Over 600,000 homes and business premises in Ireland have non-unique addresses, this is due to an absence of property numbers and names. Imagine the headache this would create, particularly in rural Ireland, for postal workers trying to remember which family or business name corresponds to which property. Launched in 2015, the Eircode is the Republic of Ireland’s Postcode system designed to help accurately find and locate business and residential addresses online and offline.
What is unique about the Eircode is that, unlike other countries, where Postcodes or ZIP codes define groups of addresses in one geographic area, it identifies one single address – meaning every home and business in Ireland has their own unique identifier.
Despite doubt from the media when it first launched, in 2015, Loqate commissioned a survey to 1,000 Irish online consumers to learn about their online shopping and delivery experiences and if Eircodes had a positive impact. The results were surprising, and in fact, since the launch, Eircodes have been widely adopted by retailers, insurance providers and logistics firms, improved data quality and just this month has celebrated its fifth birthday.
Here at Loqate, we were among the first address verification service providers to integrate Eircodes data, creating an Irish address finder. This enhanced address data gives our customers with logistics and distribution operations in Ireland greater productivity as a result of being able to manage more dynamic routing. Loqate has also helped to improve customer experience by reducing the number of late or failed deliveries in Ireland due to incorrect addressing.
It is not only retailers which have benefited, with Eircodes enabled businesses in the public service sector can now accuratly pinpoint parts of the community who might benefit from social projects around education, health and housing. Plus, our customers in finance and insurance can better assess risk and detect fraudulent activity based on accurate and enhanced Irish location data.
Many of our customers using the Loqate address verification service with Eircodes are benefiting from a customer service perspective too. This enhanced data has enabled them to capture accurate customer details online and over the phone in call centres, greatly enhancing customer confidence because the end customer knows their address is right the first time. All resulting in loyal customers.
According to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), Ireland is one of the fastest-growing digital economies in Europe. Ranking in the top 10 of all the EU member states, digital transformation in Ireland continues to be a core part of the country’s economic policies.
Over the last five years, this improvement to data quality has helped to ensure this digital growth and will continue to do so as it provides accurate location data for customer experience, targeting and analysis – all helping businesses to gain a competitive edge.
Your customers are demanding a better experience, and as we find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic, now more than ever it is vital that your business operates efficiently. Eircode address data from Loqate can help you do this.
Find out how Eircode data from Loqate can help your business.
