Whale and Dolphin Conservation Takes Advantage of Daily Updated Data

WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a global charity, has improved its fundraising and marketing efforts after installing Postcode Anywhere’s Desktop Client in its supporter management software.

Worcestershire (I-Newswire) November 29, 2012 - The address validation service increases the speed of contact data entry and ensures the accuracy of any details entered, preventing marketing collateral being dispatched to the wrong address.

As a charity WDC educates, supports, advises and provides a range of expertise and resources to help raise global awareness of the need to protect whales and dolphins. The charity has been using Postcode Anywhere’s address validation technology for over two years.

Michael Hudson, information systems manager said: “Our organisation relies solely on its global network of supporters and volunteers for fundraising and campaigning so the accuracy of the information in our database is really important to us as we use it to communicate with our donors and other stakeholders.

“A few years ago we implemented a new supporter database which came with a competitor postcode look-up product. We had to manually update the database, it only worked with our CRM system and it was extremely expensive. By switching to Postcode Anywhere’s desktop software, we are able to integrate it into more than just our CRM system as well as using it stand-alone. It’s also cheaper and updated daily – so there is no admin involved for us whatsoever and we are confident our data is as accurate as possible.

“We used Postcode Anywhere technology in our recent Sea Life petition when we asked petitioners to send in postcards containing their name and postal address. Using the desktop software, volunteers were able to enter their details into a spreadsheet really quickly and it meant we did not have to rely on being able to decipher people’s handwriting for their full address. As a result data entry was much more accurate and efficient.

An absolute breeze

“Integrating the online postcode look up tool into our website was an absolute breeze. It’s clear that Postcode Anywhere’s developers have put a lot of work into producing a something that is really simple to use and simply ‘just works’. Postcode Anywhere’s technical support team are really helpful and it’s good to speak to a real person.

“The main operational benefits are that we get accurate data whilst reducing operator key strokes. A single volunteer hit the 1,000 lookup daily limit one day when she was entering addresses into a spread sheet. I can’t even imagine how long this would have taken her had she had to key in these addresses manually.

“Overall we are really impressed with it and we get a similar positive response from volunteers and donors. It’s a pleasure to use and it works really well. I’m a bit of a Postcode Anywhere evangelist as I often wax lyrical about the services we use when I’m at events where I meet up with people representing other charities.

Guy Mucklow managing director at Postcode Anywhere: “With almost 5,000 address changes taking place every day, it’s imperative businesses update their data regularly. If you don’t, after just one week you could find one in every 900 records in your database are incorrect.

“With daily updates, common problems such as not receiving marketing material because they don’t have the address of your newly-built property could become a thing of the past. And because all updates are automatic, Postcode Anywhere users have the advantage of the freshest data without any user intervention.

For more information about Desktop Client or any of Postcode Anywhere’s address validation and business efficiency services, visit the website at www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk.