Addresses and Postcodes - A guide to Address Management
If you often hear the term 'Address Management' used but haven't got a clue what it means, we hope this simple and short guide will help.
What is 'Address Management'?
Address Management is everything to do with collecting accurate addresses and keeping them up to date. It includes the initial checking and recording of addresses, for example on a website or over the phone, to the automated cleaning of a whole database of addresses. Each process can be performed faster and easier by using an Address Management software product.
What makes a good Address Management Strategy?
There are three key elements to an effective Address Management Strategy:
1. Accurate, reliable data
As explained in "What is PAF®?", the Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF®) provides the most comprehensive and accurate source of address data in the UK.
Containing over 28 million addresses, PAF® is constantly updated by UK postmen and women delivering mail throughout the country. This ensures that the data accurately reflects the actual situation of each area. No other source of address information comes close to this level of first-hand knowledge, not to mention its continual updating process.
2. Checking addresses at the point of collection
It is important to capture address data correctly at the first point of contact. Address lookup software can speed up the data collection process and ensures that the address captured is correct and is free from errors and spelling mistakes. By capturing a postally correct address initially, it saves time in the long-run having to correct it later on.
Our PostCoder® address lookup products allow quick and accurate data capture by inputting as little as a Postcode and premise number/name, reducing the number of keystrokes by up to 80%.
But what happens when the Postcode is not known? Address Matching can solve this by generating a list of possible addresses from the known elements of an address (e.g. street name, Post Town and house number).
3. Keep it clean
If addresses are entered into your system incorrectly, your database could be riddled with errors. There are also 1.2 million changes made to PAF® every year. Add to this the fact that your database could have duplicated records. In total this could result in multiple and incorrectly addressed mailings, costing you money and your reputation.
Address cleaning tools, such as PostCoder Batch, go through your database correcting obvious errors and offering options for unobvious addresses, allowing manual correction by you.
So Address Management incorporates verifying addresses against a quality dataset at the initial point of contact and regularly cleaning them.
To find out how Address Management can benefit your business, visit Benefits of PostCoder® and How to address your UK mail correctly.
Please visit "Why PostCoder® is best" to find out what sets us and our solutions apart from the rest!
