Local Context from Google Maps Platform: it improves the engagement of your customers

We find ourselves in an era marked by the digital transformation of many areas of our lives. One of the sectors where this digitalisation process has had the most impact is business, where it has involved a genuine revolution in the way companies interact with customers and potential customers.

This digitalisation process in organisations makes them see the need to offer the appropriate information at all touchpoints so that their customers and potential customers:

• Have an optimum experience
• Increase their engagement with the brand
• Buy their products and services

What is Local Context and how does it work on Google Maps Platform?

In this environment, geolocalisation tools like Google Maps Platform are becoming extremely important as one of the main resources that largely influence customer loyalty and their purchase decisions. Since this tool was born in 2005, it hasn’t stopped incorporating features to achieve these objectives.

One of the most recent developments has been Local Context, an interesting service that enables companies to add local information of value to maps and cartographic representations that they include on their business apps or on their corporate website. This service, which is temporarily being offered free of charge since it is in its beta phase, is an interface widget that shows users the main places of interest near to a specific location.

Local Context is composed of an interactive map with a side panel, which includes a place selector formed by a photo gallery.  In this environment it is possible to:

• Filter the list of places in accordance with their rating
• Indicate walking directions
• Modify the appearance of the widget

When loading Local Context, the map fills with markers of nearby places and the location selector displays a photo for each one of them. When the user clicks on a marker or picture of the place, additional information is displayed about the selected location (descriptions, prices, recommendations, reviews, photos, estimated time of arrival and directions from the place of interest).

This way, companies can:

• Improve the experience they offer their customers through their apps or website, making it simpler and more seamless.
• Speed up their customers’ decision-making thanks to the additional information they offer.
• Reduce the percentage of users/visitors who abandon the website or app.
• Increase the conversion rate.

And it doesn’t end there: companies can enable or disable this local context experience for their customers, loading it along with the Google map or separately. They can also force the updating of the information displayed in accordance with the user’s interactions on the map.

6 features of Local Context that will convince you 100%

As we have just seen, the Local Context service from Google Maps Platform provides numerous advantages to businesses who decide to place their trust in it to boost their sales and competitiveness.

In this section, we are going to highlight some of the main features of this new service from Google Maps, that we at Intelligence Partner are convinced will attract you to adopt Local Context:

1. Easy activation and maintenance of the service. To start using Local Context, just a few lines of code need to be added to our environment on Google Maps Platform.  Once the service is activated, the costs of updates and maintenance are practically non-existent since Google takes care of both aspects. Finally, the Local Context services is free of charge for the duration of its beta version.
2. Simple integration of local information into maps. Local Context offers a turnkey experience that enables specific details of nearby places to be displayed, so that the users of apps and websites can see ratings, reviews, photographs and directions without the need to abandon these tools.  Furthermore, Local Context is customised according to the characteristics and requirements of each business.
3. Turnkey solution that displays the best local information. As we mentioned above, Local Context is a service that integrates the best features from Google Maps, Google Routes and Google Places in one unique experience. This way, customers can interact with the enriched data from Google Places and maintain it easily.
4. Guarantee of customer engagement through the app or website. Users’ experience with Local Context is highly satisfactory since they continue using a tool as well-known as Google Maps on the company’s apps or websites but with much more information than that offered initially in environments without Local Context. More valuable information means:
   1. Solid support in users’ decision-making processes
   2. Enrichment of the user experience on the apps and website
   3. Increase in customer and user satisfaction thanks to the quality and value of the information
   4. Significant increase in customer loyalty
5. Customisation of maps to adapt to your needs. Companies can guide users’ browsing or exploring by restricting the display of places to those that are strictly suitable, whether due to criteria such as the place category, the number of places of a category that you want to display or the total number of locations to be displayed. It is also possible to change the style of the map interface to adapt to the image of the company’s app, being able to customise the colours of the pins and icons, as well as the position of the main elements of the interface.
6. Guarantee of enriched local experience. With Local Context, users of our app or website have much more information than with a normal digital map: ratings, reviews, photos, prices and other high value data (such as the estimated time of arrival from the current location or the indication of nearby places of interest) with a simple click on any picture or pin on the map. And all without changing tool.

You have just seen how Local Context from Google Maps Platform can represent a significant support in improving the experience of your customers, in increasing their engagement and, ultimately, in the possibility of generating more business thanks to the features associated with the geolocalisation included on Google Maps Platform.

At Intelligence Partner, as premier partners of Google, we have built up significant expertise in geolocation  tools and projects, with a particular emphasis on  Google Maps Platform. We make it available to you so that your business stands out from the competition thanks to a personalised, close and accurate service that offers highly valuable information to your customers and potential customers.

Take the first step and contact Intelligence Partner!!