Welcome to the Address Zoo #2 | AABB addresses with secondaries & addresses differing only by designator

The benefits of reliable, easy-to-implement address data are straightforward. Actual addresses, on the other hand, aren’t always so cut and dry.

If you’re looking to become an expert in everything that begins or ends with an address, this series is for you. We’ll demystify the types of addresses that have developers scratching their heads and introduce you to the tools keeping your address data best-in-class.

Come one, come all, and enter the wonderful world of peculiar addresses! Let’s see what’s on exhibit.

Welcome to the Address Zoo #2 | AABB addresses with secondaries & addresses differing only by designator

Welcome back! In our first installment of this series, we visited override and underride city addresses, which have complex city name and default city name results. If you’re just joining us now, feel free to go back and check it out!

In our next exhibit, we’ll see addresses with wild secondaries or secondary designators. What’s a secondary or a secondary designator, you ask? Great question.

A “secondary designator” is a label that tells you what type of space within a building or property an address leads to, like “Apt” or “Ste.”

A “secondary” is a designator plus a secondary number, if present—think “Apt 102” or “Ste 200.” Any address that includes a secondary on line 1 or line 2 is a “secondary address.”

In “101 Iowa Ave W Ste 300, Marshalltown, IA,” for example, the secondary “Ste 300” makes it a secondary address, and “Ste” is the address’s secondary designator. (And if you were wondering, this address leads to a veterinarian, and yes, we’re still looking for one that’ll do a full physical for the addresses in our zoo. 🤣)

Congrats! You now know the difference between secondaries, secondary designators, and secondary addresses. You’re ready to encounter addresses that are valid as both standalone locations and with their secondaries, as well as addresses that are identical in all but secondary designators.

In this blog, we’ll also cross paths with the address data tools you need to keep your secondary address wires from getting crossed.

In this exhibit, we’ll visit:

• USPS DPV confirmation indicators
• AABB addresses with secondaries
• Addresses differing only by secondary designator
• Real-time solutions
• Animals on exhibit

USPS DPV confirmation indicators

Before we dive into AABB addresses, let’s get to know USPS DPV confirmation indicators and footnotes. 

When you validate an address with a CASS-certified verification service, the response includes a USPS DPV confirmation indicator and DPV footnotes. While the indicator tells you whether the USPS considers an address as deliverable, the footnotes explain why it received that result.

AABB addresses with secondaries

The address 809 E Willow Grove Ave, Glenside, PA 19038 validates with the DPV footnote AABB. This means its primary number, street name, city, state, and ZIP Code all match with the USPS database.

Typically, you’ll see this response for addresses without secondaries, but 809 E Willow Grove Ave, Glenside, PA 19038 is also valid when it includes two separate secondaries:

• 809 E Willow Grove Ave # A, Glenside, PA 19038
• 809 E Willow Grove Ave # B, Glenside, PA 19038

Because of these secondaries, we’d expect 809 E Willow Grove Ave, Glenside, PA 19038 to return with the DPV footnote AAN1. An AAN1 footnote would indicate that while this address is considered valid, including a secondary would make delivery more precise. 

However, 809 E Willow Grove Ave, Glenside, PA 19038 is a valid delivery point when it stands alone, making it an AABB address with secondaries.

Generally, catching an AABB address’s missing secondary helps companies reduce failed deliveries, customer dissatisfaction, and manual address correction. However, loads of industries have individual needs for accurate secondaries:

• Ecommerce. An AABB address—like 1616 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028—might be a valid delivery point, but it’s not where you want your customer’s package to wind up if they’re actually located at 1616 N La Brea Ave Apt 102, Los Angeles, CA 90028. With error-free secondary addresses, you can keep shipments on point and your customers happy.
• Healthcare. Identifying and correcting AABB addresses with secondaries helps providers send both medical supplies and medical professionals on home health visits to the right doorstep.
• Insurance. Including or omitting a secondary can completely change an AABB address’s risk score, especially if both addresses are in a sprawling, multi-unit building or business park. The exact address of a property will keep your risk assessments accurate.
• Telecom. Missing secondaries can lead to failed truck rolls, wasted technician time, and upset customers. Avoid these costly mistakes with correct secondaries.

Don’t let AABB addresses with secondaries keep you from top-notch address data. By ensuring your secondary addresses are in tip-top shape, you can make better business decisions and make some sweet, sweet moolah, too. 

Addresses differing only by secondary designator

Like we mentioned before, secondary designators are used in an address to refer to a specific type of delivery point within a property.

Loads of secondary addresses are nearly identical. Usually, these addresses differ only by secondary number or standalone secondary designator, but this isn’t always the case. Take these addresses, for instance:

• 351 Springfield Ave Apt 1, Summit, NJ 07901
• 351 Springfield Ave Ste 1, Summit, NJ 07901

These addresses share a secondary number (1), but have different secondary designators (Apt and Ste). This difference may seem small, but each address represents a unique delivery point, which can create a load of problems for industry giants who aren’t paying attention.

• Ecommerce professionals should consistently deliver products to the right place the first time.
• Insurance organizations should perform risk assessments for the correct location to price policies fairly.
• Fintech companies should use precise addresses to ensure credit or debit cards are delivered to the correct customer and boost their KYC processes.
• Healthcare platforms should dispatch professionals to the patient’s actual address for home health visits.
• Government agencies should send tax bills, refunds, and welfare checks to the people who really need them, not an address that doesn’t exist. 

To turn “shoulds” into realities, these industries—and anyone else in a highly regulated field where deliveries need to reach the right hands every time—can’t sweat the small stuff. And yes, “small stuff” includes secondary designators.

Real-time solutions

Without the best address autocomplete around, AABB addresses with secondaries and addresses differing only by secondary designator could wreak some serious havoc for you and your customers.

Remember 809 E Willow Grove Ave, Glenside, PA 19038 and its two secondaries? If a customer were to type “809 E Willow Grove Ave” into a checkout form equipped with Smarty’s Address Autocomplete, all three addresses would appear in a drop-down, allowing the customer to quickly select the correct one.

And isn’t that the way it SHOULD be?

Otherwise, the customer could forget to enter a secondary because 809 E Willow Grove Ave, Glenside, PA 19038 was identified as a valid delivery point—and their life-sized gorilla statue could wind up in a coffee shop on the ground floor, rather than their rooftop apartment. 

Plus, when inaccurate secondaries lead to misdeliveries, you’ll be stuck paying for shipping (again), packaging supplies (again), and person-hours (again). And don’t even get us started on opportunity cost and brand reputation damages that can last longer than you’d like.

Don’t fall prey to bad address data. With address autocomplete, you can create a reliable checkout form that prevents tricky addresses, like AABB addresses with secondaries, from stirring up trouble, thereby building long-term customer loyalty and saving money.

Animals on exhibit

We visited these animals on our trip to the address zoo:

• AABB addresses with secondaries: Addresses that return with an AABB DPV footnote rather than an AAN1 DPV footnote, because while they’re valid when used in secondary addresses, they’re also valid as standalone locations.
• Addresses differing only by secondary designators: Secondary addresses that are identical in street number, street name, street suffix, secondary number, city, state, and ZIP Code, but not secondary designator.

On our next visit to the address zoo, we’ll head to the SuiteLink® and LACSlink® habitats. There, we’ll come face-to-face with addresses whose secondaries can be identified using their addressee field, as well as addresses that have undergone multiple simultaneous LACSLink changes.