He Saw Brands Losing Customers Without Even Knowing It. So He Built DashLoc.

A lot of entrepreneurs are building enterprises based on a trend they see in the market. After seeing a silent issue that many businesses weren’t aware of, Sumit constructed one.

Existing brands had aggressive advertisement budgets, were moving into new markets and opening hundreds of stores. At first, it seemed that everything was fine. When those stores were looked up online, however, the addresses, phone numbers, reviews and other information were often outdated or incorrect. Others just gave up and opted for a different brand.

But this was not Sumit’s only concern. It was a business issue that was losing customers to the companies day by day.

It was from that observation that DashLoc, the solution that helps enterprises to manage their digital presence with multiple locations and improve the local discovery, customer engagement and business visibility, was born.

Entrepreneurship for Sumit has never been about ‘trends’. It has always been a matter of problem solving that quietly impacts business growth.

But, “when a customer can’t locate the store that’s right for them, has the right information and is in the right place at the right time, the sale is lost,” he says.

Sounds easy, but it is actually very complicated.

Buying decisions are made long before entering a store these days. They might be looking for a restaurant, a clothing store, a pharmacy or a bank branch, and the initial interaction is typically on Google or a digital platform. Before making a decision, the customer reads ratings, reviews, opening hours and seeks directions.

When the information is not correct, trust evaporates in a flash.

Consumers want it all to be provided instantaneously, but updating information at hundreds of business sites is quite a challenge. Each store will publish different hours of operation, promotions, customer reviews, photos, contact numbers and updates. One mislist will result in lost sales and unhappy customers.

This was an issue that Sumit noticed well before other businesses saw it as a concern.

Instead of creating yet another marketing platform, he dedicated himself to making the groundwork of digital marketing more solid for businesses. With DashLoc, brands can control, monitor and manage location data, business listings, customer reviews, and online visibility all in one place, ensuring a consistent customer experience at each location.

With the creation of DashLoc came the challenges.

As many business founders, Sumit had its fair share of uncertainty. The most difficult challenge was not one of technology development, it was getting businesses the understanding that bad local visibility was a problem impacting their bottom line.

For many firms growth was considered to be a problem that could be overcome through advertising. Sumit believed otherwise.

He noticed that even big companies would spend a lot of money, trying to lure shoppers to their stores, but not bothering to make sure shoppers could find the right store with the right information.

It was DashLoc’s greatest asset because of that difference in thought.

With businesses starting to notice tangible benefits in terms of discoverability, customer engagement, and lead generation, trust in the platform has gradually increased. Whereas DashLoc earned trust through results, they were not given through the promise.

Artificial Intelligence has been a pivotal change in the business landscape, rapidly evolving into its own. While almost all businesses are looking to implement AI, Sumit feels that many are asking the wrong questions?

As he has seen, business executives are not just adopting AI because it’s in vogue. They are looking for solutions that increase efficiency, decrease operational complexity and bring measurable business results.

Throughout DashLoc’s work, it is a philosophy that technology should address business challenges and not add to them.

He also feels that entrepreneurship has taught him lessons which he feels that no classroom could prepare for.

One of the largest was realizing that not all customers are the right customers. At first, all the opportunities seem to be worthwhile. However, over time, Sumit had identified that agreeing to any customer can hinder innovation and divert a business from its long-term goals. The right partners ultimately result in improved products and growth.

Resilience was another lesson.

Establishing a company involves making critical decisions in uncertain conditions. There are market fluctuations, changing customer expectations and unexpected difficulties arise. In those instances, a good deal of persistence is often more valuable than perfect planning.

Sumit’s vision for the future is for DashLoc to be more than just a business listing platform. His goal is to create the intelligence fabric that orchestrates discovery, engagement and conversion for enterprises with a multi-location strategy.

Most importantly, he wants DashLoc to be known for the business outcomes it generates, and not for the technology that it employs.