4 Ways We Maximize Site Tour Efficiency

We don’t have a client who isn’t extremely busy. Operating a business with 2-5 digit store counts is challenging enough, and scaling sites only adds fuel to the fire. We understand that site selection isn’t always on the forefront of our client’s lists of fires to put out for the day, therefore we take extreme measures to protect our clients time. When it comes to site tours, which by nature are time consuming, we do whatever we can to make them as efficient and beneficial as possible. Here are several ways we maximize site tour efficiency:

1. Site Tour Tools
   • Property Ownership App: Give us the ability to pull who owns what in real time which has led to off market opportunities for our clients many times.
   • Mapping Software: Allows us to plan for the most efficient routes and also add  color coded layers for competitors, notable developments, different colors for pad vs inline sites, etc.  
   • Market Survey Software: Enables us and our clients to keep track of fliers, floorplans, data, comments, etc. in one place.  
   • Cells Phone Traffic Software This data helps our clients understand the true trade area, traffic and visitor patterns, store visit performance, etc.
   • Demographic Reporting Software This enables us to dig into who lives near a site.  

2. Practice Tour or “Dry Run”
   • Our team performs practice tours so by the time the client is in the car we know exactly where we’re going, can provide site and market insight, and ultimately increase the efficiency of the tour. There have been times where there were event or road closures that would have caused massive delays that we were able to avoid by performing this simple yet effective exercise.  

3. Setting Arrangements
   • Unless a client prefers otherwise, we generally have our senior Broker drive, our clients in the front and middle row, and our junior broker in the back with a laptop and ipad. We’ve also found that when the client isn’t driving they are in a better position to identify potential opportunities and or really understand what area(s) of the market are going to make the most sense for them rather than focus on where we’re going.  

4. Portable Technology aka Laptop/iPad
   • We bring a Junior Broker that is equipped with a laptop and/or ipad so we can pull up site specific info and answer our client’s questions on the go so we don’t have to wait until we get back to our office for answers.  

Conclusion

None of the above is rocket science, but we have found that it does make a significant difference in the efficiency of our tours. Our clients are extremely busy, and any time we can give them back whether it’s an hour or three goes a long way for them. In addition to the long term value we provide, we can also help save you time on your site tours!