6 PredictiveAddress features you never knew existed

Knowing that you need address validation and knowing what your address validation can do for you are two very different things. These are six of the built in features with PredictiveAddress™ that we think are particularly useful.

1. Telephone Field

If your contact form contains both telephone number and address fields, why not use some of the information from the telephone to help find the address?

When you set up your PredictiveAddress™script simply specify which field contains the telephone number. When you start typing an address the telephone number will be taken into account to help filter the results so only addresses that are in the same area as the telephone number are shown. This works intelligently to only consider geographic landline numbers, and automatically removes the filter if it hides all the results.

2. Country Detection

Your users can quickly select the correct country using PredictiveAddress™, but why make them do that much work? PredictiveAddress™ can also make use of our Country Detection service to automatically pick the right country based on the user’s IP address, so all they’ve got to do is start typing their address. This is the default behaviour – you don’t need to do anything special to get this to work!

3.Country Formatting

If you’re capturing the country as part of the address (and if not, why not?), PredictiveAddress™ gives you the option of capturing that information as either a code (e.g. GB) or a name (e.g. United Kingdom). Choose which is best for you using the countryFieldFormat option.

4. UDPRN & DPS

UK addresses have a unique identifier called the UDPRN, which is guaranteed to remain the same even if the postcode changes or the building is split into sub-premises and then recombined in the future. Most people don’t need to worry about it, but large mailing companies often use this information as part of their data management processes. PredictiveAddress™ gives you the option to get this information back along with the address. You will also get the Delivery Point Suffix, or DPS, which together with the postcode uniquely identifies an address. The DPS is essential if you’re looking to get bulk mailing discounts.

5. Postcode search format

While searching for an address by typing it from the start is a very natural way for your customer’s use, if you have a high volume call centre it can still be quicker to enter a postcode and house number. PredictiveAddress™ lets you search for an address in this way too – just enter the house number and the postcode separated by a comma (e.g. “4,CH2 4NE” or “CH2 4NE,4”) to get the address back with fewer keystrokes.

6. Existing Integrations

You don’t have to write any code to start using PredictiveAddress™ if you use Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, OpenCart, Magento or Prestashop. Just install our ready-made package, put in your account details and off you go!