Courtside Insights for Managing a 200%+ Increase in Business Traffic

March brings daffodils, warmer weather, and basketball games galore. For cities hosting the Championship tournament game, March also brings a boost in foot traffic for local businesses. So, if you're a business owner, it's time to get prepared with a game plan of your own.

According to anonymized Alarm.com business analytics data over the past five years, businesses in Championship host cities can expect to see a bump of as much as 222% compared to the prior weekend. Increased foot traffic can be a double-edged sword; it's great for business, but it can also lead to bottlenecks, long lines, and crowded spaces. This can be frustrating for everyone – customers, employees, and managers. Yet, large fluctuations in traffic are bound to happen throughout the year.

So, how can businesses optimize staffing schedules to turn this potential chaos into a slam dunk for their business? Alarm.com offers a perfect game time strategy: Business Activity Analytics (BAA).

Business Activity Analytics Game Plan

Great coaches know that securing a championship win requires developing game plans, making in-game adjustments, and keeping players focused amidst the chaos of tournament play. The same applies to running a business—it's crucial to set up the right tools that will provide you real-time insights that inform strategic, revenue-driving decisions.

Available exclusively on Alarm.com’s commercial-grade Pro Series cameras, BAA gives businesses real-time insights and historical analysis of customer activity at their stores. Think of it like having a bird's-eye view of the court, allowing them to strategically plan ahead, and make in-the-moment calls to keep their business running the way they need. Here are a few of the ways that BAA helps business owners when they have planned and unplanned influxes of traffic in their stores.

• Queue Monitoring | in-the-moment support
  Being an offense that can quickly pivot to match the defense is an important aspect of basketball. It’s similar to a business – they need to be able to pivot quickly when lines get long. Long lines can create headaches for everyone in a store. With Queue Monitoring, Alarm.com compares current wait times with historical averages and can notify managers when there is a need for extra employees at the registers. These notifications free managers to focus on other aspects of their store, knowing they’ll be notified when help is needed.
• Heat Mapping | effective store layout
  Like a coach drawing up a game-winning play, Heat Mapping helps businesses create the most effective store layout. By tracking customer movements and identifying hotspots, they can ensure that product placement for seasonal and high-focus items are in their optimal placement. They can also optimize for customer flow by decreasing areas of congestion.
• People Counting | powerful forecasting and scheduling
  Like a point guard who’s aware of all things happening on the court, People Counting provides immediate insights into foot traffic. View the current day's data and compare each hour of traffic with the historical average right from the home screen of the Alarm.com mobile app. With this, businesses can track the total number of visitors, track peak times and peak number of visitors, and identify if the total number of visitors exceeds a certain number — enabling businesses to plan ahead for future days that might have similar traffic.

Don't let your business get shut out by the influx of foot traffic during major events like the upcoming basketball tournament or other seasonal events – turn them into an advantage! With BAA, Alarm.com empowers you to run your business smoothly in-the-moment when things get busy, and proactively plan for the busy times you’re aware of. 

Learn more about how Business Activity Analytics can help your business.

Game on!