Melissa AU Team | Address Verification | address verification services, business address validation, consumer data, industries

When a customer creates an account with a company, one of the first details they share is their street address. The trouble is, sometimes, people make a typographical error while entering their addresses or if they’re trying to cheat the company, they enter the wrong address. Addresses may also become outdated.

In 2020, nearly 36 million Americans changed their street addresses. Thus, it is important to verify street addresses as they are being entered into the system as well as those which are already saved. All industries can benefit from address verification but for some, it is a critical step to safeguard customer interests and offer better service.

Let’s take a look at 9 industries that need address verification.

1. Retail E-Commerce

When you’re interacting with customers online, verifying their addresses is critical to understanding customer demographics and preventing fraud. A person’s street address gives inferences about their income, family size, ethnicity, etc. This information helps with product improvement to meet customer demands and aids in designing targeted marketing campaigns.

When it comes to the customer’s actual shopping experience, using address autocomplete APIs for address verification makes the checkout process simpler. By reducing the number of clicks needed, e-commerce retailers can also reduce cart abandonment statistics. Of course, having the right address is also necessary for on-time order deliveries.

• Banking and financial institutions

When it comes to providing financial services, complying with KYC and AML norms is essential for fraud prevention. Having an incorrect or incomplete address could lead to customer data being duplicated and open the doors for fraudsters to steal their identities as well as other regulatory infractions.

Verifying customer addresses and keeping databases updated ensures a reliable, high-quality database with a single, golden record for each customer. Since customers make transactions through city branches, the website and mobile apps, having a single record for each customer also help provide a seamless omnichannel experience.

• Healthcare providers

For healthcare providers, address verification is essential to communication. These security measures help ensure that reports, etc are given to the right person. In view of communicable infections and the recent pandemic, having correct address details also empowers healthcare institutions to report breakouts to the concerned authorities and keep the infection contained. Having accurate, reliable addresses is also needed by the billing departments to process documentation and patient paperwork.

• Insurance

For insurance companies to calculate premiums on home insurance, along with the current value of the home, they must know the property location. For example, though the average home insurance premium in California is lower than the national average. The frequency of severe wildfires in certain parts of the state has driven up rates in certain areas. In 2019, as many as 350,000 homeowner policies were refused renewal as insurance agencies dropped coverage in these areas. Similarly, homeowners in Florida and Texas pay higher premiums since these areas are prone to hurricanes. Having accurate street addresses also helps insurance providers understand the risk of home invasion and robberies and calculate insurance premiums accordingly.

• Telecommunications

Before setting up a new connection, telecom service providers must be able to verify customer addresses. There are two key reasons for this. Firstly, the location determines the service coverage available.

Did you know that cellular connectivity is highly restricted and WiFi is banned in Green Bank, West Virginia? 5G is still being rolled out and cellular plan pricing is dependent on the internet speed available. Address verification also reduces the risk of giving out connections that may be used for terrorism and other fraudulent activities.

• Utility service providers

The biggest challenge for utility service providers is collecting payments and keeping connections from being stolen. Debts spoil relationships with customers and threaten the company’s ability to continue providing continuous services. Address verification helps tackle such issues.

Firstly, having reliable addresses minimizes the risk of misdelivered bills. Thus, customers have fewer excuses to not clear their dues on time. It also helps verify the customer’s identity and provides an insight into average consumption. This information can further identify instances where the usage suddenly increases indicating theft.

• 3^rd Party Logistics

Many online retailers outsource order deliveries to 3^rd party logistics service providers. They are responsible for picking up a packed order from warehouses and transporting them to the customer’s doorstep. If the customer’s address is incorrect or incomplete, they may not be able to deliver the order on time. This affects customer satisfaction rates and their relationship with the e-commerce platform.

Verifying the address at the onset of handling an order allows these companies to optimize delivery routes. This makes the process cost-effective, saves time for delivery agents and keeps customers happy.

• Holiday rentals

There’s a growing trend where holiday seekers are moving away from hotels and favouring home share and vacation rentals. These are typically individually owned properties that are listed on aggregator websites.

Address verification helps pinpoint geolocation for these properties and provides transparency in the listing. For example, if a property is advertised as being a 5-minute walk from the beach, pinning the location to a map lets visitors check the actual distance and confirm it before making a booking.

• Trading Houses and Crypto Exchanges

Given the digital nature of cryptocurrency, trading houses must comply with KYC norms to keep themselves and their investors safe. Many fraudsters are getting into the industry with the aim of defrauding others of their money to launder dirty money. Verifying street addresses is needed for KYC compliance and to ensure that the people trading on the platform are who they claim to be. For example, an alert may be sounded if a person who usually trades from New York suddenly starts trading from San Francisco.

In Conclusion

Address verification API and tools are easy to integrate into your existing website and CRM systems. It is key to protecting your customer’s interests and staying ahead of the competition. It’s beneficial not just for the industries listed above but for anyone who collects customer information. Having reliable information makes it easy for companies to reach out to their target audience, meet customer expectations, reduce costs and keep everyone happy.

There are many address verification tools available today. Addresses can be verified individually or in batches. Choose a service provider who can verify addresses not just in the USA and Canada but globally in all the countries, you do business in.

Also, make sure they keep data secure and comply with data protection regulations. Lastly, they should be able not only to compare the address entered with data in third-party databases but also enhance data with additional information to create a more complete customer profile.