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Customer Address Verification with Google Places

Google API Address Verification

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Imagine a world where your store automatically runs address verification checks on customer data before they complete the checkout. Fewer calls to customer service to correct an error. Reductions in shipping fees due to undeliverable packages. Easier checkouts with higher conversion rates. A happier world…

We’ve talked about it before, and it’ll come up again. Customer expectations are on the rise.  Online shopping used to be a thing of convenience, a favor that retailers provided to shoppers. It was a treat for consumers to be able to order from the comfort of their homes. Any small amenity offered by the retailer beyond that was a luxury. But, as often happens, something once considered a bonus is now the bare-minimum. 

Online giants like Amazon have expert teams and essentially bottomless funds, allowing them to innovate endlessly. Those innovations then become the baseline for the shopping experience, thus raising expectations across the board.  Thanks a lot, Amazon… So, in order to stay relevant and have a voice in a competitive market, store owners are constantly having to come up with new and unique ways to match (and hopefully exceed) customer expectations. All without the multi-million dollar budget that the big guys have. 

While customers expect their shopping experience to be faster, smoother, stronger, and prettier, they don’t want to spend more. In fact, they want to spend less than before (again, looking at you, Amazon). Balancing site additions and features with low costs can be like a unicycle on a tight-rope. If a feature doesn’t work the way you think it will, it will cost you money to correct it. You may even lose customers in the interim. If you increase prices to cover the cost of your expanding site, shoppers may abandon you for a cheaper source. 

One way to help improve the customer experience without having to spend thousands of dollars and days/weeks of down-time is the following site feature. Even better than just impressing your shoppers, it can actually save you money.

What Is This Miracle Feature?

Well, you’ve likely caught the gist from the article title, but I’ll explain a little more fully. Our client, Lazerdesigns.com, contacted us about adding something to the checkout that would help verify customer addresses. Customer service requests to make edits to shipping and billing information on orders were a regular and time-consuming occurrence. And our client often dealt with returned, undeliverable packages because the shipping information wasn’t entered correctly during checkout.  

The costs of a simple mistake on the customer’s part were starting to add up. And besides costing him money that didn’t need to be spent, it was also creating tension with the shoppers. Regardless of customers entering the wrong information, the onus was somehow falling to the business to make sure the package got to the right location, and the customer is always right. So our client came to us for help. 

Our developers worked with the client to come up with a solution tailored to his site. Through use of the Google Places API, tweaking ever so carefully until just right, we were able to provide a feature that would assist shoppers in a speedy checkout, while also ensuring the address being used was a real place. 

We were happily able to present to our client: A Google Places-fueled autocomplete field for customer address verification! Intuitive to use, shoppers can now begin to type their address into the field and select from a list of validated places, populated by Google. 

Address Verification

Upon selecting the correct verified address from the list, the details are automatically filled in to the fields below. The customer has the option to then review and make any changes (like adding an apartment number) to the address before continuing on with their payment. 

We Can Tailor It For You, Too

Our developers developed and designed the address verification tool to fit seamlessly into the existing checkout page. It was done without the use of third-party services or subscriptions, making this a low-cost solution to implement and maintain. 

We modified the user interface to fit the color scheme and style. Further adjustments were made according to the client’s preferences. Adding notes and information text in our client’s own words help guide the customer in the use of the tool. 

Address verification fields filled

The trusted Google logo reassures the user that the addresses are pulled from a legitimate source. Upon adding the feature to your site, you can dictate colors, text, and other design aspects down to minute details. All the while, our developers will make sure the tool functions in a way that makes sense for you, and your shoppers.

Powered By Google logo

If you want to reduce customer service time spent on correcting addresses, resending parcels, and tracking down disgruntled shoppers for reshipment fees, then this address verification feature is a must-have on your site. Contact us today to discuss your needs. We can fit the tool to your website and adapt it to your personal preferences.

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