LPR as a Marketing Tool

August, 2006

The following description of an LPR system used in the carwash industry could fit well in some parking applications. In reading this article, replace "parking facility" for "carwash" and "average time parked" for "washing times," and the application for parking facilities is obvious. Editor

In the increasingly competitive business world, tools to reinforce customer relationship management (CRM) is crucial for businesses to evaluate service to their customers. A good tool can help businesses to conduct CRM in an efficient and creative way. License plate recognition (LPR), has successfully helped businesses in customer satisfaction improvement. In most cases, the LPR system is used as a tool to control parking lot access or to monitor road traffic. In this case, it is used to provide businesses added value to their services catering to delicate customer relationship.
Carecar is a carwash company in Strovolos, Cyprus. To boost profit margins, the company was seeking a feasible way to evaluate its businesses to ensure long-term profitability. It hoped to collect information at the arrival and the exit of cars at the carwash station, and to observe the number of cars in queue and the washing times of different types of cars.
In addition to creating an efficient and pleasant atmosphere of customer service, Carecar also planned to analyze the frequency of customer visits from the collected data. It also hoped to use the important information on its "Fidelity Program" to maximize customer satisfaction.
Carecar selected a license plate recognition system to conduct customer satisfaction audits. It enables the company to monitor each customer's plate numbers, calculate the washing time for different types of cars, and generate the statistics of carwashes on a daily basis. The system can record drivers' faces with the plate numbers and lets the company figure out how often each customer uses its service.
According to the data generated from the LPR system, Carecar has been able to realize the usage habit, preference and visit frequency of each carwash customer. Able to pop up the driver's image and name with the captured car plate numbers, the system successfully helps the company identify multiple-time customers, offer value-added service to loyal customers and carry out its Fidelity Program to strengthen customer relationship.

For more information, please contact lpr@geovision.com.tw.