When Technology Makes Simple Things Hard: A Parking App Customer Experience Story

One thing that is almost guaranteed to upset people is receiving a parking fine. Most of us are law-abiding citizens who do not deliberately park incorrectly and risk a penalty. Yet, as technology increasingly replaces traditional parking systems, many customers are finding themselves exposed to new and unexpected ways of getting things wrong.

This brings me to a customer experience story involving my wife and her uneasy relationship with modern technology.

My wife owns an iPhone, but her use of technology is fairly limited. She mainly uses it for the occasional phone call, WhatsApp message, and as a camera. She has also been driving for many years and, until recently, has always sought out car parks where she could buy a ticket using coins.

Like many areas across the country, however, the parking machines where we live are rapidly being replaced by app-based systems, often with no option to pay by cash.

Recently, my wife was due to visit friends in the nearby town of Wilmslow, where many of the car parks are managed through the RingGo app. One of her friends suggested that I help her install and set up the app before the trip. So I did exactly that, including adding her credit card details and walking her through the process.

Even during this practice session, she found the experience frustrating. To park successfully, you need to identify the correct car park location number, select the vehicle registration, choose the length of stay, and then confirm payment. For regular users of parking apps, this sequence is routine. For my wife, however, it felt considerably more complicated than inserting a few coins into a machine and displaying a ticket on the dashboard.

Before she left, I asked her to call me if she encountered any problems.

Later that day, my phone rang. She was delighted. Everything had gone according to plan.

When she arrived home, however, I asked to see the app. There was no confirmation text message. Looking more closely, I realised what had happened. On the final screen, where payment had to be confirmed, she had not completed the process. She had assumed that selecting the amount to pay was enough. In reality, the payment had never been authorised.

As often happens when technology goes wrong, emotions quickly became involved. She felt embarrassed and worried that others would see her as incapable. At the same time, she was anticipating the possibility of receiving a £50 parking fine.

On the positive side, she had learned a valuable lesson and was determined not to make the same mistake again.

A few days later, she drove into Marple, the town where we live, for some shopping. She found a parking space, opened the app, selected a vehicle registration, chose the length of stay, completed the payment, and received a confirmation text message.

Success at last—or so we thought.

When she returned home, I congratulated her and asked to see the confirmation message. Unfortunately, she had paid for the wrong vehicle.

When she visited Wilmslow, she had borrowed my car. Its registration number was still stored in the app. I hadn't added her own vehicle registration for that event, and during our "training session" we had never discussed the importance of selecting the correct vehicle. She had completed every step correctly, but the parking session applied to a different car.

By this point, she was at her wits' end. What should have been a simple task had become a source of stress, anxiety, and the potential for yet another fine.

So what is the lesson here?

I fully recognise the benefits that technology can bring. App-based parking systems are convenient, efficient, and eliminate the need for cash. However, they also introduce new opportunities for customer error.

Over the years, I have experienced my own frustrations with parking apps. Sometimes the mobile signal is too weak to complete a transaction. On other occasions, the app demands a password reset or software update at precisely the moment you are rushing to a meeting. And if a genuine mistake is made, the appeals process feels impersonal and unforgiving.

From a customer experience perspective, the challenge is clear. Designers focus on what technology can do rather than on how real customers behave. They assume levels of confidence, digital literacy, and attention that many people simply do not possess.

A good customer experience is not measured by how easily experts can use a system. It is measured by how successfully ordinary people can complete a task without anxiety, confusion, or fear of being penalised for an understandable mistake.

Parking apps may be efficient, but my wife's experience is a reminder that convenience for the organisation does not always translate into convenience for the customer.