Do you know which addresses on your contact list are residential and which are commercial locations? It may not seem like a big deal, but knowing the type of address for your customers could help you save money on shipping costs.
How can you tell how an address is categorized? The Residential Delivery Indicator™ (RDI™) from the United States Postal Service. Together, with address validation tools from Experian, RDI™ lets you easily figure out what type of address is on your contact list. Learn more about RDI™ and how you can use it to improve your business.
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What is the Residential Delivery Indicator™?
Often just called RDI™, the Residential Delivery Indicator™, is a data tool from the United States Postal Service that tells you whether a certain address is residential or commercial. This information is important for anyone who ships packages to customers. Private shippers often charge higher rates to ship to residential addresses. Some even charge a fee to correct your address if you incorrectly label it, such as labeling it a business address when it’s a residential address.
The RDI™ capability can be used with Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) certified address validation software. This means Experian's USPS address verification tool can pull data from USPS to help format, correct, and organize your address lists. For example, Experian’s CASS-certified address verification tools and solutions give you access to RDI tools and datasets.
Benefits of using the RDI™
Knowing what type of address is in your contact list might not seem like a big deal, but this small piece of information could change your shipping costs and processes. Using Experian’s address verification solutions with RDI™ can help your business:
- Decrease shipping costs: Information from RDI™ gives you a leg up when comparing shipping costs between carriers. You can see what carriers will charge extra for a residential address to decide which option is the most affordable.
- Increase efficiency: Speed up your shipping and postage processes using RDI™ data. You can sort packages into commercial and residential addresses, making it easier to get them to the right address on the right carrier.
- Avoid rate surcharges: Some private shipping companies charge you an extra fee if you mislabel an address. Know before you send to help reduce potential rate surcharges.
- Improve targeted marketing: Your marketing will change whether you’re contacting a business or residential address. Use RDI™ data to pinpoint the type of address and create targeted campaigns for businesses and consumers.
- Improve data accuracy: The more accurate data you have for your contacts, the higher your data quality. Adding residential or commercial address type to your contact lists adds another layer of data you can use to make data-driven business decisions.
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Residential Delivery Indicator™ and data quality
Verifying the type of addresses on your contact lists helps keep business shipping costs down. It can also help improve your marketing materials and increase the efficiency of your shipping process. The Residential Delivery Indicator™ (RDI™) and Record Type data from Experian makes verifying residential or commercial addresses easier than ever.
Determining residential or commercial isn’t the only way to verify your address list. Validating address formats and correct locations along with address type makes all of your address data more accurate. More accurate data leads to high data quality and more effective data usage. Experian’s range of address verification products and services can help your business improve the quality of your data—and the data you collect in the future.
Contact our team of data quality experts to learn more about our data quality solutions and request a free demo today.
