Five industries that can make the most out of Location Intelligence
Tags: datascience, database
Published: 2020-04-30 13:58:20

We’re all familiar with the drill of booking a cab, isn’t it?

We set a destination, choose a cab that suits our comfort and affordability, book, and hop on to get started on the ride.

For this mechanism to function efficiently, a lot of data crunching and algorithm feed runs in the background - based on location intelligence. 

The utility of location intelligence is not exclusive just to the ride-hailing services, the depth and breadth of the concept can be applied to several other industries and use cases too.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/4l8dmcqlhy4p8ap57js8.png)

The concept of location intelligence has given a new dimension to every business. It is difficult to find a company that is not using location intelligence to serve its customers better. Right from a simple [location-based re-targeting] (https://www.x-tract.io/blog/location-based-targeting-a-marketers-handbook/) ad to resolving complex problems, applications of location intelligence has become apparent in every sector.

Today, we’ll be exploring different industries that utilize location intelligence to serve customers better, simplify the operations, and achieve efficiency.

Let’s get started.

##**How location intelligence is reshaping these different industries**

####**1. The role of location intelligence in the insurance industry**

Location intelligence can help insurance companies in multiple ways. 
Let’s see a few ways in which underwriters and policyholders are benefitted.

***Determine insurance coverage based on geographic zones.*** Some areas are prone to more natural calamities than others. Based on forecasts and weather analytics, insurance companies can determine the impact of a plausible calamity within a defined locality. This enables the insurer to help the policyholder minimize damage and save on indemnification. Location intelligence helps insurers determine the loss and mitigate risks.

***Identify the right audience with location analytics.*** Every insurance company dreams of contacting the potential prospect to sign off a policy. To be able to pinpoint the right prospect, the company needs to understand the propensity to buy various insurance policies, an individual’s net worth, neighborhood information, demographic details, spending patterns, and more. Location intelligence helps in aggregating this information from public records and other sources and analyze this information to provide intelligence on potential prospects.

***Take safety measures while visiting the field.*** Claim adjusters can be well-informed with location analytics as the data can provide them safety analysis while visiting the field. The embed of interactive disaster maps and customer location maps can help in assessing the safety of paths and roads while visiting.

####**2. How location intelligence is transforming retail**

Retail GIS is catching up real quick. Combining location intelligence with customer data and operational data helps in deriving tremendous insights. Location analytics in retail helps to elevate the customer experience.

***Omnichannel selling*** is catching up real quick. Omnichannel selling essentially means a seamless shopping experience across various touchpoints.

[Hubspot](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/omni-channel-experience) defines omnichannel as – An omnichannel experience is a multi-channel approach to marketing, selling, and serving customers in a way that creates an integrated and cohesive customer experience no matter how or where a customer reaches out.

For instance, a customer begins their shopping journey on their laptop and completes it on their tablet or smartphone - this is an instance of omnichannel. Also, when they decide to make an order on their gadget and pick up the order in a brick and mortar store, that’s omnichannel selling too. Delivering consistent shopping experience across various touchpoints requires location data about the supply chain, real-time location data of the customer, and more to deliver a successful omnichannel experience.

In order to plan a ***successful marketing outreach***, a retailer and their marketing teams require location intelligence.

Technologies like beacons and artificial intelligence along with location intelligence helps marketers in personalizing the customer experience.  Knowing where the customer lives, the proximity to their workplace, where they shop, and more (all with customer’s consent to use location data) will help in placing contextual ads that prompt offers, discounts, and tailored suggestions. This is common in stores at the malls that leverage geofencing or polygon data to attract customers that incline towards checking out a competitor’s store.

####**3. Fitness and Healthcare - Scaling up to serve better**

As for the fitness industry, the application of location intelligence to their business strategies can be manifold. 

Fitness centers can leverage location intelligence for ***site planning analysis*** that can help them identify the most lucrative locations based on the [POI data] (https://www.x-tract.io/solutions/points-interest-data) and polygon information that charts out details on competitors in and around the locality, the demography that covers age, gender, propensity to earn, and more. Depending on this information, setting up centers would become more strategic and profitable.

In addition to this, fitness centers can also leverage location intelligence to ***personalize their marketing messages*** depending on the target persona and the footfall traffic. The closer they are to the fitness center, the message can be sent to them in order to gauge interest.

On a complex level, the fitness industry is also increasingly adopting location intelligence for their ***app development*** to offer features as distance covered and sync location data with other information like the age and gender of the user to prompt contextual communication.

***GIS in Healthcare***. Healthcare centers can also leverage location intelligence for site planning, supply chain management of pharmaceuticals to monitor distribution management. Also, strategic planning of events, welfare programs, and outreach initiatives can be made possible through location data analytics that gives insights into the geography, the associated healthcare facilities, what diseases they are prone to, and more.


####**4. How location intelligence powers transportation and logistics** 

Location intelligence and GIS in transportation helps in inventory management by rerouting drivers to less congested areas and to favorable weather conditions. Location data combined with the technical know-how of fleet managers and virtual assistants help in reducing the time to delivery to the end-customer as well as the loading and unloading time taken at the warehouses.

***Location intelligence helps to uncover traffic patterns and perform accident analysis.*** The ***GIS system*** provides spatial statistics, and when this is combined with other factors helps to perform ***accident analysis***. A pinpoint of the locations at which there are frequent accidents and analyzing the GIS systems hold potential insights to bring out safety measures.

***Location intelligence*** also helps in the ***optimal consumption of fuel*** and minimizing fleet operating costs. By leveraging real-time monitoring and predictive analytics of fuel consumption on certain routes and during idle time helps in calculating accurate fuel consumption.

####**5. Enabling better customer experience  for the hospitality industry**

Geolocation has made customer experience far beyond just coupons and offers. Combining ***predictive analytics with location data*** can help serve customers better. Getting the dinner ready-to-serve as the guests walk into the lobby, assigning room maintenance staff as soon as the guest leaves the room becomes a reality with location intelligence.

When geolocation is combined with predictive analytics, for instance, let’s say the customer data is available pertaining to their travel patterns, food choices, travel partners, food preferences, etc. for the past few years that is collated from various sources like social media, feedback forms, reviews and ratings, and more can be combined with the location of the customer in real-time and nearby services to prompt relevant communication and recommendations.


Combining geolocation and predictive analytics can help in improving customer experience. For instance, predictive analytics of the customer data pertaining to food preferences, travel partners, travel patterns, etc. can be leveraged to contextualize communication. This data can be collated from sources like social media, feedback forms, reviews and ratings, and more. The predictive analytics and location data, combined, can help in making relevant recommendations to the guests.

Monitoring ***footfall traffic*** of the guests within the hotel premises can also help hoteliers gauge an understanding of their likes and preferences - how often they visit the coffee shops, restaurants, spa, and other places. Based on further analysis, services can be tailored to the customers during their stay or when they visit next time.


###**So, location intelligence is for every business?**

To be able to improve customer experience, make well-calculated strategic business decisions, and simplify operations location intelligence can be leveraged.

With the growing advancements in location intelligence like embedded connectivity, location maps, monitoring weather fluctuations, and a lot more, companies can deliver hyper-personalized experiences.

There are several location intelligence solutions in the market like [X-tract.io](https://www.x-tract.io/solutions/location-intelligence) that cater to the needs of different industries. If you need help in kick-starting your journey with location intelligence, you may want to explore such solutions that cover:

- GPS and footfall tracking
- Wide range of POI data
- Demographic data
- Real-estate data
- Polygon data
- LI-based analytics and insights
- Data visualization and hypotheses
 
We hope you enjoyed this post and if there is any industry that you wish to add to the list, drop a comment and share it with the community!