The Customer
Christian Business Directory
Shepherd’s Guide of Greater Tyler, Texas and Shepherd’s Guide of Greater Houston
Challenges
The Carters manage a franchised distributorship of a national directory, similar to a phone book, that lists Christian businesses and service providers, published by region. Their franchise territory extends throughout Tyler, Texas and Houston, Texas. They have racks positioned around their territory, and keep them filled on a continuous basis, rain or shine. When it was just Tyler, said Annetta Carter, it was easy, as the couple had lived there a long time and knew it well. When they expanded to Houston, it was a different situation.
Houston, Texas has a current population of 5.7 million people. It takes the Carters about one to two hours to traverse their distribution area in Houston. In comparison, it took about half the time for Tyler. But there was another challenge: The Carters needed to make 30-40 stops a day and are returning to the same stops every other week, to fill racks. And the Carters were not familiar with Houston, and all its different sections. With one driver, Annetta and Mark knew they needed to find some routing assistance.
Solution
“I was looking for software, downloaded several different ones, and just found Route4Me about two months ago”, says Annetta Carter. Her husband, Mark, says he was looking for a map that would plot all locations, and cue up one location. In using Route4Me, in an area, he can see all the dots in the area, touch on the dots, pull the address, and enter the address. Using his Galaxy Pad, he takes the extra step to load it through their Gmail address, but it worked “fine”.
Since they’ve only had Route4Me two months, there are a lot of features they don’t use yet. As they drive themselves, they are still small. The next step is to download turn by turn directions through their GPS.
Benefits
The Carters are planning to expand their distribution territory in Tyler. Even though she knows Tyler, Annetta Carter isn’t familiar with every church. Using Route4Me will make it possible for the Carters to distribute Shepherd’s Guide to racks at the many churches in Tyler and East Texas, expand the Carters’ own business and expand the readership of this valuable business directory.
