Irish businesses need Eircode: 7 reasons why

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The lights have been taken down and the men in the tin foil hats have gone home, Eircode is now officially launched. The conspiracy/national disgrace/unnecessary project is here now, and some indications are that it might actually work. People have actually posted things with Eircodes on them and surprise, surprise they were delivered to the right address !!!

The “surprise” says it all. The negative anti-Eircode campaign – (and the failure on the Eircode side to provide much clarification about anything) – has led to people being genuinely surprised that it actually works. When enough people use it and see it actually works, we will have ourselves an operational national postcode. And the tinfoil hat brigade will move on to establishing a link between Kennedy, Shergar and Daniel O’Donnell’s underpants.

This will happen sooner than you think so what benefits should Irish companies see from Eircodes and why should you consider implmenting them?

1. EIRCODES WILL ALLOW YOUR CUSTOMERS TO GIVE YOU THEIR ADDRESS MUCH MORE QUICKLY

Entering your Eircode – A32 X2T3 is quicker than entering your address – 4 Negative Equity View, Tirnahoguenahosue, Craggy Island, Ballyhockey, etc. – Every time. It means your customer is less likely to get bored and leave your site, call centre, store etc. Study after study shows that postcodes increase conversion rates and customer satisfaction online and by phone. Bottom line: accepting Eircodes as part of your customer communication process will make them happier with your service.

2. EIRCODES WILL ALLOW YOU TO DEFINITIVELY IDENTIFY ANY SPECIFIC HOME OR BUSINESS IN IRELAND

Before Eircodes, – “my address is Ballyhockey, Co Leitrim” – it could be any of these 10 houses. Only the postman knows where I live. If I want to defraud it’s quite easy, I just give different addresses.

After Eircodes, – “my address is Ballyhockey, Co Leitrim” – And your Eircode ? “AS2 D2F2” . “Ah you’re that house”. “We notice that you’re not located next door to the Fireworks factory and have halved your home insurance premium as a result”. All good.

3. EIRCODE WILL ALLOW YOU TO FIND AND DELIVER TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

If your staff don’t have to spend countless hours on the phone trying to find you to deliver goods and services, you save money. And if you save money you can pass this back to the customer. Happy Customer, Happy Company.

4. EIRCODES WILL FACILITATE DEREGULATION OF THE POSTAL/DELIVERY SERVICE

Before Eircodes only the local postman knew where Big Sean lived in a rural area. Quaint yes but not good for competitors wanting to provide delivery services in rural areas. After Eircodes, anyone can buy the Eircode database and have a definite location for every address in the country.

Bascially, the postman’s knowledge has been packaged and is available for as low as €180 inc. coordinates. What interesting new businesses will that spawn?

5. EIRCODES WILL GIVE YOU LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AUTOMATICALLY FOR EVERY ADDRESS CAPTURED

Used in conjunction with products such as Autoaddress and data webservices, Eircodes can return additional location intelligence such as:

  • The Addresses Nearest Store – “please go to Fagan’s, in Thurles and they will provide this product to you”
  • The General Demographics of the Neighbourhood – “you might be interested in hiring a graduation outfit” – where the address falls in an area predominantly lived in by students.
  • Service and Delivery Costs – “The cost for delivery to your location is €5.75, you are 10.6 miles from your nearest depot in Gorey, Co Wexford.”

6. EIRCODES WILL CLEAN UP YOUR DATA, ALLOW SVC AND REDUCE POSTAL RETURNS

Now that a definitive address is captured for every entry, you can cleanse your address data much more effectively. And cleaner addresses means the nice people at An Post won’t send so many of your letters back to you unopened. And because your addresses are clean and identifiable, you can perform proper Single View of Customer (SVC) analysis. So, you can tell that both John and Betty in the O’Neill household have bought cars from you, so be nice to them !

7. EIRCODES WILL IMPROVE STRATEGIC PLANNING AND MARKET MAPPING

Want to see your share of the DIY market in West Clontarf ? Eircode your loyalty customer addresses, aggregate results to neighbourhood level and compare with underlying demographic data by Census Small Area tract. Results – an accurate picture of market performance neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

All in all there is something there to benefit everyone. Even the tin-foil hat brigade.

@ 2015 Gamma.ie by Feargal O’Neill

About Gamma 

Gamma is a Location Intelligence (LI) solutions provider; we integrate software, data and services to help our clients reduce risk through better decision-making. Gamma was established in 1993 and was the first company to develop LI for the private sector in Ireland. The company has expanded to become a global provider of cloud-hosted LI systems, micro-marketing solutions and related services.