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
Twenty years ago, two friends had a goal to provide health insurance policies tailored to people’s specific needs and started “Right to Health Ltd”. This customer-first focus has allowed the organisation to grow into one of the UK’s biggest healthcare intermediaries with over 30 specialists helping protect 45,000 loyal customers.
We spoke to Gary Marney, Co-founder and Director, to understand more about the organisation and the importance contact data accuracy plays in helping people find the right solution for their needs:
“Getting the right policy for a customer requires a conversation with a specialist who has both the knowledge and experience to ask the right questions and use those answers to find the best cover at the best price. We are an ethical company who truly value our integrity, so if the best advice for a prospective client is for them to stay with their existing provider, we advise them accordingly.
All conversations and recommendations are medically driven rather than price driven – which may mean a client is advised to take a policy that is more expensive if we know that the underwriter is more sympathetic to a particular condition affecting that client. Because of our many years of experience in the field and experience with various underwriters, we can be confident that we are offering the very best advice tailored to each individual situation.”
Due to the medical intricacies of the policies provided, customer contact is of vital importance and data quality is a very sensitive matter. Right to Health needed a solution to help ensure more clients could be reached and given the best advice for their needs.
Gary continues: “We can’t provide the right policy to a client without talking to them, so it is essential that we are able to actually reach the people who have requested information. We have relied on AFD’s residential address, name and telephone solution, Names & Numbers for over 15 years to help our specialists reach these prospective clients and to turn them into valued long-term customers.
After switching purely to the internet to generate new leads, we found that when people used the contact forms to obtain a quote, they would make mistakes in the details entered or not submit their phone number.
Using Names & Numbers, we can often look up the phone number of the name and address provided which enables us to improve contact rates by around 6%. That may not sound much, but with 50,000 leads generated annually this equates to an extra 3,000 contactable leads each year – which might equate to around £250,000 of potential profit as we help protect more people.”
In discussing the importance that the data quality partnership has played to the organisation, Gary goes onto say: “AFD Software, The Postcode People, have been and continue tobe instrumental in the growth of our business. We have been able to reach more customers as a direct result of their Names & Numbers product and provide them with the right health insurance solutions for their specific requirements. As a quality data partner, I would recommend AFD to any organisation wanting to improve conversion rates via the quality of contact data.”
Gurnam Singh, Enterprise Architect at DPD: “With AFD, we are equipped with the very best means of rapidly ensuring data integrity in a pressurised environment. We work at the cutting edge of technology and AFD’s solutions meet our data quality.
Every minute counts, and ten to fifteen minutes makes a significant difference – the equivalent of 2- 3 extra deliveries… and when you have thousands of drivers you can see the effect. Equally important, as a people-focused business we want to minimise stress for our drivers. We have achieved this by minimising the time taken to validate, correct or complete addresses at the point of collection or in the depot. The result of raising data integrity is that drivers now spend less time in the depot, are out on the road earlier and have more time available to deliver parcels.”
AFD’s logistics specific data solutions contain address, location and property characteristic data for 33 million unique properties in Great Britain. Every record has unique identifiers in the form of Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) from OS and Unique Delivery Point Reference Number (UDPRN) from Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF). These identifiers specifically help with logistics companies needing to identify the correct delivery point, avoid data errors and link other datasets. Automatic data updates help ensure your organisation benefits from the latest available data and minimise errors that may occur from older data.
Getting to the postcode is easy, getting to the right address is where the value lies for logistics companies. Many deliveries rely on postcode level grids at the centre of a postcode, in some instances this can be 15 minutes away from the destination potentially leading the delivery to fail or knock on effects on the rest of the driver’s deliveries. Property level grid references give you full confidence that your customer’s address can be navigated to precisely and the delivery will be successful.
What’s the split between B2B and B2C deliveries for your organisation? Are deliveries failing because a driver tried to deliver after 6pm to a Commercial address? All addresses have a property classification, e.g. Residential or Business, allowing for time sensitive deliveries to be planned properly and for insight into the types of deliveries that are taking place each day.
Halfords Autocentres is a growing network of 265 garages delivering a full range of automotive services to over half a million customers every year.
Halfords plans to expand coverage to 400 centres, adding around 30 new garages each year. AFD Postcode is helping Halfords in its quest to deliver both customer satisfaction and growth. Each branch has the Halfords bespoke ‘Point of Sale’ solution which accesses AFD Postcode, ensuring that all users have access to up-to-date address data.
One key strategy for growth requires the high levels of customer satisfaction which lead to loyalty and referrals. Another is ensuring that customers receive timely reminders for MOT and Servicing.
The first main purpose of AFD Postcode is to ensure accuracy of data. IT Manager Kevin Cooke explains: “We need accurate data because we need to generate cross-selling opportunities and build annual revenues.
For example, an MOT is an annual event. We typically write to the customer 40 days before the MOT and then if we don’t hear from them, the Centre Manager calls them. People do forget when their MOT needs renewing, so this reminder service is good for Halfords and the customer.
With an accurate address we are confident that our reminder and cross-selling communications will not only be delivered to the customer but will build our brand through accurate presentation of the customer’s address.”
The second main purpose of AFD Postcode is as a time saver. Kevin Cooke continues: “Typically a centre will have a manager who enters the customer data to the Point of Sale system which may have been taken from a handwritten note.
The faster the data can be entered, the more time the manager has to deal with customers and to manage. This is particularly important during busy periods.
Without AFD Postcode there would be a negative impact on time – with AFD Postcode everyone’s happy!”
How could AFD Postcode help your organisation reach its growth and service goals?
How does your organisation stay ahead in its field? Perhaps the words Expertise, Energy and Excellence hold at least part of the answer. Maybe it’s also the ability to respond quickly and positively to new opportunities. This is the case for Manchester-based Pannone where leveraging Information Technology is a must.
No compromise
David Griffiths is Director of IT at Pannone: “When it comes to data entry, people are looking for the fastest way to enter it, but without compromising on accuracy. Pannone offer a full range of legal services so the contact data relating to clients and cases is entered onto our systems in a wide variety of places.
We work on the principle that prevention is better than cure so wherever contact data is entered, we have integrated AFD Postcode Plus or AFD Names & Numbers to validate that data as a natural part of the process.”
Evolution is Everywhere
Pannone now use the AFD Postcode Evolution® Service as a server-side solution which enables access to AFD products from a server application, website or network clients. Luigi Salzano is the Senior Manager in Systems Development at Pannone: “From a development perspective, what we like is that Evolution is flexible, easily implemented, returns data faster and is more easily consumed by the applications that use it.
We use Evolution with internally developed applications and third-party applications and we still have the option of using an AFD interface when we need it. With AFD Evolution we can add data validation to diverse and complex systems with ease.”
Finding Fast
David Griffiths adds: “The productivity of high value staff is very important to the business. By using Names & Numbers and Postcode Plus we save up to 90% of the time it would normally take to enter contact details – just by using the postcode. Sometimes the address we are working from is wrong, it may have missing lines or poor spelling. With Names & Numbers we can still find the right record even from very poor source information.
Protecting service
The results are returned lightning fast and the user just selects the right record. It is hard to overstate the importance of ensuring that contact details are accurate at the moment they are entered onto our systems. From a legal perspective we rely on the accuracy of that original record and its accuracy affects all subsequent processes and most importantly our service to clients.
Building confidence
We regard it as essential to minimise the risk of non-delivery or wrong delivery of time-critical and confidential documents. Inaccuracies in address data send the wrong message and can have serious consequences. Accurate address data builds confidence and protects and enhances our professional reputation and image.“
Profiling, Insight and Visualisation
Many organisations clean-up address data with AFD Refiner, and Pannone use it regularly to cleanse data from other systems and to ensure the accuracy of address data prior to marketing use.
Fuzzy logic is fuzzy!
Refiner is built on a “quality first” principle, it does not offer “fuzzy logic” which can compromise address integrity. Instead it operates by a strict set of rules that have been built into the product over the past 15 years.
Refiner comes complete with Censation – the most widely distributed geodemographic classification system in the UK. Pannone use it to gain insight into their business. The principle behind Censation is that ‘birds of a feather flock together’.
What are they like?
Every residential UK postcode is classified with one of 52 Censation codes giving a good indication of the relative affluence, life-stage and life-style of the residents. Luigi Salzano explains “At the same time as cleansing address data, Refiner will append Censation codes and grid references.
Learning from Censation
Using the Censation codes helps us to confirm or deny our instincts about the types of customer we deal with in different parts of the business. With Censation we can learn and build new insight which we then apply to our marketing planning. With grid references appended to each address we can use this to visualise the location and clustering of our customers. Refiner delivers exceptional value to our business.”
Why take a risk with fund transfers?
A lot of money flows through law firms in transactions relating to property, wills, personal injury….. the list is a long one and the amounts can be small… or very large!
Faster payments
Pannone has developed ‘Chits’, a web based transaction system designed to enable money to flow smoothly. Chits is designed to maximise automation, speed-up authorisation and minimise delays. The system utilises AFD BankFinder to mitigate the risk of errors in bank data which can occur at the point of data entry.
Towards certainty
Heather Sanders, Pannone Financial Controller, is clear: “There is potential for error in any human typing of bank account details. Client bank data has to find its way onto our systems and we need to be sure that it is accurate before processes of authorisation, entry to accounting systems and fund transfers take place.”
Handling human error
Heather identifies two key risks: “The customer can make a mistake in the details provided and mistakes can be made at the point data is keyed to our system. Both these risks boil down to the risks of human error associated with transcription. It’s these risks that AFD BankFinder mitigates by automatically checking the data at the time it is being input and before it enters the work flow system and accounts system. If BankFinder spots an error the user is alerted and invited to check and rekey the data.”
Weekly updates
Pannone regard validation of bank, account and sort code details with BankFinder as a basic and essential risk mitigation tool. They have even scheduled an upgrade to the system to take advantage of the new automated weekly bank data updates from AFD Software which carries no extra cost.
Chester Zoo is operated by a charitable trust and receives no government funding. As a charity it operates ‘gift aid’ on its admissions, a government scheme which enables charities to claim back 28p in the pound from contributions made by tax payers when entering the Zoo. Gift Aid is an important source of income however; it carries a significant administrative overhead.
Julie Bird is responsible for visitor admissions: “To enter the Zoo, visitors form a queue to the receptions desk. While in the queue our staff would approach visitors with a clipboard to complete an A4 form which enabled us to record gift aid details. Information from the forms would be then entered to the computer system as a back office process. This was time-consuming, costly and prone to error and the sheer volume of paperwork would result in peak period backlogs”
IT Manager Philip Morris and his team conceived a solution that involved providing admissions staff with handheld devices (PDA) that link directly to the central computer systems via a wireless network. Philip: “We needed to develop a significantly faster system that would cut processing costs and be more secure and professional; more accurate and visitor friendly. Recording name and address details was the most time consuming part of the process. By integrating AFD Names & Numbers, a name and address with say 80 characters is entered accurately and validated keying as few as 8 characters.”
Unanticipated Benefits
Names & Numbers is bringing significant additional benefits, some of which could not have been anticipated.
Julie Bird “Many of our seasonal summer staff are young people who not only find the PDA more interesting and trendy, but are now more confident and engaged. Visitors find the PDA less “official” than a clipboard and whereas some used to get irritated having to spell out their details – now it’s all there with just a few clicks on the PDA. At peak periods we have up to 25 staff working with the queues which increases take-up of gift aid, significantly reduces transaction time at the till and enables people to get into the Zoo faster.”
Philip continued “We also use Names & Numbers to bring marketing insights. For example by utilising the grid reference data we can visually display the distance visitors’ travel to the Zoo. The Censation geodemographic system helps us to profile visitors to gain an understanding of affluence, lifestage and lifestyle. This information helps inform marketing strategy and tactics. Of course the data we collect is now accurate making marketing analysis and activity more effective.
“We have seen a genuine and measurable return on investment from Names & Numbers that has exceeded our expectations. In less than a year we have collected 250,000 names & addresses. We estimate that we save around one minute on each and if you add in the cost of the three staff that previously had to enter the data from handwritten forms – the charity will see a process saving over a three year period of around £100,000.”
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.