The Barriers Slowing Down Growth in Parking and How to Overcome Them
To grow in the parking industry, you need to manage invoicing and payments as efficiently as possible, while also delivering a world-class customer experience. Neither in-house billing nor full outsourcing is enough to meet the industry's demands. Discover the advantages of a third, more innovative approach gaining traction among leading operators.
The Challenges of Growth in a Competitive Market
The highly competitive parking market demands cost-cutting and loss reduction at every stage. To capture market share while maintaining profitability, parking operators must minimize unnecessary internal administration and collect fees efficiently—without compromising the customer experience.
Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short
Invoicing and payment processes are critical to meeting these challenges. Unfortunately, this is where efficiency and customer experience often break down, especially when relying on traditional approaches:
- Managing Everything In-House
Handling invoicing in-house—through custom-built systems, multiple external partners, various integrations, or a combination—risks increasing complexity and administrative burdens as your business grows.
- Outsourcing to Factoring Partners
While outsourcing everything to a factoring partner may seem appealing, it means losing control of customer relationships. These partners often prioritize fee collection over providing a positive, loyalty-building experience for your customers.
Three Challenges Hindering Growth for Parking Operators
1. Complex Billing—Especially in B2B
If your customer base includes both private individuals (B2C) and businesses (B2B), billing can become highly complex. A single customer may require different rates and VAT settings depending on factors like day of the week, location (street, garage, residential), or employer arrangements. Managing these processes in separate solutions for B2C and B2B often becomes inefficient and unsustainable in the long term.
2. Slow Start for International Expansion
Planning to expand into new European markets? Without a strategy for quick and efficient billing in each new country, replicating your current setup locally often leads to an unmanageable tangle of suppliers and integrations. This can create costly delays, allowing faster competitors to establish themselves while you’re still setting up.
3. Credit Losses Due to Fraudulent Accounts
Many parking operators struggle with users providing fake payment details to avoid paying for parking. Fraud is often discovered only when payments are due at the end of the month, by which time the losses have already been incurred.
The Advantages of a Third Alternative
Traditional invoicing and payment solutions aren’t enough to prepare your parking business for these challenges. Forward-thinking parking operators are instead turning to a third option: a digital platform for the entire invoice-to-cash process.
This platform integrates seamlessly with your existing IT infrastructure through smart APIs. It provides new opportunities for automation to reduce internal administration, as well as data-driven insights to optimize payment flows. At the same time, you retain full flexibility and control over customer terms and interactions.
Three Ways a Platform Solution Meets Parking Industry Challenges
1. Unified Solution for All Segments and Markets
By consolidating B2C and B2B invoicing into a single platform, you save time and reduce supplier complexity. The platform also scales with you into new markets, enabling you to offer the same seamless customer experience wherever you expand.
2. Automated Reminder Flows
The platform allows you to set up automated reminder flows for overdue payments and fines. This improves cash flow while avoiding the need to immediately escalate customers to debt collection.
3. Streamlined Account Validation
The platform simplifies account validation, preventing users from registering with fake details to evade payment.
Ready to Experience the Benefits?
Billogram’s invoice-to-cash platform is already helping parking operators and businesses in other industries lower transaction costs, optimize dunning processes, and deliver smoother payment experiences.
Curious about how a partnership with us could positively impact your business? Don’t hesitate to contact us, we’d love to tell you more.