The most important aspect of a locator is the ability to locate the closest store/dealer. If the mapping tool you are using isn’t current and doesn’t place the store/dealer location on the map at the address level then some systems will default to the center of ZIP code. This can provide false information to the user and misguide them, which typically isn’t what you want in a locator. If you think about it spatially the center of a ZIP Code could be miles from the actual street address of the store/dealer location so you could be telling a customer that the location is close to them when in reality it is much farther. Or the opposite could be true and you could be telling the customer that you can’t service them when in reality you can. In this case the search radius didn’t capture the ZIP Code centroid so the results would not show a store/dealer that is very close to the customer. For anyone contemplating a store locator, it is very important that your data be clean. If the locations aren’t in the right spot on the map then the ROI is devalued and the user experience is poor. Having locations wrong on the map can also lead to increased costs because customers will call and complain or worse go to a competitor who can provide them a quality experience the first time out of the gate.
