What to look for in an address data solution: Data accuracy

Once you know what capabilities you need, the next challenge is choosing a provider that actually delivers—pun intended.

This blog is part of our five-part series, What to look for in an address data solution.  

Previously, we discussed the need to find an address data solution that understands the importance of speed, scalability, and reliability, enabling you to maintain automated, efficient, and accurate workflows in any industry that deals with addresses.

Today, we’ll focus on the hidden costs of inaccurate data, defining and combating the “validation gap”, and why it’s important in any industry.

The hidden cost of bad address data

Address data problems don’t usually start as disasters—they start as small cracks. A missing apartment number here, a transposed digit there, a misspelled street name, forgotten punctuation or spacing, and before long, those cracks turn into costly leaks.

Inaccurate or incomplete addresses cause ripple effects across your organization: misdeliveries, billing errors, regulatory violations, and wasted time. Bad data increases operational costs, slows customer interactions, and damages brand credibility.

And it’s not just about mail. Poor address quality corrupts analytics (leading to poorly executed retrospectives), duplicate customer records (which leads to inadequate and inefficient customer care), and undermines data-driven decision-making (such as poor scaling and marketing decisions down the line). 

One wrong ZIP Code can send a package to the wrong city—or send your reputation downhill fast.

AND, even when addresses “seem fine,” the hidden danger lies behind false positives—when a system accepts an invalid or undeliverable address as correct. Those errors often slip in because traditional validation tools over-correct or rely on partial data, giving a false sense of accuracy.

The bottom line? Every unchecked address becomes a liability.

The “validation gap” problem

Many CRMs, ERPs, and marketing systems claim to “validate” addresses—but they’re usually doing surface-level checks. They verify that a city and ZIP exist, but not that the specific address can receive mail, that the other components paired with that city/ZIP combo is valid, or that they match real-world geography.

That’s the validation gap—the space between “looks right” and “is right.”

A true address validation process should confirm that:

• The address is stored in an authoritative postal database (such as the USPS or other trusted and vetted third-party sources).
• Each element—building number, street, city, and postal code—matches an official record.
• Secondary units (like apartments, suites, or floors) are real, relevant, and correctly formatted according to local postal requirements or international formatting conventions.

Smarty’s US Address Verification API and International Address Verification API close this gap. It not only standardizes addresses to a verified format but also confirms mailability, identifies missing or unnecessary unit numbers, and reduces the risk of false positives (for select Smarty subscriptions, address component analysis is now available, so if any part of an address was changed, replaced, or added in order to obtain a match, you’ll know, and know why). The result is address data you can trust across your entire workflow—from form entry to delivery.

Beyond delivery: the cross-industry ripple effect

The value of clean, verified address data extends far beyond sending mail where it needs to go. It’s the backbone of analytics, compliance, and risk management. A good address tool stack should help in any industry:

• Healthcare: Ensures accurate patient record matching and compliance with Project US@ standards, reduces time spent on manual address correction, increases full form fills, and supports medical supply and billing shipments. Psst! You can read more about healthcare address woes with our ebook that addresses 13 common mistakes healthcare companies make. It’s free.
• Insurance: Reduces underwriting errors, speeds up quoting, and verifies property risk with rooftop-accurate geocodes and persistent, unique identifiers that can be used in perpetuity.
• Finance: Prevents fraud by validating customer location data against authoritative records, assists in KYC and AML compliance initiatives, and elevates analytics and efficiency through automation in a digitally run market.
• Telecommunications: Improves service qualification, network planning, and customer onboarding, all while reducing the number of wasted technician truck rolls. Psst!! You can even use the calculator on that page we just linked to see how much money you could save by using Smarty’s tools to boost your address data health.
• Ecommerce and logistics: Lowers shipping costs, increases successful deliveries, and enhances checkout experiences, reduces cart abandonment, and increases conversions with address autocomplete.

When address data is accurate, everything connected to it performs better. It’s the oxygen reaching every vital organ in your organization and breathing life into your internal and external operations.

Questions to ask potential providers regarding data accuracy

• Are they transparent about their match success rate?
  No address data solution hits 100% accuracy (and honestly, be wary of anyone who says otherwise). Find a provider that can clearly show you whether a delivery point is accurate to the parcel, rooftop, or ZIP+4 level. Knowing your precision helps you make smarter business moves. If a vendor isn’t open about how accurate their data is—or won’t show you what “success” really looks like—that’s a major red flag.
• Are they transparent about non-match addresses?
  Some providers will “validate” an address that doesn’t actually exist—a false positive. A trustworthy solution should tell you when an address doesn’t match, highlight which parts failed validation, and never quietly pass off a non-existent address as valid. If they can’t do that, your data quality (and customer trust) could take a hit.
• Do they offer secondary address data?
  Secondary address data (apartments, suites, and unit numbers) makes all the difference when multiple addresses share one structure. If precise delivery and analytics matter to your business, choose a solution that validates all the way down to the unit level.
• Do they verify beyond USPS data?
  More than 20 million U.S. addresses are not listed in the USPS database. Yet, people live and work there every day. The USPS simply doesn’t deliver to every physical location—especially in rural or remote areas. For full coverage, pick a solution that verifies both postal and non-postal addresses, so no delivery point slips through the cracks.
• Are they CASS-certified?
  CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) certification indicates that the address data solution has met USPS quality standards for address accuracy and formatting. If a provider isn’t CASS-certified, you might want to ask why not?

Key takeaway

Address data accuracy is critical for any organization. True accuracy keeps operations flowing, analytics clean, and customer experiences seamless.

If you’re serious about scaling with confidence, start with clean, validated, and standardized addresses. It’s the first step in ensuring that every part of your business—logistics, compliance, marketing, and beyond—beats in sync.