What is PAF Address Cleansing ?
PAF Postal address cleansing is the process of verifying the postal addresses of your customers or contacts against the Royal Mail Postcode Address file (PAF).
PAF is the complete reference database containing all UK residential & business postal address information. It's updated with new addresses & amended postcodes on a daily basis so is fully up-to-date.
Address cleansing is an essential primary component for Data Cleansing and can also vastly improve your Deduplication results.
How does Address Cleansing Work ?
Matching against PAF will:- Update address components such as postcode changes
- Correct spelling mistakes & keystroke errors
- Add missing address elements
- Standardise the format of the postal address
On completion, the output format can be configured as you wish. This allows vanity components to be retained (such as house name) in addition to the essential postal address elements. Alternatively you may wish for just the postcode to be validated.Did you know?
Postal addresses with minimal information may not successfully verify against PAF.
In some cases it's possible to complete them with manual intervention.
This can be a beneficial tool if your contact data is of a sensitive nature or your customers are especially valuable.
Benefits of Address Cleansing
- Improved deduplication results
- Ensuring your communications are delivered to the intended recipient
- More accurate database analysis and reporting
- Improved accuracy of the `single customer view’ of your contacts
- Timely delivery of your direct marketing mailing, boosting response rates
- Significant postage cost discounts when mailing in bulk
- Lower rates of non-deliverable mail saving you time and money
- Better presentation of your marketing communications
