Every day, countless consumers mistype their address information when filling out a form online. Simple human error also leads employees and customer representatives to enter incorrect addresses into consumer databases, too. And even when the correct address is entered into a business’s system the first time around, nearly 35.9 million consumers1 change their address each year—meaning that a formerly accurate address may no longer be of use to a business today.
While a few mistyped or inaccurate customer addresses may not seem alarming on the surface, this data quality issue can quickly amount to missed sales opportunities, lower customer satisfaction rates, and unnecessary costs. Fortunately, these issues can be resolved with the help of address verification services.
But what exactly can address verification do for a business and who benefits most from this software? Below, we'll delve into what you need to know about address validation—and who should incorporate this valuable service into their business model today.
Address verification 101: What it is and why it matters
If you're not familiar with address verification, here's a quick glimpse into what this service is, what it has to offer, and why it matters for businesses scattered across various industries. Address validation is a tool that will help businesses confront data quality issues they have surrounding their customers' data—or more specifically, their address information. When the wrong address is attached to a user, businesses may experience negative backlash in the form of poorer data quality, ineffective marketing campaigns, undeliverable packages, and much more. Fortunately, address verification can prevent these issues from arising by ensuring superior data quality from the start. With just an address in hand, Experian’s Address Verification can tell the user:
- The validity and existence of an address
- Whether or not the address is properly formatted, with standardization capacities
- Geocoding information, such as the latitude and longitude of an address
Many address verification services are offered in real-time or batch, depending on a business’s needs.
5 Industries that benefit from address verification services
Although address validation is useful for almost any business looking to improve its data maturity and quality, here’s a look at five industries where address validation is a must-have service:
1. Retail
In the retail sector, a common pain point is capturing customer data quickly and effectively. When shopping online, users often want a "one-click" experience. Without an address verification software that auto-fills customer information, retail businesses may confront higher shopping cart abandonment rates from users who are overwhelmed by lengthy form fills.
Due to the rise of e-commerce shopping, retail-based companies are also likely to ship a large portion of their product to their consumers. Whether an address is mistyped or simply outdated, sending these packages out to the wrong addresses can lead to financial losses from:
- Correction fees
- Sending replacement packages
- Paying for return shipping
Address validation prevents these issues from arising by ensuring accurate data at the point of entry.
2. Financial services
Collecting accurate data is crucial in the financial industry, especially when it boils down to client satisfaction and fraud reduction. However, nearly 33 percent of customer or prospect data retrieved by financial institutions is inaccurate in some way. A mere inaccurate address can lead to incorrect, incomplete, or duplicate customer data—all of which open the door for regulatory infractions.
But, ensuring accurate address data is difficult in an industry where the omnichannel experience is growing. Fortunately, address verification services can consolidate and monitor the quality of data collected via these different channels by quickly and accurately capturing key client information.
3. Telecommunications
In call centers, employees are bound to confront the challenge of quickly moving along a customer's call while ensuring the accuracy of the information they capture. Without the proper data software, this means one of two things. On one hand, reps could slow down their conversation in favor of ensuring accurate data collection. However, this inevitably leads to longer wait times—a consequence that lowers customer satisfaction. Or, reps may try to keep up the pace with their customer but enter inaccurate address information into their system in the process. Rather than choosing between two options that both hold negative implications for the business, incorporating interactive address validation at the point of capture serves as the superior option by ensuring quality control measures for the data as it enters the system.
4. Education
When it comes to higher education, it's important to reach the right people at the right time. This increasingly competitive industry necessitates a strong foundation for engagement. Any business operating in the education industry will often find that networking efforts, alumni and tour events, and donation endeavors are crucial to their everyday operations. Address verification can eliminate outdated or invalid addresses from an educational institution’s database to prevent time and money spent mailing out resources to the incorrect prospects or alumni. With this software, it's also easy to validate addresses at the point of capture—an act that will help institutions leverage their data with success and remain one step ahead of their competition.
5. Healthcare
Every day, healthcare providers and workers handle information that requires definitive security and accuracy measures so that communication efforts reach the correct recipient. This means that the contact information provided by patients needs to be accurate and matched to the correct client. However, ensuring accuracy when collecting contact details from patients can be difficult in a fast-paced environment that is brimming with consumer records. Implementing address verification software can quickly identify duplicate patient records by matching a user to the proper data. With the proper addresses in their database, healthcare providers have the added peace of mind necessary to know that they can engage with patients and bill them quickly without delay.
Address validation solutions: The key to remaining ahead of your industry’s competitors
Accurate, up-to-date consumer information isn’t just necessary for businesses that fall into one of the industries outlined above. Anytime you collect and use consumer data, leveraging and maturing this data will play a key part in your business’s ability to remain ahead in today’s competitive market. With the correct address data, you’ll find it easier to reach your target audience, keep your clients happy, and reduce the costs associated with future data correction.
Experian helps equip businesses just like yours with the tools necessary for operational success. Learn more about how you can benefit from address validation services by reaching out to one of our data quality experts.
Resources:
1 USPS. Postal Facts. https://facts.usps.com/table-facts/
