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.
Learning Curve Group are a national training and education specialist. Their vision is to transform lives through learning, and by working with individuals, employers, and education providers, they make lifelong development accessible to everyone.
Data shows that adult participation in learning is not distributed evenly and those least likely to access available resources are adults living in poverty with the lowest qualifications. Targeted funding and delivery of the right training provision will help people in this demographic, enabling them to enter the workforce and enjoy the associated benefits of health, wellbeing and encouraging others in their communities to participate.
As one of the largest training providers in the UK, Learning Curve Group are unrivalled in the breadth and choice of courses they offer. Each year they also help over 4,500 employers with workplace development plans and qualifications. They deliver training to 100,000 learners helping them attain nationally recognised qualifications, learn new skills, and advance their careers.
Funding for adult learning has seen significant changes over the past few years. Until 2019, the Adult Education Budget (AEB) provided funding for adult learning, but funding is now split between the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and devolved authorities.
The postcode of each learner determines who they receive funding from, so providers of adult learning courses need to know whether a course has available funding for a particular student. In some cases, addresses separated even by just one postcode district e.g., PE8 and PE9, have different sources of funding – and that’s where AFD can help!
We spoke with Steve Morris, Commercial Director at Learning Curve Group, to understand how they have navigated these changes to funding:
“In the new devolved-funding world, we now have a situation where there are multiple devolved authorities responsible for their own AEB, and the other postcodes that do not fall within those areas receive funding from ESFA. We now must understand who funds each learner based on their address and, more specifically, if funding is available to them for the course they have chosen. This will soon get even more complex when county devolution becomes a reality.
We need to avoid the scenario where learners were completing a 25-minute enrolment process then finding that their source of funding does not cover that course, resulting in wasted time and disappointment.”
“To ensure we could continue to provide our learners with the best possible experience from initial interest to enrolment, we needed a solution that would instantly identify which courses were available to each learner, based on their postcode.
After searching online, we found The Postcode People – who had the exact solution to our problem: an address lookup that provided an accurate address AND returned the relevant AEB data.
Now we had the right solution, the next job was to ensure we covered all points of data entry on the website, CRM system, and Management Information system.
Prior to introducing AFD’s solution, we had multiple tools to validate addresses and capture and attach funding data. We would run a separate process to check the address in the back office and then match this with the funding information. We now have an automated process using the learner’s valid address to tie it all together, saving valuable time and helping ensure address and funding accuracy, and helping to avoid disappointment and frustration for the potential student.
After introducing point of entry validation, attention turned to other areas of the organisation that would benefit from linking address data with the relevant funding bodies.
Rachel Cornforth, Head of Marketing, explains: “By appending the additional geodemographic classification data from AFD which adds relative affluence, lifestage, and lifestyle, we can build a better picture of an ‘ideal learner profile’ for specific courses. We can then take this data to upsell courses to existing customers with a similar profile and reach out to similar potential learners, safe in the knowledge that the correct funding is available for the courses we advertise to them.
We also contact employers to provide training courses to their teams. Our sales staff needed support in categorising businesses as they added them to our CRM system to facilitate business segmentation. Using AFD’s business data we can quickly append business sector, turnover and employee count to our data, and tailor which courses are relevant to their business. Segmented marketing will save both manual processing time and wasted opportunity costs.
Specifically targeting businesses with courses that are relevant to them and their industry, will improve sales performance and ensure the sales team can better target their efforts.”
When discussing AFD Software as data quality partners, Steve commented: “AFD not only had the right solution for our exact requirement, they also had the right team to talk us through all their relevant solutions and help improve wider data issues.
We used a third-party contractor to help us implement the AFD solutions, and the AFD team went above and beyond communicating with them and representing us to have everything put in place.
I genuinely cannot say enough good things about the service that has been delivered, the proposal was clear and all the staff we dealt with were highly knowledgeable about this area and skilled in what they do.
This project went beyond validating an address, I am confident that The Postcode People at AFD are the go-to provider of data quality solutions and would recommend them to other organisations that need accurate data and a review of data processes.”
To discuss your organisation’s data accuracy requirements and review data processes, contact joel.miller@afd.co.uk or call 01624 811711.
The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is the national body for dinghy, motor and sail cruising, all forms of sail racing, Rigid Inflatable Boats, sports boats, windsurfing, personal watercraft, and a leading representative body for inland waterways cruising.
With over 100,000 personal members and more than 1,500 affiliated clubs and classes, the RYA sets and maintains an international standard for recreational boat training through a network of RYA-recognised training centres, world-class courses, and educational material.
Responsible for one of the UK’s most successful Olympic medal-winning sports, the RYA’s coaching, and development schemes actively support the UK’s top sailors, from talented juniors to Olympic and World Champions.
Benefits of RYA membership includes advice and support, certification, offers and discounts, insurance, and the latest relevant information on all aspects of recreational boating. We caught up with Andy Galvin, Information Systems Manager, to understand more about his role within the organisation and the importance that accurate customer and address data plays in communicating with and recruiting its members.
“When I joined the team in 1997, one of the projects the IT team was involved in was scoping out a solution that would improve data accuracy. We needed to migrate over 300 Microsoft Access databases into a single Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. Whilst attending a CRM EXPO, other businesses mentioned how they partnered with AFD to get address data right, so we got in touch.
Whilst many things have changed including that initial CRM system, one thing that has been consistent is our partnership with AFD that has now been in place helping us get customer and address data right for 24 years.”
Manual data entry has two main drawbacks: time and human error. Having automatic address validation in place helps to remove these challenges. Data accuracy helps ensure communications get to the right place, and when the message being sent contains critical information, this is essential.
Andy describes: “As a membership organisation, we actively communicate with our members via traditional mail – sending out updates, events and literature which include safety information updates and protocol changes. We need to make sure this vital information is getting to our members and instructors quickly and accurately to help them stay within the latest guidelines.
We have up to 70 team members processing contact data in the CRM at any time. When we consider that manually typing an address can take between 15 and 20 seconds (slowed down further when struggling to read hand-written application forms), and processing over 250,000 address checks per year, AFD’s address lookup solution is saving 1400 hours each year in staff time and headaches!
Following the easing of government restrictions last summer that allowed sailing to resume, we found a much higher volume of applications for RYA Certificates of Competence (boat and yacht qualifications) and membership. Despite the high spike in applications, we were able to accurately process an increased number of applications in the same timeframe. Without AFD in place to help process the data, our application processing time would have increased and data accuracy would have dropped massively.”
Due to the difficulty in processing handwritten applications, the RYA now provide the ability to sign-up as a member on their website. To ensure they have plugged all the gaps for data accuracy, AFD’s address validation is deployed to help quickly capture the right address.
Validating addresses on entry has additional benefits which Andy goes on to explain: “When the application is completed online, our CRM system then checks if the applicant is already in the database via a postcode and surname match. This process relies on the accurate address AFD provides, allowing us to eliminate duplication which in turn reduces wasted costs and administration in rectifying.”
With a growing international presence and members from around the world wanting to train at RYA centres to gain their International Certificate of Competence, the website and UK-based team process international applications which come with their own challenges.
Andy continues: “We have found some countries addresses are more difficult than others to process. These difficulties are further compounded when most applications are filled out using pen and paper. Having a tool that allows the team to search for international addresses makes a tricky process very straightforward and saves us having to recruit address experts with local knowledge for the 50+ countries’ varying postal systems we work with.
AFD’s International address validation allows us to search by postcode or other address fragments and find the right address without having to do further research or spend time contacting the member.”
Funding from membership revenue allows the RYA to continue its work and deliver the benefits and certificates that members sign up for. With a range of membership plans available for both individuals and families, payments can be made for annual memberships online and over the phone.
Describing the process of capturing payment details Andy continues, “When an error is made during a direct debit process, it’s not only the cost of a missed payment but also the cost of fixing the issue. A member of the team will need to go into the record, remove the direct debit and try to contact the member to update the record. This complication results in a poor experience when becoming a member or renewing.
With AFD’s bank verification solution for our team and the website, we can spot and rectify any errors whilst the customer is still on the phone or completing their application online, helping to achieve a smooth onboarding process.”
In summarising the partnership between the RYA and AFD Software, Andy concludes: “The way we have designed all our processes is tailored to give the best experience for both members and our team. We view services from AFD as far more than just address lookups; onboarding, finding, and communicating with members all rely on our partnership in data quality.
We have worked with The Postcode People at AFD Software for over 20 years. Two decades of partnership is a testament to the quality of solutions that we receive and the team that sits behind them.
We have found all the team are proactive and quick to respond to any of our requests. Being able to pick up the phone or send an email to a real person rather than an automated response is especially important for our small team. From a technical perspective, the APIs are straightforward to work with and deliver the results we need. I would recommend the team at AFD to help overcome challenges around contact data accuracy.”
For nearly 40 years, AFD has helped organisations get data right.
In the membership and not-for-profit sector, accurate contact data is crucial to ongoing communication and support. Our data validation and cleansing solutions help thousands of organisations accurately capture and maintain millions of contact records each year.
To find out how our solutions could benefit your organisation contact joel.miller@afd.co.uk or call 01624 811711.
Millions of people live in communities or remote areas with no roads and minimal access to the outside world. If this was your reality, how would you reach a doctor to help you and your family? How would you work to provide for those who rely on you or learn and develop new skills? Physical barriers, such as dense jungles and impassable mountain ranges, or obstacles resulting from natural disasters or conflict are all real impediments to communities in need.
For over 75 years, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has helped overcome these barriers and today uses light aircraft to provide flights for more than 2,000 aid, development and mission organisations, enabling them to bring everyday essentials as well as medical care, emergency relief, long-term development and Christian hope to thousands of communities.
With a MAF plane taking off or landing every four minutes, the need for continued support and funding is essential. We spoke with Duncan Colyer, MAF UK’s Database Manager, to find out how maintaining communication with supporters allows the vital work to continue;
“I joined MAF two and a half years ago to migrate the existing supporter management system to Dynamics 365. We were previously reliant on old tech and wanted a new cloud based solution that would allow us to better communicate with our supporters.
Part of the brief was integrating additional functionality including full document management, automatically adding emails and address validation to help ensure supporter data was accurate.
Of all the components we integrated, the address validation from AFD was by far the simplest to get working. It was pain-free and refreshing to have something we could just get done simply.”
With a traditional supporter base from an older demographic, MAF principally uses physical letters to maintain contact with supporters in a variety of ways. Duncan explains:
“In terms of individuals, we have over 100,000 supporters within our database, though not all are active and being mailed to. We send around 8 mailings a year to our ‘active’ supporters and we also send letters to express our thanks to supporters who have made donations.
In a year we can send up to 400,000 physical letters and we need to do all we can to make sure this vital correspondence is reaching the intended supporter.
There is a cost to the creation of the content, printing and mailing of such a large volume. Then there is the downside to consider of our highly valued supporters potentially not receiving our communications, which would severely impact further donations and support.
AFD’s address validation solution helps us to minimise the possibility of wasted expenditure, reduce the chance of getting supporter data wrong and maximise the likelihood of our 400,000 letters getting to the right place.”
In addition to the benefits listed above around data accuracy, AFD’s solutions contain a wealth of additional data that MAF is beginning to uncover. Duncan continues:
“In exploring the solution from AFD I know there is a lot of additional data that will provide powerful and insightful analysis.
One example is the Health Authority Area that will enable us to link our supporter records to other datasets from the Office for National Statistics and allow for regional analysis of supporter trends.
We have also discussed the geodemographic classification dataset Censation, which will provide indicative affluence, life stage and lifestyle data for our supporters. This data helps us better understand the types of people with whom we engage and enables us to reach out to similar people who share our passion to reach more remote communities with our life-changing work.”
When asked what he would say if another charity asked for advice on selecting a partner in address and data quality Duncan said:
“I would recommend The Postcode People at AFD Software. We have used other address validation providers in the past but there are key differences with AFD. Being able to pick up the phone and speak with a real team of experts is a benefit, as I know we are a valued customer.
The solution itself does exactly what we hoped for, was very easy to integrate and it provides a lot more functionality that we are keen to explore.
As a charity, it is important for us to partner with an organisation that shares similar ethics and also looks to have a positive impact on the world. We know AFD Software is led in a way that is aligned with what MAF does.”
How is your organisation helping to ensure data accuracy in its contact database?
For almost 40 years AFD Software have helped organisations validate and cleanse contact data, speak to Joel Miller today on 01624 811711 or email joel.miller@afd.co.uk to discuss your requirements.
For almost two years now, the spread and implications of Covid have dominated news headlines and brought people’s attention closer to protecting themselves and their families. While we have been focussed on our own wellbeing, many of us are unaware of the even more severe implications of the reduced resources available to countries and communities less well equipped than our own.
A key objective at AFD Software is “to generate profits, and to use them creatively in the relief of suffering, the improvement of society and furtherance of the Christian gospel”. Each year, all the team at AFD have the opportunity to each nominate an organisation to receive a charitable donation.
This extra incentive of knowing that their contributions at work make a real difference to the lives of those who need it most helps all the team to constantly work hard, seek new innovations and maintain the highest levels of quality.
In 2019 we celebrated donations totalling around £1,000,000 to over 70 charities.
In 2020 around 80 charities received donations totalling over £1,500,000 – part of our response to the increased level of need.
In 2021 around 90 charities were selected to receive £2,000,000 in donations to continue to help deliver relief, both physically and mentally, to those in the most need.
Here are examples of just three of the charities receiving donations from AFD this year:
Alzheimer’s Research UK work with over 1,500 scientists in 15 research centres around the UK to fund research into the causes, treatments, prevention and cure of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
With dementia affecting over 850,000 individuals within the UK, the AFD donation will be put towards the charity’s mission to bring about the first life-changing dementia treatment by 2025 as they aim to bring about a future without the fear, harm, and heartbreak of the disease.
Hope for Justice is a global organisation, implementing antislavery programs across five continents in eight countries – Ethiopia, Cambodia, Norway, Uganda, USA, UK, Australia, and Zimbabwe. Their vision is to live in a world completely free from slavery.
AFD’s donation will be directed to the purchase of a vehicle to be used for field visits supporting the reintegration of rescued children as part of the Lighthouse Program in Uganda, which provides emergency, short-term shelter to vulnerable children immediately following their rescue.
Tearfund is a Christian charity that partners with churches in more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries, tackling poverty and injustice through sustainable development, disaster response, and the challenging of injustices.
The support from AFD this year has been in response to the immediate need for several emergency situations; funds have been sent to help meet basic needs such as water for around 550,000 displaced Afghans suffering in the recent Afghanistan conflict. AFD also responded to the crisis in Syria which has seen an estimated 13.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and further support has been pledged to assist 800 families in Haiti purchase basic essentials following the earthquake in the region in August, which killed around 1,400 people.
All the organisations we have partnered with and the incredible work they do can be seen at www.afd.co.uk/charity
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.