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What is Location Planning and Why Does it Matter?
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What is Business Location Planning and why it matters?
If you’re a business thinking about opening new branches or relocating your premises, how do you go about planning the right locations for your customers and staff?
At Tech4T we specialise in helping businesses and other organisations find the perfect places, so we’re going to explain here why Business Location Planning is important and what it covers.
Let’s start by first stating the obvious – many businesses and organisations relocate their premises or open new branches or offices not based on intelligence and hard data, but instead on guesswork and assumptions. Quite often, the business leaders assume a particular area will be right for them because of reasons such as it appears busy, or because other similar businesses are nearby, or just because they know the area well.
But as has been proved time and time again, none of these factors guarantee that a new shop or restaurant or even a school will succeed, or that a new headquarters will be able to easily attract the staff it needs. Business Location Planning removes this risk through the use of data analysis and territory mapping software to make intelligence-based decisions on which locations will perform the best and deliver the results required.
Advanced location intelligence systems like Tech4T’s Territory Runner system use interactive maps to make it easy for businesses or organisations to see – at a high or granular level – information most relevant to them.
This can include population and demographics data, local and regional transport links, and even the location of competitors in the area. Even factors such as car parking, the profiles of potential customers, and whether there are businesses or other elements that pull people into a particular area can be included, so business owners can precisely select which locations to focus on and which to avoid.
The systems can also show which areas are underserved and present an opportunity and whether there will be any overlap with the business’s own branches (leading to sales cannibalisation) or their competitors.
And it’s a fact that organisations and businesses that take an intelligence-led approach to planning their locations do far better than those that don’t.
They are able to benchmark their performance against the true sales potential in an area, ensure they are locating their branches in the optimum location to maximise sales, and understand the factors that matter the most to them so these can be replicated across their other sites.
And for business headquarters, schools, and other public sector organisations, decision makers know whether they will be able to attract the staff they need, that these employees can easily travel to and from the premises, and what their catchment area actually is.
Business Location Planning has enabled businesses and organisations from fast-food chains to local and national authorities make the right location planning decisions. So if you’re thinking about relocating your business or opening up a new branch, or even planning the location of a new public service, consider talking to specialists about location intelligence systems that will help you find the perfect places.
As Sajad Hussain, Managing Director of fastfood chain Chickano’s said:
“This software maps out territories intelligently throughout the UK, displays them clearly on screen and thus greatly enhances our presentations.
“Otherkeybenefitsincludeitsabilitytovisually plotkeydatasuchasattractorsandcompetitors. The software also displays relevant demographic data tables all on the same screen.
About Tech4T
If you’re a franchisor – or considering expanding by franchising your brand – you’ll have unique needs when it comes to mapping territories and creating a successful franchise network. Tech4T can help you maximise the value of your brand with dynamic solutions for targeted business growth.
Who We Are
We are a diverse team of technical and commercial professionals. Down to earth and practical, we’re based in the UK serving global clients. For the last 25 years, we have delivered territory mapping, retail location planning and customer profiling to franchise brands ranging from start-ups to global franchise corporations.
We are the authors of Territory Runner, an innovative Location Intelligence and Mapping system custom produced for all our clients to help them grow their business. We ensure manageable franchise territories and catchment areas based on the right criteria for your business model, containing sufficient commercial opportunity for franchisee success and which are fair and equitable to all franchisees.
Whether you are:
A business owner expanding through franchising An established franchise owner that wants to improve your territory structure (without disturbing already sold territories) or An established franchise owner who wants to expand globally
Then our franchise territory optimisation can help you.
Improving Brand Reputation with Meaningful Insights Sussex Grange Case Study
Staff retention is a huge consideration and concern for all businesses but especially those in the Care sector.
Many discussions have been had on how to retain staff, and indeed there are many ways to help increase retention such as; providing training, giving appreciation, allocating a mentor; and making employees feel valued and trusted.
Whilst virtually all businesses have an “open door policy”, this does not mean all members of staff want to walk through the door, or seen to be walking through the door. Furthermore, if informal conversations are had there is no formal audit trail.
Sussex Grange Care have collaborated with Umbrella Insight to derive a solution to help both staff and businesses, be far more effective and efficient at engaging.
“WewantedtocollaboratewithUmbrellaInsight,as we know first-handhowsimpleand effectivetheir platform is at gaining engagement with service receivers,NOK,staffand professionals,aswellas relayingtheanalysedinsightsgathered.
Tom Jameson (Sussex Grange owner) and his leadership team liked the fact that the system proactively invites the staff to give feedback on a regular basis, which is great in any work environment, and especially so in their remote-working dom care team.
“We’veseengreatengagement from thestaffwho love the solution as it is simple to use, and exceptionally quick so not impacting their normal working day at all, but it ensures they can relay theirexperiences,thoughts,suggestions andmore to us, so we can support them in theirroles, but also gives us great confidence that our staff are happyintheirwork.
Tom went onto say “Anotherfunction, we weren’t aware of, is thecapability to send an immediate emailtousifthereisaproblemwithourstaff,which enables us to react in the moment and be proactive,asopposedtoreactivetoan issuethathas festered. Thisisin additionto thecomprehensive reporting Umbrella Insight supply us both summarisinghow wearedoing,butalsosupplying theunderlyingdetailandtrendsofourstaffandour key measurementareas.
Neil Newman (Umbrella Insight Director) said:
“IthasbeengreattocollaboratewithTom andthe Sussex Grange staff, we are delighted with the results we have obtained for Sussex Grange and other Care homes who now use theplatform, it’s great to know we are really making a difference and helping both the staff and the businesses simultaneously. ” Neil went onto say “It is important to note staff retention is far more important than staff recruitment. Notonly is ithugely more cost effectiveto retainyour existingstaff,you are also building an inclusive and engaging environment aroundyour staff,ensuringtheyare notjustbeing listenedtobutheardandsupported.
Interested in finding out how Umbrella Insight can help your franchise? Learn more about the Umbrella Insight software or get in touch with Neil Newman to arrange a telephone consultation
