Importance of Geocoding for business

Geocoding is the process of finding out the geographical coordinates (latitude/longitude) from street address, post code, etc. A lot of organizations are interested in geocoding their customer addresses, because it enables them to serve the customer better. For e.g.

• A healthcare provider can use the geocoding information of its customers, to help them locate the nearest physician or pharmacy. 
• An insurance firm can use geocoding information to find out the actual physical location of an insured property and determine the underwriting risk for floods, earthquakes, etc.
• E-commerce sites usually have a find-a-nearby-store option that enables customers to find out the nearest store to pick up their goods from, based on their GPS coordinates. 

Thus geocoding can help a business in answering many questions that would help it drive growth. For e.g.

• What geographical area to most of our customers come from?
• Are there geographical areas where we have not penetrated? If yes, Why?
• Is our sales force aligned with our customer territories?