies.
Still the Best Airport Parking?
What you must remember is that most large companies probably started small and grew over years. When airport parking companies grow large they may try to cut costs, and try to improve efficiencies. They also may get complacent when they are fully established. Some may believe they are established and will easily get more repeat customers. They often don’t try as hard to keep their standards of customer service high.
Smaller and newer airport parking companies know they have to try hard to get established and grow a good reputation. The way to do that is to give a great price and a great customer service. The best they possibly can. This builds trust and customers really appreciate it, and love them. From that they get repeat customers and the best possible free advertising, word of mouth recommendations.
Efficient Airport Parking
The company I worked for was both small and new and we were trying to give the best possible service to build the business. To give a great customer service, an airport parking company has to be well organised and give an efficient and friendly service. We often went the extra mile if a customer had a problem, for example with their car, or if they had left something in their car.
One part of the business that we were better than the bigger airport parking companies was getting people quickly to and from the airport. Once you arrive at the airport parking carpark you are booked in. You park up and unload your cases from your car. The next thing to do, is to be transported to the airport.
Quicker Airport Parking Shuttle Service.
One thing that customers often liked was the fact that we used mini-buses instead of one large bus. Many of the large airport parking companies use a large single deck bus. They probably do this to cut costs as one large bus is probably cheaper to run than two or three mini-buses. Obviously one driver’s wage is less than three. This bus may hold 40 people including their luggage. If full it is not a comfortable experience. One problem with a large bus is that they may not leave for the airport until it is full. When it goes to the airport, it will drop departing people off and collect arriving people from every terminal. This would typically take 40 minutes each trip, if the carpark is near the airport.
It is unlikely the large company will run two large buses and therefore the one bus is the only route to and from the airport. This is not the only problem with large airport parking companies. In the summer peak they get very busy (as do all airport parking companies). As Large Airport Parking companies typically only run one bus, that bus can sometimes fill up and customers have to wait for it to come back! That is a 40 minute wait. And then you may have to wait for it to fill up and then go to every terminal. It could take you over an hour to get to the airport even if the airport parking carpark is close to the airport. If it is not close, or there is traffic, it could take longer!
More Flexible Airport Parking.
Smaller airport parking companies on the other hand run mini-buses which are more flexible. There could be one minibus at the airport collecting arrivals while the other is at the carpark taking departing customers to the airport. As the small airport parking company grows it is not too difficult to get a third or even a fourth minibus. Minibuses are smaller and only carry 6-12 people, and their luggage is stored separately. It is a much better system for both comfort and efficiency. Customers also told me it was a more personal service, as they felt like cattle getting cramped on a large bus with all the luggage.
Rapid Airport Parking Shuttle buses.
Customers at a well organised small airport parking carpark, that is using mini-buses, will only have to wait an average of ten minutes, either to or from the airport. I suspect the average wait for customers at the large airport parking companies using a single large bus will have to wait much longer.
Even though my job at the small busy airport carpark was running the office, I occasionally helped with driving the mini-buses to and from the airport. This gave me great positive feedback from the customers. They much preferred the minibus system. I also saw the many frustrated and annoyed people waiting a long time at the airport for the large buses. When you are comparing airport parking companies, I would recommend companies that run mini-buses rather than a bus to take you to and from the airport. I think the large companies don’t want to pay for more than one driver. They are getting greedy and putting profits before customer service.
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