Sipping on his dark roast Americano, while driving down to his new shared office space, Ronan was contemplating life. A few weeks back he was the CMO of an established advertisement firm and today he was headed down to build up his restaurant from scratch! But it has always been his dream. He wanted to marry his culinary art with his marketing and advertising genius and put meaning to his life. As he was being taken to the 14th floor temporary office by an elevator, Ronan had a thought, he needed established technical genius too, to scale out a successful journey right from the beginning.
Reaching his office, Ronan opened his laptop and began thinking. 10 years in the corporate world had opened him to the power of CRM in shaping businesses, especially the new ones, so, his Dynamics 365 CRM was up and running. He had the possible vendors listed, the potential restaurant locations figured out, supplier details and potential employee details added. He felt the need to explore more. Instead of visiting 10 potential places and calling 20 potential vendors, he had to be smart and do only the necessary stuff. To know the necessary stuff, he had to analyze the insights. This triggered a Google ad Ronan had witnessed a few weeks ago- integrated maps for location-based insight for Dynamics 365 CRM.
Ronan had to figure it out and check the Website. The website looked decent. It spoke of an all-inclusive app that was rated 5 stars on the Microsoft AppSource. That sounded impressive. The app had industry applications and several happy client testimonials and success stories. Gradually Ronan began checking the features.
Census Data Mapping
The land mass could be mapped with the census findings associated with it. So, out of the places he had shortlisted, he could match the census data with those and watch it on the map within his CRM. This could help him know the people residing in the locations or even visiting that place. Considering his restaurant would be a gourmet, he had to think wise. A business area, a region with high-end condo setups or modern houses closer to the city had to be considered. Gourmet food had to be expensive and cater to modern tastebuds, so, the spending power of the people had to be strong in the restaurant region with people having fancy food habits. Census data covered all these little things, so, Ronan could gladly use them.
Customized Pushpins
Maplytics allowed the data from CRM to be visualized on the map in the form of customized, colored pushpins. This sounded fancy, but then, it made things convenient. Ronan could check the rivals in the areas he had shortlisted and see the potential neighbors. If there were a lot of fast-food trucks, he would know the food habits of the people and avoid the place. He could even check the actual distance of the markets, his suppliers, vendors, etc. from the restaurant location before shortlisting it. Saving on travel time and fuel expense also seemed as important as reaching the best quality raw materials fast!
Territory Management
Once Ronan has finalized his restaurant location, he will need to target more audiences to put out his marketing activities. Field Sales would also be his go-to strategy to popularize his place, to invite corporate clients, and other event parties. He will need his sales reps to work strategically in balanced areas. Territory Management would help him a big time. He could even ensure work-life balance for his reps. The marketing campaigns would even reach the right areas for the right reasons!
Radius Search
Many new clients and suppliers could be found within the proximities. Ronan could use it to form a loyal customer base in the future. He could plan offers for regular and returning customers within the area. His reps could talk to nearby wedding venues for catering. He could also find bakeries and cafes nearby to partner up for desserts etc. Most importantly, all of it could be visualized on the map with proper distances displayed.
Auto Scheduling
Schedules and Plans are required for businesses to take off and soar. The daily schedules of staff members, reserved tables, events, catering services booked at the restaurant, visits of food critics, celebrity guests, big parties, sales reps, and more need to be pre-planned and accessible to all the stakeholders.
With Auto Scheduling, Ronan can easily manage such schedules and even plan inventory in busy seasons. The appointments would all be updated in the users’ Outlook calendars and everybody could be aware of their appointments, times, and venues.
Route Optimization
The appointments to and from the restaurant need travel. A startup has limited funds. Hence, saving on travel is one of the basic requirements. Also, reaching meetings on time makes an awesome first impression. Hence, using Route Optimization would be beneficial for Ronan. It would provide optimized travel routes, set up turn-by-turn navigation directions, and avoid traffic, tolls, and highways. Following these travel directions that can be viewed on Google Maps, Waze App, and Apple Maps would help Ronan, his employees, his guests, suppliers, et al.
Mobility Across Devices
The appointment details, travel details, and on-duty staff details that are stored within the CRM and managed with Maplytics can all be accessed over a mobile, a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, windows, android, and iOS with the Dynamics 365 app.
Multi-Language Operability
Restaurants needed and appointed staff from various strata of society and backgrounds. It was a business more relying on the skill of a person. Thus, English need not be their strong base or first language. With Maplytics available in 11 global languages, including everybody on the same page and bringing out the best in them while keeping an open communication forum would be beneficial for Ronan.
Heat Map Analysis
Analysis of every meeting, marketing campaign, food event, and sales strategy is essential to take it ahead. If a food copy isn’t working, it needs to be changed from the campaign. Thus, Heat Maps would play an important role in this for Ronan. As he is new, he could analyze which promotion worked in which area, which campaign got him more visitors, which social media posts had more hits and from which area, which food festivals they conducted had more sellouts, and more!
He could even gauge the areas having more wedding venues and approach them to acquire catering orders by observing the heat intensity and bar graphs.
Geo-Analytical Dashboard
Being a micromanager becomes easy. Businesses today, do not succeed with micro managers. Thus, although Ronan can have a look at every detail of his restaurant 24/7 with CRM and Maplytics, he should only have a look at the overall picture and the things that are important at that point of the restaurant setup.
With personalized dashboards, Ronan can keep track of converts from a newly hired field sales rep, the sale of a new dish added to the menu, monthly travel savings, or even a new location eyed by him for the future as a priority. The display could be changed with the change of priority for him.
After about 2 hours of thorough research, Ronan realized that he had just wiped the tip of an iceberg of Maplytics for his business. There remained many things to be explored. He checked the quoted pricing for a tentative number of licenses and that too seemed reasonable. He decided to book a free demo for himself to understand the application further. As Ronan saw an improved business potential for his startup with Maplytics, so can many of you!
What’s More?
Maplytics is like water that can be moulded into any role. To get more acquainted and experience it first-hand, one can write to crm@inogic.com To investigate the product further, with a personalized demo within Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM / Dataverse get in touch with the Team.
For applied knowledge, do visit our Website or Microsoft AppSource. One can hop on to the detailed Blogs, Client Testimonials, Success Stories, Industry Applications, and Video Library for a quick query resolution.
Until then,
Happy Planning!
