How to Put a Customer on the Map
A customer's location is the point on the map where its engineers are sent, and ABM Service uses it to draw the customer on the maps on the Calls and Scheduler screens. You set it in the Set location dialog, by moving the map until the pin sits on the right building. Open the dialog from a row on the Customers without a location page, or from Address & location on the customer's own screen.
How do I set a customer's location in ABM Service?
Select Set location beside the customer, move the map in the Set location dialog until the pin in the middle sits on the customer's building, then select Save location. The quickest route for customers that have no location yet is the Customers without a location page.
- Open Customers from the navigation menu and select Customers with no location on the toolbar.
- Select Set location on the customer's row. The button reads Opening… for a moment while ABM Service looks up the customer's address.
- Check where the map has opened. If the customer's Eircode or address could be found, the map starts there, zoomed in; otherwise it starts on a wide view.
- Drag the map until the pin sits on the right building, or type an address or Eircode in the box at the top of the dialog and select Find.
- Select Save location.
On the Customers without a location page the location is saved straight away. The page says "(customer name) is on the map.", the customer's row leaves the list, and the count at the top goes down by one. If the save fails, the page says "(customer name) could not be saved. Try again." and the Set location dialog stays open so you can select Save location again. If the customer could not be read in the first place, it says "(customer name) could not be opened. Try again."
A location saved from the Customers without a location page has no undo. To move the pin, open the customer, choose Address & location on the customer screen and use Set location again; to take the pin away, select Clear the pin there and save the customer, and the customer goes back on the Customers without a location page.
How does the Set location dialog work?
The Set location dialog shows a map with a pin fixed in its centre, and you move the map, not the pin: whatever is under the pin when you select Save location is what is saved. The dialog's heading is Set location, with the customer's name beside it.
- Drag the map to move it under the pin, and scroll or use the zoom buttons to zoom in and out. A label on the map says "Drag the map under the pin · scroll to zoom".
- The line under the map reminds you: "The centre of the map is what is saved. Move it if the building is not where the address says."
- The foot of the dialog shows the position that will be saved, as Lat (latitude) and Lng (longitude), and updates as you move the map.
- Cancel, or the Close button in the corner, shuts the dialog without saving anything.
Moving the map is how you accept a place. Nothing is saved by a search or by the map opening somewhere; only Save location saves. This matters because the customer's address is not always where the engineer goes: a site entrance, a gate or a unit round the back may be the right place to put the pin.
How do I find an address or Eircode in the Set location dialog?
Type an address or an Eircode into the box at the top of the Set location dialog (it reads An address or an Eircode…) and select Find or press Enter. The map moves to the place found and zooms in, ready for you to adjust it under the pin.
The box starts filled in with the customer's own Eircode, or its address if it has no Eircode, so for most customers you can select Find straight away and then fine-tune. While it looks, the button reads Finding….
Find goes to the first place the lookup returns, so check that the pin in the Set location dialog sits on the right building before you save; if it has gone to the wrong town, add the town or type the Eircode and select Find again.
If nothing is found, the dialog says Nothing found for that. Try a shorter address, just the town, or the Eircode. If the dialog says Address lookup is not available on this deployment., your company's ABM Service usually cannot look addresses up at all; move the map by hand instead. The same message can also appear when the lookup could not be reached for a moment, for example when the connection drops, so if address lookup normally works for you, select Find again.
Why does the Set location dialog ask me to type a latitude and longitude?
The Set location dialog asks for Latitude and Longitude when no map is set up for your company's ABM Service, or when the map could not be loaded, and it says: "No map is configured for this deployment, so the pin is typed rather than dropped." Find still fills both boxes with the place it found when address lookup is available. To enter a position yourself, copy each number from an online map and paste it in whole: select everything in the Latitude box, paste with Ctrl and V together (Ctrl+V), then do the same in the Longitude box. These boxes do not take a number typed one key at a time: a decimal point typed on its own is dropped, so 53.27 typed key by key becomes 5327, and a minus sign typed on its own turns the box to NaN. Check Lat and Lng at the foot of the dialog, then select Save location as usual.
Warning: When the customer has no location yet, the Latitude and Longitude boxes in the Set location dialog start on the map's default starting point in central Dublin, not on the customer. Replace both numbers, pasting each one in whole, and check Lat and Lng at the foot of the dialog before you select Save location, or the customer is saved at that default point or at a wrong one.
The map, and looking addresses up, are provided by Google and need to be switched on for your company's ABM Service by whoever looks after its installation. Until they are, locations can still be entered by hand, by pasting the numbers, and saved.
When you save from the Customers without a location page or from the map's Which? list, a latitude or longitude further than 180 degrees from zero is refused. The Customers without a location page then says "(customer name) could not be saved. Try again." From the map's Which? list no message appears: the Set location dialog simply stays open, so check both numbers before you select Save location again.
Can I set a customer's location from the customer screen?
Yes. Open the customer, choose Address & location in the sections rail, and use Set location on the Location card beside the address: it opens the same Set location dialog. There the location is part of the customer's unsaved changes and is stored only when you save the customer, and when the customer has no pin the card shows an estimate from the Eircode or mailing address if either can be found, which Use this location accepts. How to Set a Customer's Address and Location covers the card, the estimate, Clear the pin and the map's messages.
The map on the Calls and Scheduler screens can open the same dialog too: the Which? list on its no-location banner has a Set location button beside each customer, and saving there puts the customer on the map straight away.