Notes and news, insights and inspiration from the autonomous collective mind of GS.

Over the course of a year, GS has created several types of Dealer Locators for different clients across many industries. Dealer Locators have evolved rapidly in that time period, with many factors playing a role. One driver that I like to attribute to this evolution is the simplicity of increasing sales, and one way to increase sales is to get the right information to the customer at the right time. To do that properly, the information needs to be usable and readable and device-agnostic.

In my experience, I have noticed a wide range of ways to present location information. Before looking to the visual design of a Dealer Locator, the key ingredient to creating an effective one is to start with an analysis of your data. If your dealer information is out of sync, inconsistent, old, or incomplete in your business systems, exposing this information to the customer would be a failure. However, if the data is tight, consistent, and up to date, the Dealer Locator experience has a solid foundation upon which to build a compelling visual design and customer interaction.

Hooking up location services and company dealer information in an interface has changed how we visualize this information. Displaying location with Google Maps, Bing Maps, or other location service APIs has quietly revolutionized this simple task  – something your customer clearly needs. Through the use of different location services, a Dealer Locator can easily be extended to smart phones and other mobile devices, putting the information in the hands of your customers.

Below are some examples of effective Dealer Locators that have created a thoughtful experience for the customer (Full disclosure: we are happy to count Samson among our clients and created the new dealer locator displayed below as part of their site redesign.)

Fischer Skis	Dr. Martens Shoes
Samson Tech Electronics	Nissan USA Locator

How does your dealer locator stack up? Can it be used when your customer needs the information? Is it mobile friendly?