1. Define the Rochester Hills geography before you interpret a number
A local dashboard can become misleading when a firm treats Rochester Hills, Oakland County and a broader metropolitan market as interchangeable. Rochester Hills is recorded as a municipality in Oakland County. Decide whether a report should isolate the city, include the county, or cover a wider service area. Then ask how a city label is assigned to a call, form, intake or matter. A resident, a workplace, a courthouse location and a client’s stated service area are not automatically the same geography. The Census population estimate is useful for identifying the city and its county relationship, but it cannot validate demand or forecast case volume.
Recommended approach
Bring your intended geographic definitions to the consultation. Ask to see how city and county fields would be represented, what happens when a contact gives an incomplete address, and whether the dashboard can keep distinct geographies from being combined in a single decision.
