Sub-Premise Level Data

🚪 Pinpoint Accuracy: A Deep Dive into Sub-Premise Level Data

Sub-Premise Level Data refers to the essential secondary identifiers required to distinguish unique delivery points within a single, larger primary address structure (the premise). This data specifies precisely where a package, mail item, or technician needs to go once they arrive at the building.

This crucial information includes:

• Apartment Numbers (e.g., Apt 4B)

• Suite Numbers (e.g., Suite 205)

• Unit Numbers (e.g., Unit 12)

• Floor Levels or Room Numbers

In today's urbanized world, where multi-unit dwellings and large commercial complexes are the norm, accurately capturing Sub-Premise Level Data is the single greatest factor in achieving first-time delivery success and is indispensable for services requiring exact location verification.

The Last-Mile Challenge: Why This Data is Critical

The primary street address (Address Line 1) is sufficient for a courier to locate a large building, but without the correct Sub-Premise Level Data, the delivery process stalls at the final, most expensive stage—the last mile.

Costly Delivery Failure

• Wasted Labor: Couriers spend valuable time searching directories, calling the recipient, or waiting for access, slowing down the entire route.

• Undeliverable Shipments: Mail or packages that cannot be securely delivered to the correct unit are often returned to the sender, triggering costly reshipment fees, impacting profit margins, and severely frustrating the customer.

• Operational Risk: For utilities and telecoms, a missing unit number leads to service activation failure (connecting service to the wrong unit), which generates expensive follow-up service calls and exposes the provider to potential legal or financial liabilities.

The Data Capture Pitfall

The challenge lies in customer behavior: customers frequently omit or incorrectly format their unit number, often assuming it’s optional or believing it will be saved from previous orders. Without real-time address verification integrated into the form, this flawed data enters the system unchecked.

Standardization and Verification Technology

Modern Address Verification APIs are specifically engineered to handle the complexity of Sub-Premise Level Data through two phases:

1. AI-Powered Standardization and Parsing

The system uses AI address data parsing and fuzzy matching to automatically identify and extract the unit number from the messy, unstructured input. It then applies address standardization rules, ensuring the unit designator is consistently formatted (e.g., standardizing 'Apartment 4B,' 'Apt 4B,' and '#4B' to the required postal format, such as 'APT 4B').

2. Premise-Level Validation

The most advanced systems validate the Sub-Premise Level Data against authoritative national postal files that contain verified lists of delivery points. This confirms two things:

1. The primary building premise exists.

2. The specific unit number (e.g., "Suite 310") is a valid, recognized dwelling or unit within that building.

This provides pinpoint accuracy far beyond what simple mapping data can offer.

Strategic Value for Enterprise Systems

Accurate Sub-Premise Level Data is fundamental to multiple strategic enterprise functions:

• KYC Compliance: For financial services, a verified unit number is essential for establishing Proof of Address, strengthening KYC (Know Your Customer) and identity verification processes.

• Geocoding Precision: While the street address determines the overall building coordinate, the unit number is needed for geospatial analysis in logistics planning and targeted service delivery models.

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Securing accurate sub-premise data during Address Capture guarantees a successful initial transaction, leading to higher customer satisfaction, reduced support queries, and a substantial increase in CLV.

By prioritizing the capture and validation of Sub-Premise Level Data, organizations safeguard their bottom line and ensure seamless service delivery in complex, urban environments. The good news is that Loqate's address verification does all that for you as a matter of course, and can be configured at the push of a few buttons. Give us a whirl with a 45-day free trial today and see how it works for yourself.