PODS and Loqate make local moving and storage easy with verified address data

Goals

• Deliver a fast and seamless online checkout for customers
• Improve the quality of address entering their databases in real-time
• Ensure drivers can access the right location for local delivery

Solutions

• PODS uses Loqate’s Capture API on their website for fast and accurate entry of shipping addresses during checkout

Results achieved with Loqate

• Optimized the checkout address entry process with Loqate’s Address Capture solution
• Decreased cases of undeliverable or invalid addresses during scheduled deliveries

Delivering quality CX across markets

Named the #1 moving and storage company of 2022, PODS makes local and long-distance moves easy by redesigning the experience around the needs of their customer base. They promise full, personalized support and the highest quality of customer service through clean containers, transparent quotes, and reliable communication.

“We primarily serve the three different markets,” says Paul Tucker, Director of Digital at PODS. “The first is people with local needs for storage, such as people doing renovations. The second is your traditional moving, whether local or long distance. And third, commercial businesses that need extra storage at Christmas time for inventory remodeling opportunities, employee relocations, etc.”

However, as an international corporation delivering services across North America, collecting accurate and verified address data was challenging. To provide the best checkout and delivery experience for their customers, PODS needed a way to collect and store high-quality address data in real time. After exploring the market, PODS chose to implement Loqate’s Capture tool with type-ahead predictive technology.

We chose Loqate because of its ease of implementation, positive customer referrals and the overall usability of the product and reporting functionalities.

Paul Tucker, Director of Digital at PODS

Supporting error-free address entry

Moving is complicated, but in the world of “one click” buying customers expect their online checkout experience to be as easy as possible. But long forms with numerous fields were an unwelcome source of frustration, especially during the address entry process. Manual entry increased the odds of typos and inaccurate data entering the system and causing delivery delays and payment issues.

“A major pain point for us was the free-form text field. It created issues for our drivers trying to deliver containers when the address was invalid. Spelling mistakes were occurring often because there was no validation process in place for those online orders in the past,” says Paul.

By teaming up with Loqate, PODS was able to provide a friction-free approach to accurate addressing that catered to all the ways customers searched for an address.

Getting delivery drivers to the right place

The collection of real-time address data helped PODS to improve shipment accuracy and the efficiency of their delivery drivers. Without an element of address validation in play, verifying customer addresses during a transaction or handling customers with multiple addresses in the system was a challenge.

“We felt that address verification was a necessary product that competitive companies have, and all customers expect. It’s especially useful when it comes to giving a proper address to our drivers that deliver our containers,” says Paul.

“We deliver thousands of containers a day. From time to time, we have situations where we don’t know where the container needs to go because the given address doesn’t exist, or the customer has misspelled it. We’ll then have to get in touch with the customer for the correct data. Somebody has to manually go in and reintroduce the right address into the routing system, which can cause delays.”

 Address Capture easily transformed manually input customer addresses into a standardized format. Now, no matter how and in what order a customer enters their address, the PODS system will automatically format it to the appropriate local standard and ensure it is deliverable.

By collecting accurate data upfront, PODS was able to accelerate checkout, improve UX and eliminate unnecessary delivery & distribution costs caused by address correction charges.

Addresses are the centerpiece of the puzzle. Without accurate addresses, we cannot fulfill our service.

- Paul Tucker, Director of Digital at PODS