Benefits
Undeliverable addresses cost money, and when your reach is global, the challenge is even greater to make sure your pieces arrive when and where you expect them to. Address Hygiene (also referred to as Address Standardization) is at the core of our unique data management technology. Our process determines the accuracy of an address, and whether it’s correctable. It then corrects addresses and formats them to the unique requirements of each country’s postal system, giving you:
- Improved mail delivery
- Lower costs due to fewer undeliverable returns
- The ability to presort mail in order to obtain lower postage rates
- The ability to analyze your data down to a localized geographic area
- Improved image for your company
- Increased ROI
This also allows you to pinpoint which addresses will yield the highest return for your direct marketing campaigns — anywhere in the world.
The Service
Our International Address Hygiene/International Address Standardization service corrects addresses and formats them to the unique requirements of each country’s postal system and cultural standards. We obtain full postal code databases directly from the source — the postal authorities of each country. We also maintain continual contact with them to ensure our information is up to date and accurate.
How it Works
Our proprietary software analyzes and parses each address, and matches the address elements against the postal authority data for the destination country. If elements are missing, misspelled or incorrect, the software inserts or corrects the information, including postal codes. Once this has been done, the address is reconstructed according to the postal authority databases. Addresses that cannot be automatically corrected can be submitted for manual correction by our staff of international addressing experts.
Mail Quality Codes
Our proprietary Mail Quality Code is assigned to every address processed. The code indicates the accuracy of the address, specifies whether or not the address could be corrected, and classifies the address as deliverable, undeliverable or uncorrectable. This allows pinpoint accuracy in determining which addresses can be successfully delivered to your prospects.
Address Localization & Transliteration
We are the only service bureau that can combine your local language and English-character lists in the same merge/purge, allowing for duplicate removal across different list types. In addition, we can localize address spellings, formats, and diacritics or accent characters, giving your lists greater consistency and accuracy.
Marketing to Asia-Pacific offers unique challenges, in particular the need to communicate with customers in their own mode of writing. We provide address correction services for local language lists, as well as transliteration (translation) between local and English language data. We support all standard multi-byte encoding systems, including 16-bit and 32-bit Unicode and UTF-8, as well as country-specific encoding systems such as JIS, Shift-JIS, EUC, and Half-Width Katakana in Japan, GB in China, Big Five in Taiwan, and KS in South Korea.
Following is a sample Japanese address illustrating Global-Z's transliteration technology:
| English Address |
Japanese Address |
HIDEKI WATANABE
NAKAZATO 3-CHOME 208-13
KIYOSE-SHI, TOKYO-TO
204-0003 |
 |
Web Filters
Data collected from the web presents a new challenge for international address verification. With failure rates as high as 40% in some cases, the cost of sending to incorrect and invalid addresses can add up. Our web filtering process combines an entropy rating with various linguistic models to distinguish legitimate addresses from undeliverable ones.
Address Hygiene Examples
| INPUT |
PROCESS |
CORRECTED OUTPUT |
TAKAHASHI KENGO
5-15 TAISHIDO 2-CHOME
SETAGAYA TOKYO |
Inserts the 7-digit postal code, and properly formats address |
TAKAHASHI KENGO
5-15 TAISHIDO 2-CHOME
SETAGAYA-KU
TOKYO 154-0004
JAPAN |
 |
|
|
RUDOLF SCHNEIDER
HABSURGER STRASSE 48
NURMBERG
GMY |
Inserts the correct postal code, corrects spelling, standardizes address and optionally adds foreign accent character. |
RUDOLF SCHNEIDER
HABSBURGERSTR. 48
90457 NÜRNBERG
GERMANY |
|
|
|
JOHN THATCHER
39 WILTSHORE ROAD
CHADDESON DE21 4U4
ENGLAND |
Corrects country name, inserts appropriate postal code, corrects spelling and standardizes address |
JOHN THATCHER
39 WILSTHORPE ROAD
CHADDESDEN
DERBY
DE21 4QR
UNITED KINGDOM |
ONLINE GLOBAL ADDRESS STANDARDIZATION
Business often demands access to resources on an as-needed, immediate basis. Global commerce demands 24x7x365 responsiveness. This demand was the genesis of Global-Z’s award winning Online Global Address Standardization service. more >
CASE STUDY - ADDRESS HYGIENE
In the following case study, see how Global-Z helped a high-tech mailer improve their address accuracy and lower their mailing costs... more >
THE CHALLENGE OF EAST ASIAN WRITING SYTEMS
In this article, Global-Z's Brian Reese discusses the history of Asian writing systems and some of its challenges. more >