Article by: Chris Watt, Client Success Manager

As a Client Success Manager at Passport, I can tell you first hand that customer support is something we take very seriously for all clients, near and far. Our dedicated support spans beyond phone and video calls — as often as we can, we visit our clients on-site to see how our service is meeting their needs, pinpoint any areas where we can improve, and continue to foster these relationships.

“Chicagoland” is quite the client base for us at Passport. You might even be able to call it “Passportland”. Besides our ParkChicago app in the City of Chicago, we’ve launched our mobile solution in countless cities and villages in the surrounding area.

I had the chance to hit the road last week to “Chicagoland” to visit many of our clients. From Evanston, IL to Urbana, IL and many visits in between, it was one of my most productive and insightful client trips so far:

Day 1

My first stop was the City of Evanston, IL, a Passport mobile pay parking client. I spent the morning with city officials discussing our solution, how it’s impacted their parking operations, and possible feature additions we can provide for them. The amazing thing about our platform is that it’s in no way a “one-size-fits-all” solution — we can tailor our system to fit each client’s needs:

Rickey Voss, Parking/Fleet Division Manager at the City of Evanston, has been a great advocate for Passport – he even wore his Passport yellow shirt!

It meant a lot to hear his kind words about our team and our service. As we left our meeting, Voss told me, “I know I can trust [the Passport team] and that’s important.”

Next up: Oak Park, IL. The team took me on a guided tour of the City, where I got to see all the sights, including their parking locations using Passport.

To wrap up day 1, I made my way through the City of Chicago to visit the Village of LaGrange. I met with their Finance Director, Lou Cipperone, and we discussed an upcoming Passport project for the Village.

“We in La Grange love Passport,” said Cipperone.

Day 2

The next morning I was off to the DuPage County Chief of Police Charity Golf Tournament with Max Mickey. This golf tournament raises money for the Special Olympics as well as a scholarship fund. We hit the links with our team of police chiefs and had a great time for a good cause….but let’s just say I’m still working on my swing!

The tournament and dinner following were filled with great stories and laughs with over ten of our clients. Chief Bob Pavelchik of the Villa Park Police Department spoke about his experiences with the Passport team quite a bit — we loved how passionate he was about our service!

It was especially exciting to see the Orland Park Metra location in action. Passport has quite the presence along the Chicago Metra line — our solution is available in over 35 municipalities! Our parking app makes it more convenient for riders to pay for their parking before they board the Metra. I really enjoyed speaking with riders at the station who use our app regularly and I was able to hear how this has impacted their daily commute and get some great feedback.

Day 4

It was my fourth and final day of the trip, and it was time to visit Urbana and Champaign, IL. Passport powers the MobileMeter app in both cities, and needless to say, the service has been a hit. I was able to take the streets with parking enforcement to see their day-to-day tasks and how their processes have improved with our service.

I even spent some time with the CIO of Champaign, IL, Kris Koester. We sat down for quite some time discussing the app’s performance as well as future initiatives. They’re seeing great results and he was excited to share them with me:

“I can’t say enough about the success of MobileMeter. The numbers tell the success story here.”

Seeing these “success stories” up close and personal is what sets our team apart. Getting the chance to visit with our clients one-on-one helps us continue to grow these relationships and improve upon the service we’re providing. We go above and beyond to make sure that our client success is exactly that — a “success”.

Until next time, Chicagoland.