Diamond Parking has over 80 years of continuous parking experience making Diamond the oldest parking company in the country. Today, we are a multi-national corporation operating in two countries and 45 cities. We currently manage more than 1000 independent locations in eight states including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, California, Alaska and Hawaii. These locations include the operations of parking facilities in hospitals, sports arenas, multi-level garages including "Park N Fly" facilities, major hotels, shopping centers, valet operations, surface locations.
Our contracts encompass a broad range of lease structures. They include: Management agreements, gross and net percentage agreements, straight fixed leases, and many combinations thereof. Diamond Parking's financial strength and flexibility in contract structure has led us to be a leading parking operator.
Diamond Differential
Diamond is the oldest and one of the largest parking operators nationally. What we have to offer comes from over 80 years of experience and it can be summed up in one word: Know-how. From Diamond's first employee in 1922 (who is still on the job as chairman emeritus) to the attendant who cheerfully greets your tenants every morning, our people know how to get the job done. We have spent eight decades discovering the best methods for cash control, customer service, and revenue enhancement.
Extensive Valet Experience and Employee Base
Diamond has trained valet attendants to draw from. That means staffing will not be a problem, even at the busiest of times. Each of our valets is trained to serve the highest of customers. Your tenants and their guests will appreciate the service they get from Diamond Parking. When your tenants receive superior service, retention rates remain higher than where the service in the garage is adequate or substandard.
Diamond Parking's Objectives and Philosophies
Diamond's corporate strategy is simple: Profitable Growth. We achieve this by slowly growing our operations and territories as quality services can be provided. Modest growth goals and the demand for excellent service have driven Diamond Parking to be the largest privately held parking company in the world today!
On the micro level, Diamond cannot reach its goals unless we provide superior service. We promote superior service through the extensive training of our employees and then empowering them to achieve excellence. Diamond rewards performance with recognition incentives and awards.
Diamond Parking measures the quality of our service by listening to our customers. By maintaining good communication with our landlords and soliciting feedback, we can measure the quality of service we provide and refine it as necessary.
Diamond Parking understands that our employees are the first and last contact with many tenants. We understand that our parking attendants and other staff can reflect directly upon experience and impression left with the customers. Accordingly, Diamond Parking has developed an approach to customer service that is best described by our company's definition of a "Parking Customer":
A PARKING CUSTOMER IS:
- The most important person ever on this location.
- Not dependent on us…we are dependent on him/her.
- Not an interruption to our work…but the purpose of it.
- Not favored by our serving him/her…they are doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to serve them, so that we may earn the privilege of serving them again.
- Not an outsider to our business…he/she is the most important part of it.
- Not someone to argue or match wits with…no one ever won an argument with a customer.
Diamond prides itself on the extra services we provide. We understand that our employees are often the first to greet your tenants and the last to bid them "good day." Our actions reflect directly on the management of the building. With that in mind, we have extensive policies in place that ensure good customer service and a pleasant transaction between the customer and our employees. What your tenants will notice most are the programs that go above and beyond ordinary garage service. The following is a sampling of programs that Diamond currently implements in fine office garages:
Customer Service Training Philosophies and Techniques
Upon hiring, each employee is assigned an experienced trainer and trained for a period of up to two weeks, as parking garage cashier and in valet operations. This gives the employee a well-rounded, solid understanding of the high quality of work expected of them, and of the varied types of duties and responsibilities involved.
Letters from satisfied customers are immediately passed to the City Manager and to the company president for special recognition of the employee. Selected letters are placed in the corporate newsletter that is sent to all employees and property owners who we work with.
All new hires are requested to take a drug test as a condition of employment. Random drug tests are conducted throughout the term of employment. Any employee testing positive for drug or alcohol use while on duty will be immediately suspended and subject to guidelines outlined in our Substance Abuse Policy.
Methods of Measuring Quality of Service
Diamond Parking recognizes that our employees are the first and last contact with many patients, employees, and visitors. For this reason, we have numerous programs to ensure good customer service. We understand that our parking attendants and other staff will reflect directly upon the experience and impression left with visitors, tenants, and guests.
Diamond Parking measures the quality of our service by listening to our customers. We will maintain ongoing communication with Owners and Property Management and will continually solicit verbal and written feedback; so that we may gauge the quality of service we provide and refine it as necessary.
Following are brief descriptions of how Diamond Parking measures the quality of service we provide our customers:
Customer Service Audits
Excellence in customer service is achieved by maintaining the principals stressed during the initial training of our employees, as well as on an ongoing basis. We believe that good customer service is achieved not only by selection of quality employees and thorough training, but also through constant monitoring and coaching. Diamond Parking employs a number of progressive tools to ensure that customer service is maintained at an exceptional level on an ongoing basis.
Secret Parking Shopper Program
Diamond Parking will routinely conduct customer service audits of our operation utilizing a "Secret Parking Shopper". This auditor will visit the location as a parking patron and evaluate the service unannounced. Diamond Parking will utilize current staff unknown to the employees (i.e., corporate accountants, clerks, etc.) or will hire an independent contractor to perform such audit.
Secret Shoppers are provided with checklists citing levels of friendliness, efficiency, accuracy, uniform dress standards, knowledge, general helpfulness, and specific areas of focus. Subsequent reports are issued to the location supervisor for use in coaching, counseling or rewarding the employee.
Phone Etiquette Audits
In addition to physically visiting a location, Diamond Parking conducts secret phone inquiries to evaluate employee's telephone customer service. Such audits are performed regularly because telephone etiquette is a major component of overall customer service performance. Reports of telephone customer service are shared with employees to reinforce good customer service.
Complaint Resolution
Diamond Parking takes pride in the fact that we treat every customer complaint very seriously. Due to the large volume of customers we serve, occasionally misunderstandings do occur. If a customer is unhappy, we want to know about it and take steps to remedy the situation immediately. Complaints are followed up in writing or with a telephone call. The Facility Manager handles the majority of these situations when they occur. Our ultimate goal is to see that the customer is satisfied!