Operating any business in the current climate is hard. The global pandemic appears to have passed yet its effects still linger and there are concerns of a reappearance. The economy is struggling thanks to war causing food shortages and climate change causing huge energy issues.
In short, for a business to survive, they need to use every tool possible. That includes using address validation systems such as the one offered by Address4 and other reputable suppliers.
What Is Address Validation?
The most obvious question is what is address validation. It actually does exactly what it says, and validates addresses.
To truly understand how essential this is you need to consider that the internet now powers the world: over five billion of the eight billion people on the planet are online.
Every person shares information daily. This includes name, address, date and place of birth, personal financial information, what you’ve been doing at the weekend and a host of other information. It’s shared via text, photos and even videos.
You’ll be amazed when you stop to consider the amount of information you share daily. It may even make you think twice before you share anything else.
All this information needs to be collated together. Systems are designed to collect information and make files showing the useful parts. For example, the names and addresses of customers in a specific age bracket or with a designated income level.
Unfortunately, not everyone gives the right information online. It’s easy to create an account with a false or misspelled name. Even the address can be wrong.
Address validation prevents this. It can take any data file and check that all the addresses are correct and that the name listed in the file matches public records for a name and address match.
The address validation system can even fill in any blanks. All that a business needs to do is send a file containing names and addresses. The address validation system can resolve all issues within a few minutes!
Why You Need It
As a business owner, you already know how frustrating it can be to contact potential customers and find that the details are incorrect or missing.
You’ll have invested time and money in collecting data only to find out the data is useless. This will make it much harder for you to successfully build a business.
Address validation also allows you to confirm a customer is genuine, reducing the likelihood of fraud as scammers get parcels sent to different addresses.
Avoiding this issue can also help to prevent you from getting in trouble with the authorities, such as being charged a compliance penalty for using bogus information.
You should also note that not all bad addresses are fraud or dubious. It is possible for customers to accidentally add the wrong details. Validating addresses means that the parcels will be delivered to the right place.
That’s good for your reputation and customer loyalty.
Pros: Its Costs And the fact that it’s Time-Saving
Bulk address validation software can check hundreds of names and addresses in minutes. It’s accurate and far faster than manually verifying a name and address.
Equally, because it’s a computer system handling the check, you’re less likely to encounter human verification errors.
While there is a cost associated with address verification, it’s surprisingly small, especially if you compare it to the cost of employing staff to check addresses.
Naturally, staff would need to check addresses by speaking to the person and perhaps even asking for proof. That can slow the delivery process and damage your business reputation. Using the address validation service means you’re maximizing the customer experience.
When customers are happy, they are more likely to buy from you again and refer you to others. Using address validation software makes this a more likely outcome.
Summing Up
Address validation software should be considered an essential part of any business. It will prevent you from wasting time and money sending products to the wrong address.
It should also make it harder for criminals to fraudulently purchase your goods and cause you a variety of financial and reputational issues.
The cost of bulk address validation is surprisingly low, every business will find it’s worth trying.