Most businesses use Microsoft Office tools and Google business tools every day. Well, maybe not every one of us, but most of us working in an office use these tools regularly—we all access writing software, spreadsheets, and database management tools to get our daily jobs done.
Many organizations apply CRM and ERP systems to manage customer interactions, sales, purchases, and reporting. Such tools are accessed every day for sales processing, inventory control, and accounting. Business mapping software, on the other hand, isn’t always accessed daily. It’s a tool a business will derive benefit from when they suddenly realize they require it. Like when the company is about to build a growth strategy, forecast sales for next year, or fix a major problem.
Let’s face it; businesses exist to solve problems. A telecom company helps people communicate better. A grocery store solves hunger and thirst problems – and maybe some other basic human needs. But solution-oriented businesses have problems too. I’m reminded of the blues song, “My Problems Got Problems.” Businesses live to solve those problems. Well, like all other businesses, online business mapping software solves problems too.
So, what kind of problems does business mapping software solve, and how does a company know when it’s time to invest in location-based business software?
It’s Time for Business Mapping When
Business mapping alarms should go off if your business is becoming focused on an area or your business challenges are often described by referencing ZIP codes, counties, or other jurisdictions. One example might be a new eldercare business. We’ll call it Old Lady Daycare (OLD for short.)
A few weeks after this healthcare service opened, business was booming, and management pulled in new hires. Client home addresses quickly became essential to the application of homecare services and efficient billing protocols.
Create ZIP Code Territory Maps
As the weeks rolled by, it became clear that tracking field staff by ZIP code made the entire workflow more manageable, effective, and efficient. Business mapping software was purchased and used to:
- Visualize client home locations by address for visit verification and tracking.
- Create eldercare clinician territories that assure accountability and measure business issues.
- Develop and share emergency maps that denote vital resources in the event of power outages or disasters.
Other Healthcare businesses may encounter a need for business mapping tools to manage marketing strategies. General practitioners, dentistry, physical therapy, and optometry offices pepper the suburban landscape with business locations offering routine in-0ffice services. Each of these offices will require marketing efforts.
Business mapping is like bothering to stop and look around you and observe details. It’s one more thing for solving problems.
Dentistry seems to be an exceptionally competitive marketplace that makes aggressive marketing a necessity. MapBusinessOnline can boast of many such healthcare practices using business mapping to:
- Manage direct mail and email marketing initiatives. ZIP 5 and ZIP 3 codes are used to track and report on marketing impact.
- Conduct office consolidation and expansion planning. Population and income maps help plan business expansion.
- Develop location-based strategies and outreach programs for attracting new patients. What works best: local seminars, postcard mailers, or door-to-door selling?
- Lookup Business Listings by ZIP code or polygon area for outbound marketing.
As healthcare providers and medical offices expand, new office locations become necessary. Map-based demographic analysis can provide unique perspectives on ZIP code areas, answering questions like:
- Demographic fit – Which neighborhoods provide the optimum demographic populations for our practice?
- Identifying the Elder Communities – What is the total population of people ages 65 and up by ZIP code, town, or city?
- ‘Is it Safe?’ – What are the crime statistics for the neighborhoods firmly under consideration? How will those facts impact client and employee safety?
- ‘Winter is Coming’ – Does climate change impact any of our proposed locations, and how? Probably a standard question for future projects.
Finance Companies Bank on Location-Based Map Views
Banks and insurance companies worry about investments and property values. Portfolios of properties improve and lose value based on where they sit. Residential housing values impact their surrounding areas in a variety of ways:
- What are the recent selling price trends of nearby homes and businesses? Is the movement up or down?
- What are the median household income averages for families and household earners for the neighborhoods under consideration and the surrounding areas?
- What are the top five crime stats for the portfolio’s key ZIP codes?
For banks, loan providers, and insurance companies, the problem is controlling risk. Finance companies make profits on sure things. Hurricanes, high crime rates, and political upheavals are a drag on profits. A well-crafted business map will define asset locations, assign asset values, and describe the significant risks impacting enterprise investments.
The adage, ‘bad news early beats bad news late’ is the mantra for major financial organizations. Nobody in that business likes surprises. Finance managers use business mapping to:
- Visualize assets and field resources through drone camera feeds and remote sensing triggers.
- Conduct demographic studies of critical asset areas.
- Associate profits with areas of interest.
- Determine location placements for offices, branches, and ATMs.
Referring Customers to Fields Techs
Call centers around the world manage mobile field staff support for end-users. The pandemic has only magnified this growing and crucial business mapping use case. Millions of these customer support calls are resolved through online chats, calls, and emails. But many service requests require in-house support. Technicians must be contacted and physically routed to the end user’s office or home location. These technician dispatches happen hourly for hardware technology companies, appliance repair services, pool maintenance businesses, and other service organizations.
Each remote service industry will have its own set of problems that can improve with business mapping. But common problem areas include:
- Matching the appropriate technician to each case. This process can become complex depending on the specific technical issue. Is this support call routine or advanced?
- Notifying the technician responsible for the requirement and making sure they get to the end-users location.
- How do we deal with cancelations and verification of presence?
- Reporting on all technical support service events at a month or quarter-end. Maps are for sharing and learning.
- Create Drive Time based operations maps to better assess field technician reach.
Using Drive Time Visualizations to Analyze Shipping Patterns
Business problems are in search of a solution. If the problems have location components – an address, a ZIP code, a city – and often they do, then an investment in business mapping software will provide some answers. Business maps are not a panacea, they won’t fix everything, but they’ll probably make you and your business aware of new directions to take. And before you know it, you’ll be using business mapping software every day.
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Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com for their business mapping software and advanced sales territory mapping solution. The best replacement for Microsoft MapPoint happens to be the most affordable.
To access MapBusinessOnline, please register and then download the Map App from the website – https://www.mapbusinessonline.com/App-Download.aspx.
After installing the Map App, the MapBusinessOnline launch button will be in the Windows Start Menu or Mac Application folder. Find the MapBusinessOnline folder in the Start Menu scrollbar. Click the folder’s dropdown arrow and choose the MapBusinessOnline option.
The Map App includes the Map Viewer app for free non-subscriber map sharing.
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Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com
