What Makes a Good Valet Parking Attendant Great?

Your valet parking attendant is there to expedite your arrival and departure to and from a location or event. With this goal in mind, you should expect them to be efficient. However, valet attendant responsibilities shouldn’t begin and end with moving cars. There are other skills required, too. They include being friendly and polite, exhibiting the best professionalism, and being trustworthy and honest. After all, you’re leaving this stranger in charge of your personal vehicle and its contents, and you shouldn’t have to worry whether everything will be returned to you in the same condition it left. 

However, it’s good to remember that professionalism works both ways. In other words, treating your valet attendant with respect and offering up a friendly greeting at the beginning of your night are also necessities. It’s also customary to tip your driver for a job well done. 

Valet Attendant Skills: Customer Service

Valet attendant responsibilities focus on providing excellent customer service. This means not making patrons wait longer than necessary, not allowing the line to back up in front of the event, and instilling confidence in their driving abilities. Customer service is made up of different elements, including:

• Friendliness
• Willingness to help 
• Concern for issues customers may have
• Swift handling of problems
• Ability to defuse a situation

Usually, you can expect your valet parking attendant to open the door for you and your passenger and to issue you both a smile and a brief greeting. Those who work in this field are part of the hospitality industry, which means strong customer service skills are a must. You should have a pleasant interaction with your valet parking attendant, even if it’s only a nod, a smile, and a brief “thank you.” 

At FC Parking, our staff are always professional. You can feel confident leaving your car with our valet parking attendants because they’re experienced, attentive, and always friendly.

Valet Attendant Skills: Efficiency

To be efficient at their job, a valet parking attendant must be swift at ushering passengers into and out of their vehicles and timely at pulling away from the door. They must be able to retrieve your vehicle quickly, as well. Otherwise, you’ll be left standing at the curb, waiting. Inefficiency can also contribute to backups at the door as cars pull up and aren’t driven away quickly enough. 

Part of valet parking etiquette is the ability to work efficiently. When you pull up the door of your event, you should expect your valet to open your door, greet you briefly, issue your retrieval ticket, quickly slip behind the wheel, and drive away. You can make the process run more smoothly by knowing what to do, too. Especially if it’s your first time using valet service. 

Valet Attendant Skills: Trustworthiness

You’re entrusting a stranger with your vehicle. It’s important they treat it well. Its true valets must shuttle vehicles quickly to and from the parking area, but efficiency should not equal recklessness. This being said, you should not have to worry about:

• Dings or scratches on your paint
• Squealing tires as the attendant pulls away
• Misplaced vehicles that take time to retrieve
• Items missing from inside the vehicle
• Unexplained mileage on your odometer

Valet parking etiquette requires your attendant to be trustworthy. Anything less reflects poorly on the venue or establishment that employs them. 

Many consider the job of a valet parking attendant to be an easy one, but more is involved with this position than first appears. Valet attendants must possess a wide range of skills in order to keep lines moving efficiently and make patrons feel at ease. This is a very important role within the hospitality industry, one that creates that all-important first impression. Valets are available to make your life more convenient, which is always the goal of FC Parking. 

Trust FC Parking to Improve Your Customer Experience

For more than two decades, FC Parking has provided parking management services, including valet parking, for our valued clients. We offer solutions that are designed to suit your unique needs and improve the overall customer experience for your guests. Contact us today to learn more.