A new rival station, known the next morning

The challenge

When a rival opens down the road, his sales there drop by a fifth within weeks. He hears about it from the station manager, a month late. By then the rival has its regulars, and his price changes and promotions come too late.

How the flow works

With xMap Flows, Ali built Polaris. Polaris is an AI employee: a flow of 7 blocks.

1. Every morning at six,

   Every morning at 6 (Schedule)

2. across the whole of Bahrain,

   The whole of Bahrain (Area of interest)

3. Polaris scans the maps for fuel stations,

   Fuel stations (Map business scan)

4. picks out the ones that were not there before,

   Not there yesterday (Only new)

5. finds which of Ali’s stations each is closest to,

   Our nearest station (Find nearest)

6. keeps those within three kilometres,

   Within 3 km of ours (Filter)

7. and emails that area’s manager the same morning.

   Tell the area manager (Microsoft Outlook)

What it solves

• A month late to hear: solved by Map business scan and Only new
• Sales drop by a fifth: solved by Find nearest and Filter
• Answers come too late: solved by Microsoft Outlook

The result

On Sunday, Polaris spots a new station on the Riffa highway, two kilometres from one of Ali’s busiest. His area manager has a car wash offer and a coffee deal ready that week. Sales there hold steady, and the rival’s first month is quiet.

Ali used to hear about rivals from his managers. Now they hear it from him.

An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.

The flow, block by block

1. 1

   Every morning at 6

   Schedule

   Starts the flow on a timetable.

2. 2

   The whole of Bahrain

   Area of interest

   Sets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.

3. 3

   Fuel stations

   Map business scan

   Finds businesses on online maps live: name, category, rating, address, phone, website and whether it is open.

4. 4

   Not there yesterday

   Only new

   Lets through only the items this flow has not found before, so a daily flow sends only what is new.

5. 5

   Our nearest station

   Find nearest

   For each place, finds the nearest of your own points from a CSV you upload, for example the nearest ambulance to each accident or the nearest branch to each new lead, and adds its name and the distance.

6. 6

   Within 3 km of ours

   Filter

   Keeps only the items that match a rule.

7. 7

   Tell the area manager

   Microsoft Outlook · Outlook

   Runs an action in Microsoft Outlook.

Templates to build it

Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.

• What opens near my storesNew places opening within 1 km of each of your stores, every week.
• Decision makers at new cafesNew cafes scored by xMap AI, with the owner and managers from Apollo.
• New shops likely to want card paymentsNew shops likely to be cash only, given to the nearest sales agent every weekday.
• Newly opened businesses for my advertising sales teamNew businesses scored as advertisers, with the owner, every weekday.
• New outlets to CRMNew restaurants and cafes as leads in your CRM every morning, with a brief for the reps.
• Franchises hiring managers, scored as clientsFranchises hiring managers, scored as clients, with their HR lead in HubSpot.

Industries

Learn how it works

• POI data (points of interest)Records of places such as shops, clinics and offices, with their category, position and details.
• Outlet universeThe complete list of points of sale a brand could sell through.
• Data enrichmentAdding details to records you already have.
• Find the nearest of your own sitesMatch each result to its closest branch, depot or vehicle.
• Enrich a list onceA CSV of addresses or companies back with phone, website, rating and an AI score.
• Map business scanA live scan of online maps by type or your own search words.

More stories from Energy & utilities

• Every rooftop in Osaka, seen from aboveTakumi runs a small solar installation company in Osaka. He puts panels on factory and warehouse roofs.
• A day ahead of the southerly stormEmma leads the line crews at a large power network company in Wellington, one of the windiest cities on earth.
• The next charging stations, where drivers have noneElise chooses where a large electric vehicle charging company builds next in Montreal.
• Hotels where electric car guests have nowhere to chargeJordan is an electrician in Denver who installs charging points for electric cars.

All 137 stories →