Wilson Parking listed #6 in the AFR Boss Most Innovative Companies

This week, Wilson Parking Australia has been named one of Australian Financial Review’s Boss Most Innovative Companies in the category of Property, Construction and Transport. As the only parking operator in the list, this recognises our company’s strategy shift towards innovation and the success of the Wilson Parking App.

Stephan Wuffli, Chief Executive Officer, Wilson Parking Australia comments, “We are proud to be listed as one of Australian Financial Review’s Most Innovative Companies. This is a great achievement for us and reflects our shift in culture, with innovation at the forefront of our strategy”.

The Australian Financial Review BOSS Most Innovative Companies list ranks the most innovative organisations from across industries in Australia and New Zealand. It is the only national competition of its kind, using a multi-layered approach to rank organisations. By evaluating a number of key criteria that identify a company as innovative, the panel of judges review the selected organisations submissions in addition to responses from an independent staff survey. Each criterion is given a score and benchmarked against others within the industry.

As a result of the pandemic and as demand for services recently declined due to more people working from home and fewer people were travelling, Wilson Parking Australia pivoted its approach by completely shifting the long-term focus of its business through innovation. This has meant transforming the company from one that manages parking facilities, to one centred on making life easier for our customers using technology.

Stephan Wuffli continues, “We’ve seen what is possible with technology compared to the traditional parking offering of tickets and payment machines. Our surveys told us customers want a digital payment and access experience and so that is the focus. It’s that mindset shift that we’ve accelerated in the last two years.”

Wilson Parking Australia has spent those two years investing in the continued development of the Wilson Parking App, which allows customers to search for and book parking spots. Everything is arranged and paid for through the app. The app forms the foundation of our service delivery model and aims to make the parking experience better for customers. The convenient and seamless experience has resulted in the app maintaining its position as the highest rated Off Street Parking App on the App Store and Google Play.

Customers have flocked to it, with 60 per cent of the business’s daily commuters now booking their parking through the app. It generates 81 per cent of our company’s online revenue. Since March 2020, bookings through the app have increased by 170 per cent.

Stephan Wuffli continues, “Wilson Parking customers are using the app primarily because it’s convenient. They can search for the nearest car parks with available spaces, and people can book their car park before leaving the house”.

The company has created App Perks, an in-app rewards program for frequent users. Customers don’t have to carry tickets, push buttons or stand in queues at ticket machines. The company is also working on a new subscription-style parking plan, an increasingly popular and transparent payment model already familiar to consumers.”

Stephan Wuffli concludes, “I think the success of the Wilson Parking App is reinforcing and motivating our entire team to be more innovative, because it’s what’s going to prepare us for the future. We are not throwing away the successes of the past, but now there is this heightened sense of urgency, and requirement to innovate. We want to transform ourselves and the industry. We’re the market leader, so we’ll be setting the tone.”