Address validation is the process of ensuring that customer addresses are correct often comparing it with information in official databases such as the Royal Mail’s PAF database.
This blog post looks at why address validation is important and how you can put it into practice in your business to ensure your information is accurate and you’re operating efficiently.
Why is it important to validate addresses?
There are 2 stages to address validation. We need to make sure information when we first capture the data and we need to ensure that the information stays up to date and valid. Keeping out of date information on our databases can be costly and wasteful.
Let’s take a look at how we can ensure addresses are valid in both of these stages.
1. Capturing Information
It seems obvious to state that it’s important to capture the right customer information right at the start. But this is a key point where incorrect information can cause problems.
Particularly for e-commerce businesses it’s vital that address information is valid and correct or it may cause problems with delivery (a key factor in ensuring customer satisfaction and retention). This in return can mean wasted time and money for your business.
A postcode lookup service like the one offered by Postcodes4U is an easy cost effective way to integrate address validation into your checkout process. Customers input their postcode and select the right address in the correct format from the Royal Mail PAF database the most trusted, up to date address database in the UK.
2. Keeping information up to date
Once you have your database of addresses we need to make sure that they stay relevant and up to date. There’s no point having a database full of addresses that are incorrect. Holding incorrect data could cause problems with analysis, security and customer satisfaction and trust.
It’s important to correct any errors that might have been made if you didn’t validate addresses when they were first collected or ensure that any address modifications have been noted. Remember that the PAF receives 4-5000 updates every day!
How can Postcodes4U help?
As well as our postcode lookup service Postcodes4U also offer an address validation service. Going through your database to validate your customer addresses can be a long and arduous process but it doesn’t have to be.
Contact us for a no obligation chat about how we can help and keep your data up to date and accurate.
