These days we see an uptick in digital engagement which makes address validation increasingly important. Businesses are focused on ensuring a seamless user journey on the front and back end of the technology spectrum.
The key to success, in my view, is to have precise products combined with relevant and accurate data. This combination is what powers all our Experian propositions and enables Experian to serve a plethora of user journeys via easy-to-use solutions.
What is address validation?
Address validation is all about capturing and managing address contact data. At a first glance, it’s simple, but when done with precision the benefits are plenty—from improving your customer’s experience with predictive address suggestions on your site to cleansing your database to ensure timely deliveries and avoiding address correction fees.
Generally, there are two main areas of address validation:
- Real-time address validation. This means that the address is verified at the point-of-capture. For instance, when a customer completes an online application (say the billing form at online checkout), the address is corrected to ensure it meets the USPS® or national formatting requirements and verified that it exists. This accurate address—tied to the consumer—enters into your database as a complete, ready-to-use record.
- Bulk address validation. For those who may not be ready for ongoing data quality management or have a one-time project, bulk address validation is a great place to start. In this case, a data list is uploaded for cleansing and a complete list is sent back to you. Most companies may use this for marketing campaigns like cleaning an address list for direct mail outreach.
At Experian, we embed industry knowledge into our address validation software, so our clients are not only aligned to industry best practices but also equipped with the right consumer data. With our products, we can offer best-in-class solutions for any of your business needs. The cherry on top is that Experian has additional data enrichment services which can enhance your data and enable you to gain insights.
Top challenges that address validation can help with
With the help of digital acceleration, the market is transforming rapidly. Even living in a digital-first world, mailing addresses continue to be a vital part of a customer’s profile for package deliveries, marketing campaigns, strategic insight, and more. Here are some of the main areas where we support our clients to move to the next level:
- Seamless end-user experience: From the customer’s perspective, it is evident that the world is undergoing heavy digitalization. Consider this: Your customers—the ones that shop directly with you—want frictionless, quick, and easy ways to input their addresses, so they can close their carts rapidly while being sure their purchase will arrive in the right place. Our products offer that but with way more through unique datasets that can enrich an address, so our business clients can understand their customers better, while end users are having a positive experience entering their address with just a few clicks.
- Moving to the cloud: At this point in our digital era, it is inevitable for businesses to move to a private or public cloud. As I observe this movement, there is a growing need of address validation products that power the digital journeys via public or private cloud. At Experian, we are prepared to support our clients in any direction they take.
- Reliable technology: We are in innovative times, which means that as the market transforms so does technology. This creates the challenge of making products that are reliable and trustworthy. In conversations with our business clients, I find that they describe our products as “secure and always working”. This is a great testimony for the inherent quality of our products and the technological availability we offer.
What's next for Experian Address Validation solutions?
Our products aim to be the perfect partner for businesses who need address capturing, validation, cleansing, and standardization capabilities through real-time or bulk software. We plan on consistently enabling our customers. For example, by giving them more functionality in a more intuitive way to control and configure. This will open lots of new doors, while current clients can discover new and unexpected insights.
Putting myself in our client's shoes when buying a product, it is essential to buy a product with a compelling long-term vision with the opportunity to get extra value continuously. This is what we strive for. Check out our product roadmap.
In our current digital era, reliable address data is more important than ever before to reach your customers efficiently and effectively. With our real-time and bulk address validation solutions, companies can rest easy knowing that they’re delivering a seamless user experience from start to finish.
