House plants have recently seen huge growth in popularity as people have switched on to the benefits they bring.

Bringing the Outdoors In
With living costs increasing and living space decreasing, plants add both colour and life to indoor spaces. Houseplants offer more than just visual appeal, they also offer a wealth of benefits to our wellbeing. The boffins in the science community have concluded that plants lower levels of stress and reduce anxiety. Recent studies by NASA have shown house plants naturally purify air from harmful toxins.

Verdure House Plants, an online business in West Yorkshire, recently shared an issue they had around finding a customer’s address; Google Maps had been the go-to solution until its shortcomings began to cost the business.

The True Cost of “Free” Solutions
A customer provided the delivery address as “5a Fulstone Holmfirth HD9”, a delivery slot had been selected and payment had been made.

This was entered into Google maps which returned directions to 5 Fulstone Road, Huddersfield, HD4 6YD – an address not in Holmfirth.

Using different search parameters of “Fulstone, Holmfirth, HD9” showed a road called “Fulstone Hall Lane” which had a number 5, and as the customer could not be reached to clarify the address, a quick decision was made that this was the closest address match to the information provided.

When the courier arrived at the location the app had guided him to, the only property at that location was a farm – no numbered houses.

Time and money have been wasted, the delivery abandoned and the customer’s expectations were not met.

Call on the Experts

Where was the delivery address? Could AFD have solved the problem from the information provided?

Entering “5a Fulstone Holmfirth HD9” into Postcode Plus, AFD’s property level validation solution instantly found the address:

5a Fulstone

New Mill

HOLMFIRTH

HD9 7DL

AFD can provide latitude and longitude coordinates at the property level, showing a pinpoint location of an address. Using the same mapping tool that the driver was being guided by, a search of the property’s geo code found the precise location.

Point of entry address validation would have solved the address issue immediately, and identifying the property with latitude and longitude would have given the accurate delivery location of the address.

This is one example of the cost of error for an organisation not using AFD Software’s address validation solutions.

When this issue is scaled to an organisation making thousands of deliveries a day, the cost of error increases and brand perception plummets.