Site Selection Software Paves Way
for Smart Decision-Making
2016 Issue 3 | GearedUp
W
38
hen it comes to selecting a site for your next Planet
Fitness® location, the old real estate adage is true –
location, location, location. It’s no secret that where
you choose to place a club has an enormous impact on how
successful that business will be. Lucky for franchisees, what
used to take months of driving around and digging up documents can now be done much faster with the use of technology.
And the adage — time is money — is true too.
Site selection software is one of the most crucial tools to
leverage in order to make sure you, as a franchisee, are making
the best decisions possible. In August, PFIFA hosted a webinar
on Buxton’s site selection software as a service to its members.
The educational video provided members who currently use
Buxton’s SCOUT program a more in-depth look at the capabilities of the software.
The program uses the Google Maps platform to visually explain who franchisees’ customers are and what a given
market looks like. Once users understand the details and
demographics surrounding their most successful clubs, they’ll
be able to open new locations with confidence.
Franchisees are easily able see city boundaries, county
boundaries, zip codes, DMAs, population densities, AMAs and
more with just a few clicks.
One of the most important features of any site selection
software is the ability to view other locations within your industry – whether that
is other PF® locations or competitors’
clubs. SCOUT has this capability and
invites users to submit suggestions to the
competitor list so that any new company
can be promptly added.
By simply hovering over existing locaby Christina Cannon
tions, users can see the address of a specific
club, the average members per month and the average drive time
for that club’s members. With just a few more clicks, users can
map exactly where that club’s members are located. Users can also
measure the distance between existing clubs or drop a pinpoint on
the map and track mileage to and from that location.
Once a pinpoint is dropped on the map, franchisees have
the ability to see the geographic area within a specific drive
time or visualize a mileage radius.
With both existing locations and perspective locations (the
pushpins), users can run various reports that provide information such as population, race, income level, occupation and
many more demographics that are crucial in the decision of
where to open your next club. Franchisees can even compare
these reports against each other to get side-by-side numbers
with minimal effort. The system allows users to compare up to