Customer care mystery shopping for parking

Perth & Kinross Council commissioned Alpha Parking to assess how its frontline and customer-facing staff interact with the public

Managing parking is a balancing act that requires meeting the needs of the sometimes competing needs of residents, businesses and the many visitors.

Being able to engage with these different users in a polite and clear manner helps transform the management and enforcement of parking into a public service.

‘Mystery shopping’ exercises are one way to assess how effectively staff interact with the public when handling parking related enquiries and to identify opportunities for improvement.

Perth & Kinross Council collaborated with consultancy Alpha Parking to conduct a comprehensive review of its on-street parking attendants and notice processing telephone operations.

Alpha Parking's review focused on several key areas:

• Staff rotas and shift times
• Parking beat locations
• A schedule of agreed questions developed in collaboration with Perth & Kinross Council
• The current uniform policy.

The assessment provided Perth & Kinross with insights into staff scheduling, service efficiency, and communication standards, offering valuable recommendations to enhance the council’s parking management strategy.

Welcome to Perth & Kinross

Perth and Kinross is one of the 32 local authority areas of Scotland. This largely rural council area is based in the town of Perth, which sits on the banks of the River Tay. The parking services team manages both car parks and on-street parking, with parking attendants and the back office all being in-house staff.
Alongside serving residents and businesses, the parking team engages with visitors. The region attracts a lot of tourist traffic, with sightseers drawn to the Cairngorms National Park, Trossachs National Park, the Forest of Atholl, picturesque lochs, historic towns and villages, and many, many castles.

A community-focussed service

The Community Support & Enforcement Team at Perth & Kinross Council manages a wide range of services, including providing resident and business permits, ensuring Blue Badge bays are available to those with disabilities, managing parking regulations and enforcement a ban on pavement parking. 

Formed through a merger of the Parking & Civil Contingencies Team and the Safer Communities Team, the team manages on- and off-street enforcement across 2,041 square miles and 1,823 miles of public roads. They operate over 60 off-street car parks and hold 25 Park Mark awards. This diverse team includes veterans and reservists, reflecting a strong commitment to public service and the Armed Forces Covenant.

Understanding how both the frontline parking attendants and the back office parking staff engaged with the public across a range of scenarios was a core aspect of the mystery shopping exercises conducted by Alpha Parking.

Recommendations

The mystery shopping exercise revealed that the Perth & Kinross’ parking attendants demonstrated high levels of professionalism, politeness, and helpfulness, reinforcing their role as key public-facing representatives. 

Notice processing officers were found to perform well overall, but some areas for improvement were identified, particularly in ensuring consistency and clarity in responses. The insights from the review will help the council streamline operations, improve customer experience, and enhance public satisfaction with parking services.

Stewart Skene, Perth & Kinross’ community support and enforcement team leader has responsibility for parking, Blue Badges, civil contingencies and community safety. 

He says: “The overall impression is one of competence and readiness to assist, suggesting a well-maintained parking operation with attentive and knowledgeable staff. This independent review provides strong external validation of the team’s commitment to customer service excellence, training effectiveness, and continuous improvement.

“This in-depth review has provided Perth & Kinross Council with valuable recommendations to strengthen staff engagement, operational efficiency, and customer service standards. By acting on these insights, the council is set to enhance the overall effectiveness of its parking operations.”

Key areas of assessment

Parking attendants on-street:

Alpha Parking reviewed staff rotas and schedules to improve coverage and responsiveness. The consultant evaluated enforcement areas to ensure efficient service delivery.

The evaluation enabled the development of a set of standardised enquiry handling questions to improve consistency in public interactions.

Alpha also assessed Perth & Kinross’s uniform policies and professional standards to align with the council’s public image.

Notice processing officers:

Alpha Parking created a standardised set of questions to ensure clear and consistent responses. The consultant assessed how effectively essential details, such as main contact numbers and shift times, were communicated.

Alpha conducted a two-week schedule of test calls at different times to evaluate performance and responsiveness.

Recommendations

The mystery shopping exercise revealed that the Perth & Kinross’ parking attendants demonstrated high levels of professionalism, politeness, and helpfulness, reinforcing their role as key public-facing representatives. 

Notice processing officers were found to perform well overall, but some areas for improvement were identified, particularly in ensuring consistency and clarity in responses. The insights from the review will help the council streamline operations, improve customer experience, and enhance public satisfaction with parking services.

Stewart Skene, Perth & Kinross’ community support and enforcement team leader has responsibility for parking, Blue Badges, civil contingencies and community safety. He says: “This in-depth review has provided Perth & Kinross Council with valuable recommendations to strengthen staff engagement, operational efficiency, and customer service standards. By acting on these insights, the council is set to enhance the overall effectiveness of its parking operations.”

Alpha Parking is a UK parking consultancy working with private and public parking operations, providing a one stop shop service for all parking needs both on and off-street. Its services include parking surveys, training and Traffic Orders.

For further information contact Alpha Parking on:
Tel: 020 7242 2567
Email: parkingenquiries@aparking.co.uk
www.aparking.co.uk