Address Verification: Fraud Defense and Customer Care

by Marco Raye

Does your supply chain stick to best practices as market demands continuously shift? Some would say that’s easier said than done, but at EasyPost we disagree with that sentiment. It is possible to quickly pivot with market shifts, when you have the correct resources or “tool kit” to rely on while navigating your industry’s competitive landscape. Address verification (we’ll call it “AVS” for now,) is a process by which the address of intended recipients is verified before packages or other mail is sent. It’s an especially important service for customers who purchase high-dollar items. The United States Postal Service has to verify every address before they can be registered as an official receiving point for mail. AVS is done to ensure that a given address can receive mail and that any potential problems with delivery are known before any attempts at delivering important packages are made.

Advantages of Address Verification API

Here at EasyPost, our goal is to help you develop solid customer loyalty by giving you access to high quality, fit-for-purpose logistics solutions. Using our leading Address Verification API, we provide the following services to help enhance your customers’ experience with your brand:

• Updating: Our Address Verification API is designed to regularly scan your mailing lists for potential out of date addresses. When a possible out of date address is detected, our systems automatically report it to you so that you can contact the customer and request current contact information, saving your business from an erroneous delivery nightmare.
• Standardization: Standardization makes addresses on your mailing list conform to a specific format. This makes your addresses easier to read and reduces errors. It means that the name of the recipient, street numbers, zip code and so on are always in the same part of every label.
• Verification of Accuracy & Completeness: Addresses that are not able to receive deliveries and those that do not or no longer exist will be deleted. Sometimes an incomplete address can cause it to be deleted, rather than corrected. For this reason, we allow the system to notify you of automated deletions.

How AVS Helps Your Business

Up to date AVS for your mailing lists should not be considered optional anymore. The USPS takes this so seriously that intentionally invalidating an address is considered a legal offense. AVS is important for all delivery types, but it’s especially important for those larger and more expensive deliveries. It gives you the certainty that a given address can be delivered to and has been delivered to in the past.

Effective AVS:

• Protects against mail fraud.
• Helps protect the customer from theft.
• Gives you confidence in delivering to the correct address.
• Helps protect your brand reputation.
• Demonstrates quality customer service.

Fraud Defense

Today’s best fraudsters often try to escape payment by having a package sent to the wrong address. AVS makes this kind of behavior less likely to succeed and protects your customers from having their packages diverted to another location. Once an address is verified, business owners can rest in the certainty that products are sent to the right person in the right place.

Grow Your Brand Authority

Possibly the most important advantage of AVS is its effect on your brand authority. All it takes is one lost package for a customer to avoid ordering from your company ever again. To most people, it doesn’t matter if a failed delivery was even your fault. Once they have lost money and the item they ordered, they will forever attribute the loss with the company they bought it from.

For this reason alone, many online retailers have a policy of refunding the customer even if the package is lost by USPS. Retailers are not required to do that, but it’s worth it to them to keep the customer loyal and to encourage good word of mouth advertising.

Care About Your Customers

Finally, when you go through the trouble to verify an address yourself, it shows the customer that your brand takes successful delivery seriously. Customers do not want to feel abandoned after they make the final click confirming their order. They want to feel cared for and know that you’re standing behind the sale and quality of product 100%. Proactive AVS is a great way to communicate good customer service before servicing the account becomes necessary. Our Address Verification API shows your customers that you want them to enjoy their purchase.

Here at EasyPost, we’re all about boosting your customer loyalty. That’s why we take address verification so seriously. To learn more and talk to one of our many Logistics Experts about address verification and how it can supercharge your business, get in touch today.