In today’s fast-paced world of e-commerce and digital interactions, accurate customer address data is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. From ensuring on-time deliveries to crafting personalized customer experiences, reliable address data drives operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. It's no surprise that businesses are prioritizing address verification to stay ahead in the game.
With the global address verification software market projected to surpass $23 billion by 2030, the importance of this technology is clear. However, verification is just the beginning. In this article, we’ll explore key strategies to not only enhance address accuracy but also unlock its full potential to deliver meaningful business insights and exceptional customer experiences.
Making Addresses Trustworthy: Verification and Correction
You could consider verifying addresses and making corrections as 2 sides of the same coin. About 20% of all addresses entered in web forms contain errors. It may be a spelling mistake or a typo that results in the wrong apartment number or a formatting error…
Verifying an address makes sure it is genuine and deliverable. When you use an address verification tool, any errors identified are instantly highlighted and if possible corrected. For example, ‘Mian Street’ may be corrected to ‘Main Street’.
By working in tandem, address verification and correction minimize the risk of having an undeliverable address enter your database. This ensures that customer orders and any business communication sent out reaches the intended recipient. The result – happier customers, lower return rates, optimized shipping costs and a smooth workflow.
Standardization to Make Address Insights Actionable
‘Main Street 123, Sydney, New South Wales’ vs ‘123 Main Street, Sydney NSW’ – the addresses seem synonymous and both may be deliverable, but they don’t hold the same value. The standard format would put the apartment number first and in the case of Australia, abbreviate the state name. Standardization refers to rearranging address elements according to a common format. This has 3 key benefits.
Firstly, editing the address to make it conform to these standards makes it more usable for business analytics. Once address formats have been standardized, they can be parsed into individual elements. In turn, they can then be analyzed and compared to gain valuable insights for targeted marketing campaigns, strategic planning and resource allocation.
Secondly, standardization plays an important role in improving the overall quality of your database. Storing addresses in varied formats increases the risk of duplication. This not only increases storage costs but can also make your database analytics unreliable.
For example, your database may indicate that you have 600 customers in New South Wales. But, if 30% of your addresses are duplicates, you actually have only 420 customers in the area. Standardizing address formats makes duplicates easier to identify and remove thereby making your database more reliable.
Thirdly, by making insights visible and improving data quality, address format standardization helps businesses deliver better customer experiences. Address data analysis can help businesses personalize product recommendations and services. For example, when you open a new store, you can send out announcements to customers who live in the store’s vicinity. By deduplicating addresses in your database, it also ensures that customers do not receive multiple copies of the same message. This builds trust in the brand and earns you the customer’s loyalty.
Enhancing Address Details to Maximize Potential
Verification, correction and standardization are the basic features of an address verification tool. Some validation APIs go a step further to enrich the data. This helps uncover deeper insights that could give you a competitive edge in the market. Some of the ways to enhance address data are:
Address type indicator
While you can make deliveries to a residential address even on Sunday, deliveries to business addresses can usually be made only on weekdays. Using an address type indicator can help you differentiate between residential and business addresses. In turn, this helps logistics teams streamline their last-mile delivery.
Geocoding
Geocoding is the process of converting street addresses into their corresponding latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, allowing you to pinpoint addresses on a map. Additionally, by permitting customers to enter an address as a point on the map, you can reverse geocode it to obtain a textual address.
Geocoding offers several benefits:
A visual representation of addresses helps simplify delivery route optimization. For example, some buildings may have entrances on two different streets—geocoding allows you to adjust the approach, saving time for last-mile delivery agents.
It also facilitates the identification of patterns and trends across various locations. When combined with other datasets, such as sales figures, geocoding enables a more comprehensive analysis of market demographics, customer preferences, and more.
Property Data
This address validation enhancement can give you insights into the property’s current value, lot size, deed history, building information, census information and so on. It can also help you understand the customer’s profile by indicating other properties owned by the homeowner, the year it was built, etc.
Such insights into property value for a customer’s address can be very valuable for financial service providers, investors, insurance agents, etc.
Address Updates
15% of the American population moves once a year. However, you may not be aware of a change in address until mail is returned as undeliverable. Hence, the need for validation APIs that offer address updates.
Here addresses are compared against postal databases. In the USA, this would be the USPS 48-month NCOALink database. If an address is found to be outdated, it is replaced with the correct, current address information. This allows you to stay connected with customers even when they move. By reducing the amount of mail that needs to be returned or forwarded, it could also make you eligible for postal discounts.
Summing It Up
Address validation has evolved from a helpful tool to an essential business practice. Beyond ensuring timely deliveries, it enables businesses to streamline operations, reduce costs, and meet growing customer expectations. By standardizing address formats and enriching your data, you unlock deeper insights that drive customer-centric strategies and build a stronger brand reputation.
In a competitive marketplace, paying close attention to customer address data isn’t just about logistics—it’s about creating meaningful connections and fostering trust. Start optimizing your address data today to stay ahead and deliver unparalleled experiences.
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