Maintaining a clean, duplicate-free customer, supporter, member or prospect address database underpins the foundations of effective marketing, high-quality customer service and punctual delivery. This helps ensure communication, protects your company’s reputation, complies with GDPR, and supports sound financial management.
Speed
Capable of processing millions of records per hour, AFD’s database cleansing solutions clean, de-duplicate, re-format and geo-code address data.
Accuracy
Our address verification solutions eliminate errors by providing letterbox-level accuracy based on the very best data sources, including Royal Mail PAF® and Ordnance Survey (OS) AddressBase Core®.
We receive client-supplied data for a mailing and their request is typically to use the data as it is. AFD’s data cleansing solutions allow us to quickly identify errors and highlight to our clients (with examples) why cleansing the addresses is essential. Last year we sent 12 million pieces of mail with complete confidence. AFD delivers exactly what we expect it to - we put poor data in and get good data out. I would recommend The Postcode People at AFD Software as the best possible address and data quality partners for any organisation wanting to improve their address validation and cleansing processes.
Head of Data and Mailing, Lonsdale Direct Solutions
AFD’s database cleansing solutions can be flexibly deployed in a host of environments.
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AFD’s database cleansing solutions clean, deduplicate and reformat address lists.
In addition, our solutions can append a whole host of other datasets. See some of the options below:
AFD’s database cleansing solutions help hundreds of organisations get address databases right – and keep them that way. Your organisation can develop clean, reliable, consistent databases, identify potential duplicates and add extra data in a single automated batch process.
AFD’s database cleansing solutions also contain location and property characteristic data for over 31 million unique properties in the UK. Every record has unique identifiers in the form of a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) from Ordnance Survey (OS) and a Unique Delivery Point Reference Number (UDPRN) from Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF). In addition, all addresses have a property classification, e.g. Residential or Business, to help organisations better understand their customers’ property data and help plan for more efficient deliveries.
Each residential postcode on your database can be appended with a Censation code (there are 52 different codes) which will indicate the typical relative affluence, life-stage and lifestyle of those who live there. It’s a simple to use but effective Geodemographic Classification System and with it, you can understand more about the ‘profile’ of your best customers – and then look for more of them. That way, resources are more wisely directed to prospects which match the right profile – cutting waste and improving the probability of success.
Update or remove out of date and incorrect contact data records from your database that have degraded over time.
People move and people pass away. Using suppression datasets you can access new addresses, highlight if someone has moved out, or flag if someone has deceased.
AFD’s solution allows your organisation to append property level geocoordinates (Latitude and Longitude to 7 decimal places, Grid Eastings and Northings) to address data to better understand its physical location, helping visualise data and better understand how to reach delivery points.
AFD MailSaver helps organisations make major savings by sorting mailing data.
MailSaver’s step-by-step process sorts, reports and prints all that’s necessary for Royal Mail Bulk Mail Services. MailSaver has been fully tested by the Royal Mail to ensure it meets stringent requirements.
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.
What is the most widely-recognised and used source and reference point for UK addresses?
Simple, the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF), which is a core part of all AFD Software name and address validation solutions.
AFD’s solutions contain address, location and property characteristic data from Ordnance Survey (OS) for 33 million unique properties in Great Britain.
AFD provides latitude and longitude coordinates at property level, showing a pinpoint location of an address on your chosen mapping tool.
Every single one of the 2.2 million letterbox addresses in Ireland has its own unique Eircode. The Eircode has now been appended to government data where 47 million different versions of Irish addresses have each been resolved and appended with the correct Eircode.
Student accommodation, apartments and business premises are all present on the Multiple Residence file. The number of separate addresses behind the single accessible letterbox can be as few as one additional record – or as many as 1,000!
The Not Yet Built (NYB) file contains addresses for properties either under construction or just completed. Imagine preparing to move into a new build property but not being able to order goods and services for your new home as its address does not appear.
POLAR stands for Participation of Local Areas. Developed by the Office for Students (OfS), the POLAR classification groups areas across the UK based on the proportion of the young population that participates in higher education.
Censation is the most widely distributed UK Geodemographic Classification system. It is worth over £4,000 per annum and is free at the point of use for all customers who use AFD Address Management Solutions.
The British Armed Forces and their families living on base have special addresses, called BFPO Numbers, used for delivery of mail. Both regular letters and parcels can be delivered to any BFPO address regardless of if they are sent via the normal (Royal Mail) post or most couriers.
AFD’s occupancy indicator helps identify business/residential or mixed occupancy at postcode and property level. This can be useful to couriers or distributors who wish to set delivery priorities or set pricing according to the type of area.
Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) since updated for the UK with ITL (International Territorial Levels) is a geographical system, divided into one of four levels based on geographical size.
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.