The world has changed very quickly in the past few days, and we are facing a truly unprecedented situation together under the global coronavirus pandemic. With lives at risk, many proactive measures have been taken in place by authorities and industry peers to slow down further spread of COVID-19. We are truly inspired by the selfless healthcare workers around the world who are on the front lines working tirelessly to care for people in need, and our hearts go out to those who's been impacted by the virus, either directly or indirectly.
With the concurrently emerging uncertainty of the financial market and economy, businesses in the parking industry have taken on tremendous pressure, including many of our customers and partners. This is a difficult time, and this is uncharted territory. During this time, I wanted to reach out and update you on how we’re approaching the situation at Smarking.
In addition to our employees entering a full work-from-home mode to help create social distancing, everyone on the Smarking team is adjusting their priorities on-hand to drop everything whenever our customers and partners reach out for support. We will also continue monitoring the dynamics at 2,000+ parking sites across North America in real time, and prepare to support our customers and partners with timely high-level observations.
At this point, the newest data is still too limited to indicate a trend, while it’s possible that the revenue goals set at certain parking locations last fiscal year, without the anticipation of the pandemic, may not reflect the operations in reality for coming months anymore. Some forward-thinking parking professionals have already initiated proactive communication with upper management/asset ownership/investors and started on replanning the revenue goals for their locations.
Leading firms from other industries such as airlines, hotels, and restaurants have also started planning and executing on programs to help incentivize pre-sales through flexible pre-booking programs, gift cards, service credits, and other promotional pre-sale products and services.
As we go forward, we’ll be sure to keep you updated, and know that we always value your questions, ideas and feedback. We are confident that with our collective efforts, the coronavirus can be defeated, and will be defeated. We will be working harder than ever to respond, support, and help. You can reach us at any time at community@smarking.com, through your designated Smarking contact, or to myself directly at wen@smarking.com if there’s anything we can do to help.
Hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy.
Sincerely,
Wen Sang
CEO, Smarking
