Customer Mapping

kfishe2 · 2016-01-01T13:27:12.000Z

This is a great project that we undertook with our 6 year old as a way of making him a part of our "sales team." The map represents about 160 sales from 2015, starting with our first Lego sale in March. Each customer gets a pin on the map and then as we ship to a new state my son gets to use the computer to look up an interesting fact about that state, and then write it in a journal. That way he is learning cool facts, and practicing his handwriting and computer skills. I bet he is the only kid in his class that knows what a peninsula is (Florida), or what the state song of Connecticut is (Yankee Doodle). Ive been waiting for a sale to Alaska so we can learn about archipelagos, but that may just be the geography nerd in me coming out. Multiple sales to a city get a larger pin, and we have them for the cities you would expect like New York, Chicago, LA. Some surprising ones too like Chattanooga Tennessee. Wouldn't have guessed that one but we ship quite a few items to multiple buyers there. I wish now that I would have sprung for the bigger world map, as we have had 15 international sales that could have been added on that I was not anticipating having made. Besides being a great learning project for my son, it has been useful to me to validate our shipping fee practices as I can easily see where most of my customers are from, and although it is skewed towards the east coast, I still have a fair amount headed out west. I know this wouldn't be practical for some here as their volume is much too large, but for a small timer like myself this is a fun way to involve your kids in your hobby. And have something cool on your wall that people will ask about. My thanks go out to everyone here for the advice and insights over the past year, and I wish everyone a great 2016!