{"id":5641,"date":"2023-06-15T13:23:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T13:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/?p=5641"},"modified":"2024-12-13T10:31:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T10:31:27","slug":"step-by-step-guide-to-efficient-route-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/step-by-step-guide-to-efficient-route-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Step-by-step guide to efficient route planning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/try\">portatour\u2019s<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> free test<\/a> lets you discover the world of automatic tour planning and all the advantages this offers. In order to get the most out of your test phase, we have compiled a step-by-step guide for you.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>What data should you enter into portatour <sup>\u00ae<\/sup>?<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>A system is only as good as the data you feed it. So one important question comes up right at the start: what data does portatour <sup>\u00ae <\/sup> need to plan a route and what other information would be helpful?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The following information is<strong> essential <\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>customer name<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong> address details <\/strong> in separate columns (street including house number, zip code, city, country)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In addition, the following data is <strong>highly recommended <\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>unique <strong> customer number <\/strong> for easy data updates<\/li>\n<li><strong> Call intervals <\/strong> given in number of days or as visits per year<\/li>\n<li>Date of <strong>last call<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Other information that<strong> might be helpful <\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>Contact details (contact person, email, phone number, website)<\/li>\n<li>A\/B\/C classification or other categorisations<\/li>\n<li>Sales<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more details, see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/data-preparation-for-automatic-route-planning\/\"> article about data preparation <\/a>. Prepare the customer data for import in an Excel file. If you wish to have a sample <strong> import file <\/strong>, just contact our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/contact\/en\"> <strong> Sales &amp; Support Team <\/strong> <\/a>.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>How do I upload my customer data?<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>To <strong>import<\/strong> the data, please proceed as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Click the <strong>Customer<\/strong> button in the navigation bar at the top, then <strong>More<\/strong>(arrow symbol) and <strong>Import<\/strong>:<\/li>\n<li>To make the initial import click the option <strong>Create Customer<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Enter your <strong>Home town<\/strong>, then click <strong>Determine location<\/strong> and <strong>Save<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Check whether the <strong> header <\/strong> in the Excel file was recognised correctly (marked in yellow).<\/li>\n<li>Assign the <strong>columns<\/strong> in the import file to the appropriate <strong>target fields <\/strong> in portatour<sup>\u00ae <\/sup> .<\/li>\n<li>On the <strong>Key fields (IDs)<\/strong> page, assign the <strong>Customer number<\/strong> (if available) to the <strong>External ID <\/strong> target field \u2013 this is important for future data updates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here is a <a href=\"https:\/\/help.portatour.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/360024188891\"> <strong> 5-minute video <\/strong> <\/a> showing the import process.<a href=\"https:\/\/help.portatour.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/360024188891\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5681 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5min-video-EN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5min-video-EN.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5min-video-EN-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1><strong>How do I set the parameters of my routes?<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>After you have imported your customer data, you can calculate your first schedule:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the navigation menu, go to <strong>Schedule<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Click on <strong>Schedule parameters<\/strong> (cogwheel icon) to set the start time, planning period, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Click on <strong>Calculate schedule<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Use the <strong> setup assistant <\/strong> to adjust the parameters (call intervals &amp; duration, working hours, overnight stays, etc.) to reflect your situation:\n<ul>\n<li>The set values are defaults that can be adjusted later for each customer or working day.<\/li>\n<li>If the setup assistant is not visible, click on <strong> Options <\/strong> in the navigation menu. There, you can set all parameters in the blocks <strong> My settings <\/strong> and <strong> Call settings <\/strong> and adjust them at any time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In the next window, you can confirm that portatour<sup>\u00ae <\/sup> should take the <strong> current traffic situation <\/strong> into account when creating a route.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Look how easy it was to create your first optimized route! You can have this schedule displayed as a list, on the <strong>map<\/strong> and in your <strong>calendar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>How can I adapt and use suggested routes?<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>If you want to change the suggested route, we recommend that you do so in the <strong> calendar <\/strong>, keeping the following in mind:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Visit suggestions versus fixed appointments:<\/strong>The white boxes in the calendar are <strong>suggestions<\/strong> that portatour<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> generates automatically. They can move flexibly every time you recalculate. If you want to save a suggestion, you need to convert it into an<strong>appointment<\/strong> (confirm with a click or move it to the desired day\/time). Appointments are displayed in the calendar either as dark blue (fixed day and time) or as medium blue (fixed day, dynamic time) boxes. These remain even when the schedule is updated.<\/li>\n<li><strong> Dynamic calendar: <\/strong> After every change, you should update the schedule (= red circle icon in the top left corner). This allows portatour <sup>\u00ae <\/sup> to apply all changes and create a new, kilometer-optimised schedule at the push of a button.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Confirm visits:<\/strong>In order for the algorithm to know which customers to schedule, it is essential to check off each successful visit. To do this, simply click <strong>Just visited<\/strong> (for visit suggestions) or <strong>Just met<\/strong> (for appointments) after each meeting. In this manner, portatour<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> will automatically suggest the customer again after the expiration of the programmed interval. If a visit does not materialise, click on <strong>Not available<\/strong> so that portatour<sup>\u00ae<\/sup>can reschedule the customer as soon as possible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This <a href=\"https:\/\/help.portatour.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/360011112740-Demo-Video\"> <strong> 10-minute demo video <\/strong> <\/a> summarises how you can effectively use portatour<sup>\u00ae <\/sup> in your daily work.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/help.portatour.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/360011112740-Demo-Video\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5520\" src=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/demo-video-EN.jpg\" alt=\"A 10-minute demo video for field reps and managers, presenting essential features for dynamic route planning with portatour\u00ae.\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1><strong>What to do if you still have questions?<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Questions will definitely arise in the course of use. The following tips will tell you the easiest way to get answers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The fastest way to find answers is our <a href=\"https:\/\/help.portatour.com\/hc\/en-us\/categories\/360000306791\"> <strong> Online Help <\/strong> <\/a> (you can also click on any question mark in portatour<sup>\u00ae <\/sup>). Use the <strong> search function <\/strong> to quickly find information about the desired topic.<\/li>\n<li>Contact your <strong> personal representative <\/strong> or contact our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/contact\/en\"> <strong> Sales &amp; Support Team <\/strong> <\/a> to clarify any further questions.<\/li>\n<li>If you wish to introduce portatour<sup>\u00ae <\/sup> to your sales supervisor or management, we would be happy to arrange an <strong> online demo <\/strong>. Just send your appointment suggestions to us at<a href=\"mailto:sales@portatour.com\"> <strong> sales@portatour.com <\/strong> <\/a> and our team will get back to you as soon as possible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy learning about portatour\u2019s<sup>\u00ae <\/sup> automatic route planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>portatour\u2019s\u00ae free test lets you discover the world of automatic tour planning and all the advantages this offers. In order to get the most out of your test phase, we have compiled a step-by-step guide for you. What data should you enter into portatour \u00ae? A system is only as good as the data you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":4738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-route-planning"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5641"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6592,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5641\/revisions\/6592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}