If you’re out to eat, shopping, or traveling, there’s one thing we all have in common—and it’s something we never forget. Certainly, our smartphones are always close at hand for us. Smartphones aren’t simply a source of entertainment or a tool to communicate with others; they’re also a repository of information. The information can be used in other ways to improve the client experience by developing greater indoor intelligence.
But What is Indoor Intelligence?
Whatever we do on our devices is a form of data and when this data is generated in closed or indoor spaces, it creates indoor location data. The indoor location data contains a lot of information such as the number of visitors in a day, visitor patterns, visit durations, and much more. Indoor intelligence is the blend of these location-based analytics with carefully developed algorithms and machine learning tools that helps businesses provide better and personalized customer experiences.
Indoor intelligence is a generated with the help of the following:-
- Indoor Maps
When a person is present in a specific location, different kinds of information are gathered to form data. This data, when collected from different sources using APIs that can communicate with each other, makes the world of big data that is used for creating smart experiences. Locating assets, providing navigation, or calculating population flow are all examples of use cases in which location information is critical. This type of information can be drawn out from indoor maps.
- Indoor Positioning
The next aspect of indoor intelligence is linked with gathering real-time data using positioning technologies. It is possible to track the location and status of a device using an Indoor Positioning System (IPS), which makes use of a range of indoor localization systems. A precise set of coordinates is generated by the IPS from the location data, which is then put into the sophisticated analytics engine and shown on an indoor map.
- Indoor Analytics
An indoor mapping platform and indoor positioning technologies provide organizations with access to analytical data on how clients utilize their indoor maps. This includes extensive data on visitors, how they engage with your location, and their intentions when they visit your location, among other information. To improve indoor intelligence, you can learn more about your clients and use this knowledge to your benefit.
Why is Indoor Intelligence Important?
- Today, information is gold, and wielding it wisely gives the beholder the ability to control decisions at all levels. Today, such clout is what keeps certain brands ahead of the competition in any geography, industry, or vertical.
- What makes location data more valuable than mere information is that it contributes to the creation of hyper-personalized, tangible, and reliable value.
- Even before COVID, research showed that 90% of people spent their time indoors. What if there was a way to harness the amount of information on what people do and need in an area where they spend the majority of their time?
There are several benefits that indoor intelligence can provide to an organization:-
1. Better Customer Experiences
Customers of today appreciate it when they don’t have to ask for things, they’re presented with them directly. Indoor intelligence allows organizations to enhance customer experiences by providing them with exactly what they want. With indoor analytics, customers will receive only the relevant advertisements that will prove to be beneficial for the organization as well. Better customer experiences mean a larger customer base and better engagement.
2. Location Optimization
There are many ways in which businesses can gain insight into their customers’ habits, such as how long they spend in each area of the location and whether they moved around or headed to a specific part of the location. After gaining these insights, organizations can utilize them to make better business decisions that improve the placement of services and allow for the optimization of space, both of which are geared toward increasing sales.
3. Increase footfall
To better serve your customers, indoor intelligence can benefit from indoor positioning analytics that can give an insight into the behaviors of your visitors. A mobile app allows you to target app users and encourage them to visit your location by sending targeted notifications of events, or ongoing sales and services that would pique their interest. You may see in real-time which campaigns and techniques are most effective by using indoor positioning data. This gives you valuable information about how you’re drawing customers.
4. Smart Solutions
Indoor intelligence allows you to receive detailed information about your visitors based on location-based analytics. For example, when people visit your location and search for similar things such as restaurants near them or coffee places near them, you can plan on investing in such a place. An organization may also collaborate with these places and navigate the visitors smartly. The next time someone visits your location, you can target advertisements for the same and generate better revenue and experiences.
Conclusion
Indoor intelligence is certainly the key to successfully altering how we engage with our built environment. Enhancing processes while simultaneously delivering tailored experiences opens up a world of possibilities. We can employ indoor intelligence to make our lives easier while also ensuring people’s safety and security.
Indoor intelligence is the redefining moment in the indoor experience in an ecosystem. Malls, hospitals, banks, and big-box retail are all examples where the system could see full-fledged use. As the number of smartphone users grows, the question on everyone’s mind is how to harness the power of the smartphone to accelerate the transition to a smarter ecosystem.
Initially, visionaries envisioned a system in which the device recognizes a need and intervenes with solutions at the precise moment it is required. All of this is triggered by users entering a geofenced area. The location context will segue users to relevant content each time the invisible perimeter is entered.
The smart system must not only anticipate needs but also ensure that users are not dangerously distracted while traveling through the geofenced area. All of this is made possible by the use of location data, context, and analytics to connect the dots. Consider it the most significant advancement since GPS made waves in the last decade.
