The social media agency often suffers from myopia. While it may be good at local search optimization and where to advertise for maximize exposure, there are still aspects of the customer experience that are often overlooked. Sometimes things beyond the brand’s ability to control intervene between the customer’s decision to visit a merchant and actually making the visit. If the brand is in the city, then transportation is a serious concern and one of the main transportation problems is parking.
There are now several apps available that help the customers navigate parking issues. Some of them are city specific and some are better than others at dealing with sudden traffic issues or parking meter rates. The social media agency should help customers arrive to a place to purchase products by pointing customers to the appropriate app for navigation assistance.
Some of the apps currently offer advertising and some plan to once their viability is established. Digital advertisers can also use these advertising locations as a viable sounding board. It is also possible that a referral to an app may be compensated by the app. There are several opportunities for a partnership between brands and these parking apps. Even if not a partnership, brands should embrace these apps as a way to help the customer experience. Customers are notoriously fickle and a parking problem is often enough to make them prefer a competitor, even one with an inferior product.
