How to prep your Salesforce CRM data for geocoding & maps
Well all know that since the Covid pandemic hit, local delivery and pick-up services are growing. If you’re running a business with local delivery or pick-up, geofencing is very important for local lead generation.
The advice below will help you do geofencing with your Salesforce data so you can send local campaigns (you can also apply this info to HubSpot or any other CRM or campaign management).
Great, you’re exploring maps for Salesforce! Most CRM data can be shown visually in Salesforce maps. With geofencing and location intelligence, you can easily see new lead generation opportunities.
But, if you are new to mapping your data, it’s not uncommon to get less than impressive results at first.
If this happened to you, it’s fixable. You just need to clean your address data and fill in missing info. Let’s look at how to do this.
What Maps Need to Work
Any geofencing and mapping tool requires five fields in each object to work well:
- Street
- City
- State
- ZIP/Postal Code
- Country
These fields are converted into latitude and longitude numbers by the software. This is geocoding.
Look for fields in Salesforce labeled Latitude and Longitude with 8 or 10 digits:
In Google Maps, latitude and longitude show up in the URL:
Maps use this latitude and longitude to pinpoint a location and show it on a map.
How to Improve Your Address Fields
When all five address fields are filled in with accurate data (street, city, state, ZIP/postal code, country) you get the most precise location. It’s called “rooftop” geocoding. In Google Maps, the pin sits right on the building!
Our ProsperVue app demo uses mailing address. So our pin sits at the street address where mail is delivered.
When less than all five address fields are filled out, it’s still possible to map. But the location will be less precise. For example, when only ZIP is available, the software will place the pin in the middle of the ZIP area. This is called “approximate” geocoding. Whether this is precise enough for you or not depends on how you will use geolocation data.
Look at how many of your Salesforce address fields have correct data
This will tell you how accurate your maps will be. If you need more or better data in the address fields, here are a few simple tips to increase how many records will plot on a map:
Fix inconsistent data in fields like Country
If you have a mix of “US,” “U.S.,” “United States” and “U.S.A,” in the Country field, choose one and make them all the same.
You may also find City, State and ZIP data in the Country field. Be sure that data in any field is an acceptable value – such as cities in City fields, countries in Country fields.
Fill in missing fields
If you only have city for a record, add state and country. You can append or update addresses through an external service all at one time. Or you can edit and add data during sales conversations, which will take longer.
Convert non-geographic fields into geographic data
When you lack all location data, convert non-address data into latitude and longitude were possible. The non-address data should have some relationship to geography. You might have to be creative to see possibilities. As one idea, a phone number can be converted into an approximate ZIP code, because area codes are based on location.
How to Improve Coverage, Reduce Blank Fields
Coverage is about how much of your data is present and not blank. If most of your address fields are missing data, a latitude and longitude cannot be generated, and the record cannot be displayed on a map.
Here’s how to improve coverage:
Choose the right address fields
There are multiple sets of address fields in some objects. Use fields that have the least number of blank records. Some child objects depend on a parent (like Contacts is a child of Account), so make sure you are using the address fields from the appropriate object.
Find misplaced address fields
Sometimes addresses are put into other text fields out of convenience or as a short-term fix. Scan all fields in the Salesforce object to bring in the necessary address fields to use.
Add information
You can ask your sales team to add data when talking with people – but, not to the point of distracting from the core work of advancing the pipeline. Using the sales team could be a conversational opportunity or a productivity-buster.
Another way to fill in blank data is to carryover the address when converting a Lead to Account, or Account to Opportunity.
How to Improve Validity
Be sure address fields are accurate and up-to-date. Address text fields are easily edited by anyone, so they often have a lot of junk. Also people and companies move, new buildings and streets are built. Bad data may cause incorrect geocoding.
Here’s how you can ensure your location data is valid and current:
Run standardization (called CASS) to match addresses to the current U.S. Postal Service database
You can do this with in-house software or use a service bureau. As a bonus, service bureaus can also identify address changes (also called NCOA or National Change of Address).
Remove junk values
Check if the wrong type of information is entered in fields. For example, phone numbers and email are often found in the address field.
After data is clean: How you can keep it that way
Once you’ve cleaned address data for geolocation, you want to keep it in tip-top shape going forward, so future records are mapped.
- Run address standardization (CASS) every 60 days using in-house software or external providers.
- Don’t let users manually enter address data or override it. Use a separate field for manual entries and edits. Then use a verification workflow and update the field.
- Turn on the Salesforce standard picklist functionality for State and Country fields, to avoid spelling errors and inconsistency.
Now you should be able to get the most from geolocation!
Our map-based app for Salesforce, ProsperVue, makes it easy to send local geofenced campaigns. ProsperVue is free for 30 days for up to 10 Salesforce users. Call us for help to reach your local leads and customers.
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P.S. – For a real-life story, see our blog post about how a client was doing business in 7 countries, but their data showed 107 countries! They did the fixes shared above, and have successfully used our Salesforce geolocation app (ProsperVue) for many years.
President & CEO at Valgen
Rainmaker extraordinaire for our clients. Turns databases into gold. Analytics executive and entrepreneur with a track record of producing significant and sustained revenue gains for sales teams in fleet, transportation, high tech & financial services.
