Using Maps In Business - 10 Tips From The Experts

In this essay, which serves as a prologue to my forthcoming 101 Map Uses, I will discuss ten effective applications of wall maps in the workplace. When people think of maps, they usually think of the digital kind you can access from your computer, PDA, or mobile phone and use to get directions, find the closest Home Depot, and peruse real estate listings. Wall maps are still used often by millions of companies. Since there is no adequate substitute for maps, Fortune 500 organizations are adamant about employing high-quality printed united states map in their daily operations. Although there are benefits to using a digital map, a well-made paper map still has its place. Wall maps, on the other hand, are in high demand since they are relevant to current business demands.

Though the purely aesthetic benefit of a well-designed wall map should not be discounted, it is certainly not the only one. That's something we'll discuss shortly. Everyone from the chief executive officer to the sales manager to the executive assistant to the accountant to the truck driver handles printed maps at the workplace. This post is more for the average reader interested in learning what the Fortune 500 already knows than for professionals who often work with maps.

Identity in the Workplace A map paints a picture and gives you a feel for the area. These factors are essential for the morale of the firm. Businesses with prominently displayed maps of their store locations or service areas keep their employees firmly rooted in the here and now without letting them lose sight of who they are about their physical surroundings.

The second meaning is to put on display. A customer's confidence in a company's roots, dedication, and local expertise can only increase when they see a handsome or gorgeous map prominently displayed in the store or office. If the map accurately depicts the company's character, it will speak volumes to satisfied clients. I once saw a similar map proudly displayed in the lobby of a business. Almost every client who came into the office remarked on how nice the map was. It was a testament to the company's foresight to have the map made and widely displayed. The map was quite detailed, and it showed exactly where the company's services were available. This wasn't a BBB pamphlet or a map for tourists. The company's familiarity with its service area and dedication to its communities is what the map was meant to highlight, rather than the company's brilliance.

Shops' Spots

Large and medium-sized businesses frequently commission me to create a store locator map. This may seem like a minor detail, but in many cases, the map I create will be the first one that the company has ever had to show the physical placement and connectivity of its locations. This is not an easy idea to dismiss. Though you can piece together such a map using several different online mapmaking tools, they will always fall far short of a wall-sized, detailed, and expertly constructed map made specifically for this purpose.

Distance and Time of Travel When planning deliveries, sales calls, or service calls, it's important to know how long it takes to drive from the main office to any particular site in the service region. As a classic illustration, consider the pizza delivery business, which often displays a travel time distance map on the restaurant wall. The pizza drivers use the map to locate the delivery destination and to estimate how long it will take them to get there. The cabs of service cars, such as those used in emergency response, typically have foldable maps of local roads and distances for quick reference. An ambulance driver can find the quickest route to the hospital from the scene of an accident, which may not be the shortest route in terms of driving distance. There is no better way to plan your route than with the help of a trip time distance map, as these maps incorporate real-time traffic conditions on individual streets and highways.

Delineating a Service and Sales Area We briefly discussed how service and sales area maps are not just vital to the day-to-day operations of some businesses, but also helpful in strategic planning, which we'll get to in just a moment. Every business always searches for ways to better utilize its time, money, and other assets. Delineating the service or sales area precisely and using that as a guide can help businesses run more smoothly. Decisions and resource allocation in the future will be more well-informed and uniform if this map is used as a reference.

Demographics of the Clientele Firms have historically mined demographic information for insights about their clientele. Countless private companies in addition to the United States Census Bureau compile data on business demographics. Business operations, customer care, and promotional efforts all benefit from demographic information. Data visualizations like bar charts, pie charts, and tables are common ways to convey this information. A wall map showing consumer demographic data inside a company's service region, on the other hand, is a much more effective tool because it can do the following.

• Provides numeric data on the demographics of key regions, including service areas, zip codes, census blocks, neighborhoods, counties, etc.

• Graphs customer demographics against store concentration, service area coverage, and competitive store concentration and coverage.

Analysis of Developments

To better prepare for the future, businesses frequently seek out predictions. Exactly how will the make-up of the buying public shift? Which areas are transforming? Which areas will offer the most promising prospects? With the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), software that analyses data and geography jointly, maps can provide answers to these questions. GIS can be used to visualize and analyze a wide range of data, such as demographic information, land use plans, development plans, and consumer spending on a block-by-block basis. Employing GIS for business trend analysis is a promising area with many obvious applications.

Updated Retailer Options

Geographic considerations are intrinsic to the vast majority of business strategies, including those to increase the number of stores or service areas, enter new markets, or adjust to natural fluctuations in customer base size. To define and organize all of these goals, a wall map is essential. The use of GIS and the advice of an experienced GIS analyst consultant are essential to achieving these goals.

Prepare Strategically Strategic planning is a process that every company engages in, whether routinely or sometimes. Integral to any effective strategic planning process is an in-depth analysis of the company's history, current state, and projected future performance. Corporate branding, store placement, service area demarcation, travel time and distance analysis (operational efficiency), new store or site selection, and customer demographic and trend analysis are all areas in which wall maps and GIS shine as indispensable tools for informing business strategic planning. Strategic planning sessions at many companies now include a comprehensive GIS procedure and presentation map series.

Advertising

A common application of GIS and wall maps in business is to help decide where to allocate limited marketing resources, notably for direct mail or location-targeted advertising. Location-specific marketing strategies are developed by analyzing demographic data, zip codes, and mailing address locations, all of which may be found on maps.

Coupling the Dots Incorporate all ten of these uses into your company's daily practice and corporate culture to reap the full benefit and competitive advantage of wall maps. To put it another way, maps inspire people to think big and accomplish great things. A map can show you a lot of things. We can see more of the big picture using maps than we can with simple charts and tables. Put maps to use in your company immediately. Do it, and you'll be happy you did.