Your location data goes stale very quickly and can cost you lots of money if you base decisions on it when it’s old. We include these checks in our analysis to keep it up to date.
Schedule Regular Re-Visits
These surveys are point in time snapshots of a location. Without a schedule of re-visits (on a quarterly basis for busy retail locations, annually for less busy locations) data will very quickly drift out of date. So a shop that was trading in March could be closed by September and you would have no idea.
Cross-Check Against Planning Records
In addition to checking physical locations for changes, you should cross-check your location data against planning applications (such as shop extensions, changes of use etc.) on local authority planning portals. These will alert you to changes in sites (such as building conversions or demolitions) before you have a chance to physically check the location, even if the latest satellite imagery has not yet been updated.
Confirm Opening-Hour Changes In Person
Reported trading hours are often not up to date as businesses update their shop door with their new hours before they update any online directory. So a check at a location will reveal the correct hours of opening.
Log Temporary Closures Separately
It is crucial to distinguish between a shop that is permanently closed and one that is temporarily closed down for a refurbishment or because of the season. Analysing trends would be seriously distorted by treating these situations as if they were of the same kind. Therefore it is essential to record the fact that a location is closed down, and also to note whether the closure is temporary or not.
Reconcile GPS Coordinates Against Site Boundaries
Similarly, a GPS pin placed on a map can end up 20-30m away from the actual shop entrance. And this can cause problems when analysing a business’s footfall or the size of delivery zones. By walking the boundary of a site and amending the GPS pin to the correct entrance, a huge amount of error can be removed from your data and subsequently from your analysis.
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Reliable location data is a continuing process of checking, logging and correcting information on a regular basis.