Why Should You Keep Your Customer Address Database Updated?
Businesses frequently don’t spend enough time focusing on the benefits and drawbacks of keeping their customer address database up to date. In reality, the more complex an organization becomes, the more difficult it is to keep customer information up to date across the board.
Companies that gather, analyze, and use their customer address database explicitly can achieve considerable financial results. According to Harvard Company Review research, 58% of enterprise organizations reported that effective use of their client databases resulted in an improvement in business retention.
As a result, having a customer address database that is 100% complete and correct is critical for improving ROI. However, a sizable majority of marketing professionals still believe they lack precise client data before launching campaigns. Here’s where address validation comes in handy!
When you keep your customer addresses current, businesses enjoy a number of advantages, such as the following:
1. It saves time
If you’re sending out marketing materials or other written notices to your customers, then not only will having the right addresses save you money on postage, but it will also save you money on paper and printing. It will also reduce the costs of employee time spent opening returned mail and routing it to the appropriate department within the company. Another cost savings comes from the original team needing to look for the correct address, re-printing with the correct information, and then re-sending it.
2. It lets you collect on time
Having the correct address lets you deliver mail right the first time. Take for instance you are delivering mail for an account that is due for payment. However, it gets returned. This scenario can add at least a week or more until your company receives payment. If a large percentage of your customer addresses are not updated, your cash flow will suffer when you have to deal with sending invoices to incorrect addresses.
Moreover, this can lead to more negative happenings. For example, if the address has been corrected, and the original invoice has been resent, however, the payment due date may have already passed. The overdue account reminder process begins automatically. The customer may get annoyed because they are being prompted to pay an account when they have not yet received it.
This means that aside from your cash flow taking a hit, this situation can hurt your company’s reputation. Therefore, make sure to update your customer addresses to receive payments promptly and keep your clients satisfied.
3. It improves the customer relationship
The correct customer is a building block in ensuring that you can keep constant and consistent communication with your clients. It helps you build your relationship and retain your customers. There are a lot of things you can do to strengthen the relationship. You could send a birthday card or a special note commemorating a particular occasion. An effort as simple as a card can have a significant impact on the development of relationships with customers and prospects.
4. It helps identify opportunities
A change of address frequently indicates a change in a customer’s situation. It could indicate a gain or drop in income, the birth of a child, the departure of a young adult from the family, or the retirement or preparation for retirement. All of these things are great opportunities to present a solution (and your business) to your customers.
If you’re a B2B (business to business) company, a change of address for your client might indicate an expansion that can result in the need for new equipment or improvements to existing equipment, the hiring of extra workers, and the establishment of new supply routes. These are amazing opportunities to get in touch with your client and make a sale.
5. It allows you to engage with your customers
You can take advantage of the postal system to inform your customers of upcoming offerings. With the right address, you can guarantee better engagement and conversion.
All of these advantages are likely to affect your revenue streams and profitability. Therefore, you need to keep customer addresses updated, and here’s how you can do it.
How to Keep Your Address Database Correct?
Here’s what you can do to keep your customer address database as accurate as possible. You can use the correct customer addresses for many things including sales, marketing, and customer support. It will help you achieve the desired outcomes for your company.
1. Keep a complete database
Communication with your customers is virtually impossible if you have an inadequate client database. So, in order to reach the right people, you must update and verify your client database.
2. Delete duplicate data
Manually comparing data or using somewhat automated approaches are different ways to prevent your database from having duplicates. However, this strategy will take a lot of time, resources, and effort. The US economy losses $3.1 trillion annually due to poor data quality.
A quicker solution is to use verification tools such as Searchbug. It will save you time and money by rapidly correcting any inaccurate data. As a result, you can reduce the costs of having to resend mailers that would have landed with incorrect recipients. Having the correct addresses can also reduce the bounce rate, eradicate lost mail, and improve the precision of your tracking results.
3. Reject incorrect addresses
You may face serious consequences if you send mail to incorrect addresses. Safety will also be a concern, especially if your mailers contain confidential information. Sending critical data to the incorrect address could get you in serious trouble, and your customers may leave and refuse to do business with you again.
Data can come from many different sources. Therefore, it can be tricky to keep a clean customer database. Still, you can do away with wrong addresses with the help of an address verification service.
Update Customer Addresses: Searchbug’s USPS Address Lookup and Verification
All legitimate US addresses are recorded and stored in a standard format by the US Postal Service (USPS). Business addresses should include the company name, specify the apartment or suite number if relevant, use valid USPS acronyms and abbreviations, include a nine-digit zip code, and exclude commas and periods.
When you use Searchbug’s USPS Address Lookup or Verification Service, you can be sure that your mail will be delivered to the correct address. You won’t waste money sending undeliverable mail with our precise postal mail checker.
Sending mail to an incorrect address can have some serious repercussions. If you have to resend returned mail, it costs you more money, but the risk of it being intercepted by someone else is far greater. You may never know, and your consumer may never receive your mail.
Searchbug is the expert on USPS address verification. Our mail checker and USPS address lookup tool are a perfect fit if you’re seeking a low-cost USPS address validation tool that doesn’t require any subscriptions or memberships.
Keep your customer addresses up to date and reap the benefits for your business. Looking for a tool that’ll help verify addresses? Try Searchbug’s USPS Address Verification Service today!
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