Grouping By Geography: The Benefits Of Dividing Clients By Location

In the uniform industry, one of the greatest challenges of managing large numbers of client accounts is determining how to organize and group those accounts. Many marketers assume that they should create a single, unchanging account for each client, and then group accounts for clients in similar fields or industries. But in many cases, employees in the same company have wildly different uniform needs. This is particularly true if your clients are large companies with branches in many different locations. When this occurs, it makes far more sense to create and group client accounts by geography, allowing you to cater to the unique product needs of each location.

The Benefits of Geographic Grouping

Grouping client accounts by geography involves showing separate products and features to users in different geographical locations, even if they work for the same client. Say that your client is a hotel chain, with branches in Boise, Idaho and Raleigh, North Carolina. The chain’s employees who log into their company account from Boise will see products and features targeted specifically to the Boise branch, while those who log in from Raleigh will find items tailored to their location. This method of grouping offers a range of benefits for your clients, including:

• Climate Adaptability- Many companies need uniforms that are tailored specifically to the climates where they operate, especially if their workers spend much of their time outdoors. Geographical grouping helps prevent clients from ordering large batches of uniforms that are too warm or too cold for their location, saving them money while ensuring that all the gear they order is usable.
• Brand Protection- Colors and designs take on different meanings in different locations. In North Carolina, for instance, dark and light shades of blue are associated with competing college basketball teams. A company that normally orders blue uniforms may thus want to choose another color for North Carolinian branches, lest their brand become associated with one of these teams. Geographical grouping helps your clients to keep track of these distinctions.
• Superior Scalability- Setting up accounts to show different products in different locations makes it easier for your clients to expand the locations where they operate. A client that wants to open up a branch in a new part of the country can count on you to quickly show employees at that branch the specific gear they need.
• Regulatory Compliance- Each state and city has its own health and safety regulations, which often affect the uniforms that employees can wear. Geographical grouping allows you to exclude products that are not authorized in a given location, as well as to highlight products that employees in a particular area are required to wear.

As important as it is to tailor clients’ accounts to their specific geographical locations, this is only one step out of many in selling uniforms to a wide range of businesses. For more information on creating and grouping private accounts for your clients, visit our website today.