Choosing an Address Cleansing Tool for Your Business

Do you have an online store? Or maybe, you work with customers, their data, or manage communications? In any of the cases above, wrong address information can make or break your business.

When you send documents to the wrong address, personal data is threatened. Furthermore, your brand reputation as a service provider also suffers. So, address validation is essential. But how to check delivery addresses correctly? 

Financial institutions, governmental bodies, healthcare providers, and all the businesses with online payment features will benefit from improving their address lists’ quality. 

Their reasons to seek address validation include:

• using the street addresses in your sales and marketing campaigns,
• a need to optimize the official communications,
• address validation security checks for verifying credit card ownership.
  

Quite used to open-source software solving all business needs, many people habitually start looking for open source solutions. But in the case of address validation, there’s a catch.

This article will define open-source address validation’s current capabilities and explain how to create a reliable address list.  

What Is Open-Source Address Validation?

An address scrubber with a public source code is available for everyone to make changes or improve its quality. This is a so-called open-source address validation tool. 

Why Is a Truly Open-Source Address Validation Impossible?

Though there are online tools that fix mistakes in USPS or international addresses, the source is not truly open as the personal data included in the database cannot be openly shared. USPS postal service doesn't give full access to the customers' addresses. The availability of correct address information here conflicts with data security. And, of course, free access to such information would be a violation of many local regularities. 

Address Validation API: The Right Choice for Address Verification

While USPS doesn't give free access to its database, there are APIs offered. Connecting them to the CRM, you get the way to validate thousands of street addresses and zip codes safely. You can also use such an address verification API to enable your website forms to check typed-in addresses on the go. And every time a typo or incorrect formatting appears, the software will suggest the correct variant from the database.

Reliable Sources and Other Important Features

There are specific parameters to consider when choosing an Address Validation API:

• automation capabilities
• how easy it is to integrate it with your business' other tools
• compliance to regulations and standards
• batch verification support
• security.

If you’re looking for a tool offering all these features, consider Inkit Verify. With Verify’s address validation, you will:

• ensure clean and accurate customer address data in your database
• cut costs on undelivered or returned shipments
• sync up all your marketing processes by integrating the address verification tool with the CRM and other marketing tools.  

Contact us to experience all the benefits of the product.