4 Industries That Can Benefit from Dynamics 365 Mapping Plugin

Time is money, but timing is everything!

In June 2022, customers’ luggage was stuck at the airport due to some technical failure at Heathrow Airport. The photos surfacing on the internet showed piles of bags resting at the airport. How would you feel when you reach the destination but your luggage has not?

If it doesn’t reach on time, it can cause chaos. 

That is why location data matters to almost all industries. They can use this data to enhance their services, improve productivity, or take proactive actions.

Working with CRM data is not an easy task. Dynamics CRM is a complex tool to understand as it is loaded with a lot of information. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming to understand and take action based on this data.

But, any Dynamics 365 CRM records with location data can be viewed on a map with CRM integration. The Dynamics 365 map plugin can benefit all industries with its helpful features. Let’s have a look at some of the industries and how this integration can help them.

• Finance Industry

Gone are the days when one bank or insurance company ruled. Today, we have many banks and insurance companies to offer financial services. It becomes important for any financial institution to offer the best customer services in order to sustain itself in this market.

For banks, insurance companies, or any financial services, data plays an important role be it numbers or location. Any minor mistake in numbers can cause huge damage. But what about the location details of ATMs, bank/insurance branches, customer locations, and any record in CRM that has lat-long.

For example, let’s assume you are an ATM service provider company. You have your ATMs installed in area A and B. For the past few months, you have been receiving complaints from area A users. Even after providing the same service for both ATMs, you are only receiving complaints like no cash from one ATM.

Area A ATMs get empty faster because the number of users was more in that area. When ATM A was filled with more money than ATM B, the number of complaints reduced.  

Now, it is obvious that filling the ATMs with the same amount of cash when the number of users is very different will not make sense. It becomes important to have knowledge about the location of users so that you can figure out the number of users around the ATM. Once you have the data in hand you can fill up the ATMs accordingly.

It’s not that the ATM service provider did not have the user data. But having the data in CRM lacks visibility. It is difficult to visualize the user’s location to make decisions. But, if you integrate it with the map plugin, it might solve your problem.

This plugin plots all the CRM records on a map. It becomes easier for you to visualize the data and take decisions accordingly. Now it would be easier to visualize the number of customers in a particular region. You can customize your service accordingly as offering good customer service helps in elevating the customer experience.

• Transportation Industry

The name of the industry is pretty much self-explanatory that they deal with location on a daily basis. For businesses handling transportation for short or long routes, the main focus is to reduce the time spent on the road. It not only saves time but also reduces the fuel cost. In these times, when the fuel prices are firing up, saving fuel can help you increase profits.

Let’s take an example where you own a courier company. You get tons of parcels every day to ship and deliver. Your delivery reps spent their whole day ensuring all the parcels reach the customers on the given date. However, they have to struggle to find the location and have to reroute themselves to the right location. They are not able to complete daily deliveries, because either they get caught up in traffic or their time goes in longer routes.

Not all your delivery reps would know shorter routes to all the places. And using a different tool to find each location is a tedious task. They have to copy the CRM address and paste it into Google Maps. They have to do this for all the locations. Another issue with using this method is you don’t realize which locations are close to each other to cover them in one go.

However, if you integrate your Dynamics CRM with the map plugin, it can show optimized routes. The delivery reps can visit all locations assigned for the day using the shortest path. They can follow the path without getting caught up in traffic, road closures, or mistakenly choosing the longer routes. They would not have to manually enter the data, as all the data will be fetched from the CRM itself.

Using the route optimization feature, sales reps would save time and fuel. Research shows you can save upto 20% on fuel costs using optimized routes. This number can go even higher if your job requires dealing with more complex routes. Businesses can convert this cost to profits.

• Pharma Industry

Pharma has its medical representatives (Pharma sales reps) visiting doctors and pharmacists to explain the new medicine and convince them to buy it. Also, while dealing with new products, the doctors’ feedback matters a lot, as it helps improve the product.

Doctors take some time to meet MRs, so sales reps must arrive on time. However, pharma companies often get complaints from doctors that their MR did not show up at the requested time. On the other hand, the sales reps complain that they have visited all the doctors in the list.

Such a situation can impact a company’s image and sales figures. Such a situation might refrain doctors from sharing their valuable feedback. To tackle this situation, you cannot call your MRs every hour to know the meeting status. You might disturb them while they are in a meeting.

The Map plugin has a  solution to this problem. It has this check-in/check-out feature for on-field reps. So, when the MR visits a doctor they have to check in and when they are done with the meeting they can check out. They can also update the reports and add meeting details similarly.

Now, you might wonder what if they check-in/check out from any place? How would anyone know? To counter this, the map plugin also has a geofencing feature, which allows MRs to check in only when they reach the client’s location. In case you have to call them, you can simply check whether they are in a meeting or not so that you do not disturb them.

• Telecom Service Providers

Connectivity is the main game for telecom service providers. They have infrastructure built in different regions to provide seamless connectivity. Location of this infrastructure, like network towers or maintenance units, is important as in case of any failure, the team has to rush to the location to fix it.

For example, one of the powering units of area A stopped working due to heavy rains. As a result, you started receiving complaints from that area. You sent a team to fix it. The issue was solved, and the team is back. After an hour, you get the same complaints for another unit near that area. Now your team will have to go again and fix the issue.

If your team had checked all the units in the nearby area, it would not have interrupted the service in the first place. Such proactive actions matter, when it comes to offering a seamless customer experience.

One way to do this is to integrate the map plugin with your CRM. So, the map plugin will use the locations of the units, and with the help of the proximity search feature, your team can search the location of all the nearby units. 

So, if they have resolved the issue at one location, they can search the location of other nearby units and visit them to ensure everything is right. In rainy seasons, when the chances of getting complaints are higher, such proactive action can improve the customer experience.

 Wrapping Up

You can benefit from map plugin integration if your business deals with location or location data. Such plugins are loaded with features that benefit all industries in one way or another. This plugin helps in improving business performance. It makes the planning process and its execution easier. Especially for the marketing and sales team. It helps in visualizing the data and executing the same. The plugin enlightens you on the areas that can show expected results. All you need to do is find a Dynamic map plugin and ask the service provider to integrate it with your CRM. They usually help with the integration process and offer free support for a few days, until you get the hang of it.

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