Data On Demand builds accurate, compliant consumer data products and solutions that help organisations improve their understanding of their customers, enabling better consumer outcomes. Organisations from a range of sectors including Utilities, Telecoms, and Insurance rely on Data On Demand’s consumer database, the UK’s largest, to identify, verify, and contact their customers.
Stuart Murgatroyd, CEO of Data On Demand, and his team discovered that less than optimal address data matching was slowing growth in the reach of their database. The initial problem was that their existing address-matching solution was slow and would often stop working. During a thorough analysis of the solution, inaccuracies in the data were discovered, and further investigation uncovered areas where improvements could be made to ensure that the data they provide is best-in-class.
Stuart explains: “Our Chief Technical Officer and Chief Data Officer would set large files running on Friday night only to find on Monday that software problems had stopped the process. The hardest part was trying to get our software supplier to fix things in a timely manner. Often, the phone went unanswered, and responses took weeks. We need to move faster than that.”
It was time to find a new address-cleansing supplier. With decades of experience in the data industry, they knew who the major players were and shortlisted four alternatives – including AFD Software – which were then subject to intensive testing and evaluation.
Stuart continues: “We assessed each of the suppliers’ solutions on a wide range of criteria – we went further than most because address cleansing and matching is critical to our business and to our customers. At the end of the process, it was clear that AFD’s Refiner product was best-in-class across all evaluation criteria – including best value for money. AFD’s solution was the fastest, most accurate, simplest to integrate, and the results were much clearer to interpret than the other options.”
Stuart explains some important findings: “As we are encouraging our clients to work on a real-time basis, we need API-based solutions that can handle multiple requests and files simultaneously. Some solutions just couldn’t accommodate this – only offering legacy batch solutions requiring export, processing, and re-importing of data. Other solutions were complicated to integrate and automate and left us to interpret overly complicated results into action – rather than presenting us with a reliable decision.”
The evaluation process showed that AFD Refiner covered 95% of what was needed. The engagement and desire to look at the final 5% would reveal how committed AFD was to receive and action feedback for enhancements that would bring maximum alignment. Stuart says: “The responsiveness from the team at AFD was completely refreshing and delivered a solution bespoke to our exact requirements.”
Stuart concludes: “We are a highly technical, data specialist organisation with complex requirements. When we say that the AFD Refiner engine is best-in-class, we say so after a thorough comparison and examination of multiple dimensions.
Our previous supplier’s account management was not at the required level. From initial engagement, the team at AFD Software responded the fastest, and developed a relationship of partnership rather than transaction. This continued through testing, our bespoke development requirements, go-live, and ongoing support. If you need address data cleansing – partner with The Postcode People at AFD Software.”
If you would like to discuss your data cleansing requirements or understand the quality of your contact database, contact one of AFD’s Data Quality Consultants to discuss your specific requirements today on 01624 811711 or email postcode@afd.co.uk.
When you rely on Software as a Service (SaaS) you need confidence that the provider of that service is competent and can prove consistent availability and scalability. With thousands of organisations across the world relying on our services, we are continuously investing in our hosted infrastructure.
So how do we achieve 100% uptime – we’ve had no outages, no partial outages, no degraded performance – in two years? A few basics: stay humble, plan ahead, constantly monitor, keep building team skill and knowledge, implement the very best technologies and practices – invest in the right tools and rigorously test.
What are some of the practices that are delivering outstanding levels of uptime second by second, building to year by year? Our network is optimised so that thousands of simultaneous requests for (say) address validation can be processed with users receiving immediate responses. This is called low latency.
When there are spikes and increases in demand for our services, we are ready to respond instantly with increased capacity. We achieve this by enabling our hosted services to automatically enlarge – which is known as lightweight virtualisation technology. These extra resources are deployed quickly, reliably, and consistently. We also anticipate that faults happen and use additional machines which allow connections to still be made available if another machine fails (“Quorum Nodes”), to improve resiliency and fault tolerance. AFD continues to invest heavily in technologies that deliver maximum speed, reliability, and availability.
While we have maintained a 100% uptime track record for the past two years, we understand that technology can sometimes be unpredictable, and unexpected challenges may arise. Do we want to maintain 100%? Yes! That’s why our quest for excellence is never over – our dedicated teams will continue to use best practice, available technologies and ongoing testing to maintain the highest levels of service. In summary – we care, we invest, we want to be the best. Our goal is simple. Happy Customers.
Does your organisation have absolute confidence in its address, bank, and contact data? AFD Software is on hand to help with all your data quality needs. Contact Joel Miller on 01624 811709 or email joel.miller@afd.co.uk.
Beaverbrooks is a thriving, multichannel retail jewellery business with over 1,200 colleagues and 80 stores nationwide. With more than a century of expertise helping customers find the right diamonds, jewellery and watches, Beaverbrooks have applied the best operational technology to support customer retention and growth in this competitive space. In 2021/2022 Beaverbrooks had their most successful year ever, with over £200 million in turnover.
Head of IT, Patrick Walker, and IT Systems Development Manager, Vicki Olthoff, have 50 years of combined experience implementing and maintaining multi-channel retail systems. They wanted to bring a new level of consistency, automation and reliability to customer and prospect data validation, and after conducting a careful review of their needs and the marketplace, they made the upgrade to AFD Software. We wanted to find out how Patrick and Vicki took the selection decision and understand the immediate and expected business impacts.
Patrick says: “From one company we sought five things: 1. A single source solution covering off fast, accurate, consistent contact data entry across all channels. 2. A reliable service that removed anxiety. 3. A process for complete data cleansing including suppressions which would show the highest levels of diligence in the GDPR data accuracy principle. 4. A combination of the highest percentage of accurate automated data cleansing, combined with the fastest processing rates. 5. To put in a new solution and forget it – because it just works.”
Even with strong commercial, technical, and functional reasons to change their address validation and data cleansing supplier – Beaverbrooks were still keen to minimise risk. Their due diligence on AFD included reference sites, product testing, integration evaluation, assessment of technical skills and evaluation of AFD Software as a company.
Vicki reports: “For the past three years we’ve had AFD Software in action on our web platform for validating and speeding up contact data entered by customers. It is also being used by staff in our stores as part of our bespoke Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) and we’re integrating it into our Order Management System (OMS) and our Customer Data Platform (CDP).”
Thousands of customers place orders each week in Beaverbrooks stores, on the website, by post, by phone and via partners such as Next and Shop Direct. This complex operation is supported by a variety of systems including EPOS, Web, Mail Order, OMS and CDP which work together as a single ecosystem.
Vicki continues: “When customer data is received from so many different channels it is important that the validation sources are from a single, complete, and accurate source. Whatever the channel used, by colleagues or customers, we want a consistent contact data entry experience. This was another key consideration in choosing AFD. When the rollout is complete, all these systems will have a touchpoint back onto the AFD solutions.”
Beyond this, Beaverbrooks is conscious of its GDPR responsibilities and recognise that customer data degrades over time. To help keep contact data accurate Beaverbrooks also switched to AFD Software to provide services to cleanse address data and detect customers who have moved or are now deceased.
Patrick adds: “Because the customer is at the forefront of everything we do, we want that journey, that www.afd.co.uk/addreSS-lookuPcustomer experience, to be the best it can be. AFD is an essential part of delivering minimum friction and maximum accuracy at crucial parts in that journey.
This has tangible impacts across the business. Purchases are more likely, deliveries go to the right place, our communications arrive – the result is happy customers and increased internal efficiency.
One error in an email address makes it undeliverable – and mistakes in data entry are easy in a busy store.
Vicki explains: “Email is an important way to engage with customers and to encourage them to return to our stores. This relies on the accuracy of the email addresses recorded by customers and colleagues. To maximise accuracy, we now use the AFD live email validation service. The instant check enables immediate correction of any mistakes. This ensures our communications are deliverable from the outset.
Increasing deliverability, whether by post or email, means that our communications get to more people who get more opportunities to come into our stores. It’s a real win-win.”
Patrick continues: “AFD is a great fit for us. We have found the Postocde People at AFD’s technical and support skills and responsiveness to be both very helpful and very good. AFD solutions provide real flexibility of implementation from a unified service that works across all our systems and platforms. The options of on-site installation and hosted services build in a high level of resilience and stability. Our experience with AFD compared with others in this space is very positive: the solutions are very good to use, and we get a personal service. In fact, in terms of culture and philosophy and values we’re very similar.”
Vicki concludes: We’re glad we did the due diligence on AFD Software – they passed the tests – and we are confident we took the right decision for the business – and we are already reaping rewards.
Does your organisation have absolute confidence in its address, bank, and contact data? AFD Software is on hand to help with all your data quality needs. Contact Joel Miller on 01624 811709 or email joel.miller@afd.co.uk.
Whilst it is always best to make sure data is entered correctly in the first place, this isn’t always possible: especially if you’re an organisation dealing with legacy databases or have little or no control of the data source itself.
So…. AFD has a quest to help even these organisations clean contact data! It is a quest for the highest levels of speed, combined with the best and most accurate levels of matching. It is a quest for continuous improvement which AFD has engaged in for 27 years.
The latest release of Refiner (our cleansing engine) is benchmarked as best-in-class! Users love the range of deployment options which now include server-based and hosted offerings, with a thin client front end, for ease of use and integration. Refiner can also be installed locally on both Windows and Linux platforms for blisteringly fast performance.
Yes. Refiner is rebuilt on our proprietary “Performance Evolution” platform. This builds on the 27-year matching logic heritage and internal specialist data skills to deliver real-world speed improvements of up to 20-fold. Users have already reported cleaning 3 million records per hour with Refiner!
It’s not just about the speed – benchmarking Refiner with alternative engines showed both more matching – and better matching. Let’s face it: increased speed is a definite bonus, but no one wants to introduce errors into data, do they?
A wide variety of additional data can be appended to your contact database during a Refiner session. For example: geodemographic data (relative affluence, life stage and lifestyle) for segmentation, and grid references (longitude/latitude) to pinpoint a geographic location. Other data available includes government, health, education, and local authority administration. In addition, you may want to append data that relates more specifically to your industry (insurance, utility, etc). Our boffins have built Refiner so that any datasets relevant to your industry can be easily included with it – you can even provide your own and we will build it into Refiner for you.
Phone and Email data can now be validated – in bulk. Is the mobile or landline number valid or not? Is the email address valid? Refiner will get results – LIVE. This helps by confirming accurate data and flagging data that needs to be re-checked – which is a real support toward accuracy and currency of personal data – core to GDPR compliance.
An easy way to find out is to use our free health check service. You’ll receive a detailed condition report and access to a free specialist consultation. This will help you evaluate the report and understand practical options to solve any issues identified. Choose to meet our specialist Postcode People via Teams or face-to face. To arrange this please contact Joel Miller on 01624 811709 or email joel.miller@afd.co.uk.
When Ken Geddes founded CarsVansAndBikes.com he set out to disrupt the online vehicle advertising space. How? By maximising dealer revenue AND providing the best user experience.
CEO Ken shares:
“We have helped dealers maximise revenue by reducing their advertising cost compared to other vehicle sales platforms by 85%. And for private sellers wanting to advertise their vehicle, there is no charge at all.”
Not content with just reducing costs for vehicle sellers, the innovative use of technology delivers a smooth experience for dealers, private sellers, and buyers too. Ken continues:
“To provide the best experience, our platform needed to be easy for both dealers and private sellers to list their vehicles for sale, and user-friendly for buyers to find the right vehicle for them. We need to know that all the dealer locations are accurate to confidently filter and display only vehicles within a buyer’s maximum travel distance. If the location is wrong the journey is wasted and the sale probably lost. This disappoints the potential buyer and the dealer.
The first step for online dealer registration is to enter the address of each branch in the dealer network. AFD’s address lookup solution makes this process very quick… and accurate.”
When private sellers advertise their vehicles, the precise location must also be accurate to make plans for collection and avoid unnecessary delays.
Ken continues: “This service couldn’t have been considered without an accurate, robust addressing
solution. We have dealers all over the country bidding for vehicles owned by private motorists, they need to know (almost to the pound) the transportation costs, due to the tight margins. It could be a disaster if there was a mistake in the address entered and the dealership had issues collecting a vehicle. Our credibility would be questioned and reputation-wise, it’s not where we would ever want to be.”
Ken is no stranger to using disruptive online innovation to help the consumer: “Twenty years ago I pioneered energy price comparison for household energy bills by founding Energylinx. It was then I first partnered with AFD Software for data validation. Our comparison system enabled
households to save billions of pounds by showing better energy deals and making it easy for them to switch suppliers.
Most energy bills are paid via Direct Debit. The slightest mistake in a bank account number or sort code would make the collection of the monthly payments impossible. AFD’s bank validation solution helped prevent these errors by highlighting them at the point of data entry – enabling immediate correction.
We also integrated address validation, which cut user entry time by up to 90% AND helped ensure each address was error-free. Of course, this is vital if energy suppliers are to match new customers to meter points successfully. ”
Setting up his next business, at least one decision was easy, as Ken relates: “Twenty years of genuine experience gives a solid amount of time to review a supplier fairly. When building the CarsVansAndBikes.com platform we asked, ‘Is it better to build this or license it?’ With address validation, there was no debate. The team wanted AFD – why would we go and look for something else?
We view data accuracy as a critical service and therefore it must first be a dependable service. We have always had issues with other software, updates would break a process or make it work differently. With AFD Software we don’t have that anxiety, we have confidence.
Part of this confidence is that the Postcode People at AFD do what they say they are going to do. That’s not just the tech, it is every person I’ve met. They’re a bunch of straightforward real people and that’s good to deal with. We’re all tight for time and can’t do things quickly if we don’t have the support behind us.
We want all users of CarsVansAndBikes.com to have a positive experience from registration through to vehicle sales or purchases. To achieve this, we need all elements of the system to work in harmony, and central to this are partners we trust – like AFD Software.”
Does your organisation have absolute confidence in its address, bank, and contact data? AFD Software is on hand to help with all your data quality needs. Contact Joel Miller on 01624 811709 or email joel.miller@afd.co.uk.
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Over the last three years, we have seen pandemics, wars, and now the cost-of-living crisis threatening to push many households to their limits. It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity and difficulties that we continue to face, especially when many people were already facing hardships and these additional challenges have meant their essential resources have been reduced. In the face of these increasingly challenging times, the team at AFD Software continue to seek to bring some hope and light to those most affected.
In December, AFD hosted its annual charity event to celebrate staff-nominated donations totalling around £1,600,000 to about 90 charities. Hearing from charity representatives sharing stories of how the donations will be used in transformational ways was a powerful reminder that all the team at AFD contribute to one of the company’s aims to relieve suffering and help those in need.
As is usual, three charity speakers were chosen to present a glimpse of the work of their charity. In a tribute to the example of the late Servant Queen, Elizabeth II, (“Lord of Mann” – as the reigning monarch is known on the Isle of Man), the chosen speakers were all young women, showing their dedication to the local, UK and international causes they serve. Their charities are as follows:
Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT) are the leading nature conservation charity in the Isle of Man, caring for land, sea and freshwater environments and working to protect the wildlife existing there whilst engaging the community to connect with the nature around them.
AFD’s donation will support their work with young people: from primary school sessions through to under- and post-graduate interns, MWT seek to guide and strengthen the next generation of ecologists, which in turn will make them more responsible citizens while benefitting the wildlife and habitats of the Island.
Transforming Lives for Good (TLG) is an award-winning charity that works in partnership with over 250 local churches to support struggling children, young people, and families across the UK by providing practical support in schools, the community, and homes to bring hope.
AFD is supporting TLG in their ambitious project to launch 110 new church partnerships by the end of 2025 that will focus on early intervention in the form of voluntary one-to-one coaching for children struggling in school, and community clubs that offer free hot meals and fun activities for food-insecure families.
International Justice Mission UK (IJM) are a global organisation working in 15 different countries to protect people in poverty from everyday violence, modern slavery, and human trafficking.
The donation from AFD will help scale IJM’s work of bringing light into darkness by enabling investigators to work with local law enforcement, fund lawyers and train local partners to not only see a world where children are protected by the justice system, but where they are not abused in the first place.
All the organisations we have partnered with and the incredible work they do can be seen at www.afd.co.uk/charity.
AFD customer bpha are a housing association operating between Oxford and Cambridge, whose company values include showing empathy and taking responsibility. They even demonstrate their culture of care not only by efficiently managing 19,500 homes with their 500 staff, but also by running a “Carelink service” which supports not only bpha customers but the wider community with a 24- hour responder service. By going this extra mile they live out their ambition to build communities where people can live happily in affordable homes, while giving customers and families an additional layer of security knowing someone can support them in an emergency.
We spoke to Bill Powell, Software Development Manager at bpha, to learn the role accurate data has in helping the organisation and its tenants: “Our vision is to build thriving communities, and primarily our job is to house and manage our tenants and the properties that they occupy. We wanted to have accurate, property level address data as important updates sent by post need to get to the right place and essential maintenance work would be delayed and would have to be rescheduled months later if we could not find the property straight away.
Since we have brought the maintenance service in-house, we must ensure we are sending our maintenance teams to exactly the right place for every job. Cost of time and fuel is of course a saving we wanted from this process, but the most important benefit was reaching our tenants as planned.
We found AFD had a solution that would review all our property data, cleanse it against the best sources and add property level latitude and longitude data. The result is correct address data with a pinpoint location accuracy of each one, making maintenance planning fast and accurate.”
Combining datasets is difficult, especially so when two datasets could have the same property yet different address data, common with flats and apartments. AFD has over 450 years of combined experience in developing solutions to help solve potential address anomalies or complexities, making them the leading provider of address validation and cleansing solutions. Bill continues:
“For our requirements, we wanted Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) data to cleanse our address database, because we wanted to work with the address format that people are most used to seeing and using. We also needed data from Ordnance Survey (OS) which provided the latitude and longitude data, and a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), to link together other datasets which are very important to us.
To achieve this solution ourselves we would have needed licenses from both Royal Mail and OS, and then we would have needed to combine the datasets and attempted to match our data to all of this – to be honest this just wasn’t a feasible option.
Finding a partner in AFD Software that offered the exact datasets we required, pre-aligned for both point of entry validation and cleansing, provided an extremely valuable solution for us. We know full well how difficult it is matching addresses between our own data and another dataset, never mind against two datasets! Many of the addresses in our database had quirks around flat numbers and names that didn’t match initially, but AFD worked with us to identify and match these further, thereby minimising manual work and increasing data accuracy.”
Bill explains: “Once the data was cleansed, we used the appended UPRN data to match Energ Performance Certificates (EPC) to each property, quickly identifying how well insulated they are. We asked the question, which properties would most benefit from additional insulation and other measures to improve their energy performance?
EPC data allowed us to instantly identify a list of our poorest performing properties, so we could then plan what performance upgrades were needed to keep our tenants safe and warm. This vital job would be impossible to get right without having an authoritative dataset of accurate property details that we could match with the EPC data.
Ultimately, this solution allows us to provide our tenants with the right standard of property and efficiently carry out remedial work based on other factors, such as prioritising vulnerable tenants, like elderly residents or residents with young children. In partnership with AFD, we are better planning the work and improving the properties that need help, which will keep our tenants warm this winter.”
So what difference have the Postcode People at AFD made to bpha? Bill concludes: “After working closely on cleansing our property database, I was very impressed with the reliability that we got through that process. The tech guys at AFD were very willing to look at our data and work with us to get the best results, which gave us great confidence and allowed us to plan work in priority order to the properties most in need. We could also be optimistic that the maintenance teams would not have to waste time finding any property.
I felt that we were properly in a partnership, and to find someone at the end of the process that was as responsive as AFD was a real bonus. The Postcode People at AFD stay the course and help make their solutions fit your exact requirements, the attentiveness has continued and that is what I value most.”
AFD Software worked with bpha to provide the exact solution to their specific requirements, a solution to help identify and manage property locations and data helping efficiently deploy their maintenance teams. Does your organisation have full confidence in its address data? Do you separately manage other datasets that we could help bring together?
Contact Joel Miller today on 01624 811709 or email joel.miller@afd.co.uk to discuss your requirements and understand how we can help solve your issues around data quality, and get full value out of all your data.
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Thompson & Morgan, the UK’s largest mail order retailer of both seeds and plants, play a key part in stocking our gardens and green spaces. Since 1855 when its first seed catalogue was published, the organisation has been fulfilling its customers’ gardening needs. Today, the organisation serves multiple generations of gardeners via published catalogues, a call centre, and an award-winning website.
Synonymous with quality and delivering on high customer expectations, Thompson & Morgan chose AFD Software to provide address validation to both the website and call centre, ensuring their high levels of service improve even further.
Address accuracy for any mail order company is essential, reducing wasted costs of failed deliveries and mailings to incorrect addresses. When the items being delivered are perishable (like living flowers, plants, and trees), this necessity increases further.
Andrew Crees, Group IT Director, also highlights the time-saving element: “Customer calls are valuable, we need the conversation to focus on serving customers rather than on confirming the spelling of addresses. I know from experience living in Wales the pain of placing an order when you must spell out every single part of your address.
When customers enter their delivery details online or over the phone, finding a full address is as simple as entering the postcode to see a list of possible results. When a user only gives part of an address; the house name and street, for example, the solution returns valid addresses that match.”
Many organisations view integration and the anticipated amount of work involved as one of the biggest barriers to change when looking at new software implementations.
In response to these concerns, Andrew says: “When rolling out our new enterprise resource planning system, the software developers recommended AFD as they knew it could seamlessly integrate within our chosen platform. We found this whole process to be very straightforward and AFD plugged in hassle-free.”
Integration aside, Thompson & Morgan wanted to ensure that the latest available data was used to validate customer addresses with AFD’s postcode lookup API. Andrew continues: “We needed a solution that would be kept up to date. AFD offers frequent data updates to its products helping ensure addresses entered are validated against the latest version of the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF). We never have difficulties finding a customer’s address, which is a great benefit.”
When asked for the key reasons why Andrew would recommend using AFD, he answers: “From our initial contact, The Postcode People at AFD were on hand to help not only on a technical front but also through pre-sales, demonstrations and trialling the product. We have a working relationship that has always felt like a good fit; working with a company that is there to help and assist rather than fight against our requirements is refreshing.”
For a demonstration on how AFD’s solutions can be implemented into your systems and deliver fast, accurate address lookup from the most up to date sources, contact Joel Miller on 01624 811711 or email postcode@afd.co.uk.
Since Tony Hillary fitted his first made-to-measure blind over 50 years ago, Hillarys has been dedicated to exceeding its customers’ expectations at all stages of their buying process.
From the humble beginnings of running the business from a garage, Hillarys has grown to become the nation’s favourite provider of made-to-measure blinds, curtains, and shutters, and continues to increase the number of satisfied buyers by delivering high levels of customer service and innovative technology.
A customer’s buying journey starts with booking an appointment online or via the call centre. Appointments are available 7-days a week, daytime, or evening, to cater for their customer’s availability.
All advisors are trained to help customers choose the right product for their needs. The colour, texture, and look and feel of the room are all key considerations that only come with face-to-face customer collaboration. During the appointment, the advisor also measures the windows. Here there is no margin for error, measurements of both the width and drop must be precise for “made to measure” products.
Once everything is decided and double-checked, the orders are sent to the factory in Nottingham where fabric is cut to size and
made to fit the exact specification.
When the order is ready, the customer is contacted and agrees a time slot that is convenient, and an installer attends to fit the products and ensure the customer is satisfied with the completed work.
We spoke with Matthew Lamb, Software Development Manager at Hillarys, to understand more about how technology is helping meet and exceed customer expectations:
“I have been with the organisation for the past 8 years and have overseen enhancements to technology that put the customer first. We must make the buying journey as smooth as possible, and a key part to this is ensuring that contact details are captured quickly and accurately. By deploying AFD’s UK address lookup solutions online and for our call centre staff, we can focus on understanding our customers’ requirements rather than repeating back addresses.
In addition to improving the speed of entry and not frustrating the customer during their initial enquiry, having an accurate
address is important because advisors are visiting the customer’s home or work premises. It doesn’t set the right first impression if our advisors miss appointments or are late, but with up to 12 appointments per day, one address error would have a negative knock-on effect for all the following meetings that day.
From an environmental perspective, by matching advisors to their closest customers we can minimise wasted travel time, fuel cost and carbon emissions. Correct customer address data helps facilitate these
important savings.”
An Post in Ireland (Eire) introduced the Eircode seven years ago, giving all the 2.2 million letterbox addresses in Ireland their own unique Eircode. Before its launch, mail and parcel delivery relied on the local knowledge of the postie or courier.
Discussing how Hillarys has made use of Eircode data, Matthew continues; “Irish addresses had previously been problematic. We found that Eircode use was low before the pandemic, but Covid helped improve its use as everyone suddenly became reliant on e-commerce deliveries.
Prior to our implementation of AFD’s Eircode address lookup solution it was difficult to match advisors to a customer appointment in Ireland. As an Eircode is a unique property reference, we can now quickly find the address and be confident we are sending the closest advisor.
As the solution from AFD also returns the grid coordinates, our advisors can pinpoint the location of each appointment and help them plan journey times to stay on schedule.”
Explaining why Hillarys chose AFD as their address & data quality partners, Matthew said; “I was able to speak with an expert in address data who answered all my questions and understood the complexity around Irish data. Integrating AFD’s UK address lookup and Eircode solution was simple to do, and all interactions have been straightforward. Knowing that The Postcode People at AFD share our high standards of customer service and environmental awareness, I would recommend them to other organisations that require accurate address data.”
Hillarys rely on AFD’s postcode lookup API and Eircode lookup API to help ensure data is captured quickly and accurately. Does your organisation have challenges around capturing accurate contact data? Contact our expert team today to discuss your requirements on 01624 811711 or email postcode@afd.co.uk.
Thousands of unique organisations rely on AFD’s validation and cleansing solutions to get contact data right. Based on customer feedback, our range of available datasets continues to increase as teams processing and analysing data look to avoid manual processes and maintain multiple datasets. Accurate addresses combined with relevant datasets have the power to yield much more useful information than either the address or the dataset on its own. Here are just some examples of datasets we already offer:
Participation Of Local Areas (POLAR ) classification data shows how likely young people are to participate in Higher Education (HE). Each postcode is given a rank between 1–5, with 1 being the lowest likelihood of HE participation and 5 being the highest. This data then helps AFD customers in the HE sector to more effectively target specific areas with marketing efforts to meet targets for widening participation (attracting students from areas less likely to go to University) and essential funding.
Not Yet Built (NYB) data helps identify properties that are still under construction or have been completed but do not yet appear on the Postcode Address File (PAF). NYB data allows businesses to process orders to deliver white goods and furniture, as well as critical services such as energy, phone, and internet, that wouldn’t ordinarily be possible without a valid address.
Censation, AFD’s geodemographic classification solution, indicates the relative affluence, life stage and lifestyle of the people living within a particular postcode. This powerful dataset helps organisations understand more about the ‘profile’ of their best customers and use this information to either target prospective customers or upsell to existing customers with relevant goods or services.
Property level latitude and longitude data combined with a valid address provide a pinpoint location at metre level accuracy. Integrating this solution into your chosen mapping tool allows delivery teams to find the actual delivery location quickly and accurately – preventing late or abandoned deliveries as well as lost time, additional staff cost and wasted fuel.
In the same way that adding AEB data transformed the productivity of Learning Curve Group’s database of student records, would your CRM database benefit from the inclusion of any datasets which are specific to your industry sector?
AFD’s expertise in combining datasets to overcome pains for our customers is one of the many reasons why the Postcode People at AFD are the go-to partner for address and data quality solutions.
Get in touch with our team today to discuss any requirements your organisation may have around linking datasets to reduce manual work, improve efficiency and of course, data accuracy.
Contact joel.miller@afd.co.uk or call 01624 811 711.
We serve thousands of organisations and a network of hundreds of partners across multiple industry sectors, enabling them to have full confidence in their contact data.