An interview with Smarty’s experts on the new Excel plugin

We had a sit-down with Smarty crew members, Caroline Roweton, Associate Product Manager, and Landon Fackrell, Software Engineer, and delved into Smarty's innovative new Excel plugin.

This powerful tool makes address validation easier than ever, allowing users to clean and verify their address data directly within Excel. With a focus on simplicity and efficiency, Caroline and Landon talked about the features and benefits of the plugin, demonstrating how it can save time and enhance data accuracy without any need for coding.

Question: "What was the main focus when designing the Excel plugin?"
Landon: "Our goal was to ensure that users could effortlessly integrate address validation into their existing workflows within Excel without having to learn new software or processes. By highlighting the addresses, sending them to Smarty through the plugin, and automatically formatting and displaying the results, we aimed to streamline the entire process, saving users time and effort."

And they surely did make it easy!

1. Install the plugin:
   • Open Excel and go to the Home tab.
   • Click on the "Add-ins" button to open Microsoft's Marketplace.
   • Search for "smarty address verification" in the marketplace.
   • Find the Smarty Excel plugin, click "Add," and follow the prompts to install it.
2. Enter your credentials:
   • Once the plugin is installed, click on the "Show Tools" button in the top right corner of Excel.
   • In the sidebar that appears, click the "Enter Credentials" button.
   • Enter your AuthID and AuthToken from your Smarty account. If you don't have an account, you can sign up for a free trial and obtain these credentials.
   • Click "Submit" to save your credentials in the spreadsheet.
3. Prepare your data:
   • Ensure your address data is organized in a single column in your Excel sheet.
   • Make sure the row above your addresses is empty to allow the plugin to populate headers.
4. Validate addresses:
   • Highlight the addresses you want to validate.
   • In the Smarty Tools sidebar, you have three validation options:
     • Validate Selected Addresses: This option validates the selected addresses and provides a simple status and validated address.
     • Validate and Retrieve Geocode: This option validates the addresses and retrieves geocodes (latitude and longitude).
     • Validate and Retrieve All Data: This option retrieves all available data from Smarty, including address validation status, geocodes, and metadata.
5. View results:
   • After selecting the desired validation option, the plugin will process the addresses and populate the results in your Excel sheet.
   • If you want the results in a new sheet, check the "Place results in a new sheet" option before running the validation.

For detailed written setup instructions, see How to batch geocode and validate addresses in Excel.

Question: "Enhanced matching is a mode in Smarty's address validation system that uses additional data and more sophisticated matching algorithms to ensure the highest level of accuracy and completeness in address validation. This mode goes beyond the standard USPS data to include other reliable data sources, making it capable of validating a broader range of addresses, including those not recognized by USPS. Is there any situation where you wouldn't want to use the enhanced match type?"
Landon: "Honestly, no. You're just missing out on some of the features that we've developed in Smarty’s engineering. I always recommend using enhanced. We only avoid using enhanced in specific situations."

Question: "What are some use cases for this Excel plugin?"
Caroline: "There are a few different kinds of target use cases we thought about when we were creating this plugin or making sure we were addressing customer needs. I think the most effective one is new customers who want to try out our product. Another potential option too is maybe if you’re an existing customer and now using Smarty and you have this built out in one portion of your organization, maybe think about other places in your organization that could be using Smarty that would be able to use this plugin."

Question: "Is there a similar plugin available for Google Sheets?"
Caroline: "There is a Google Sheets plugin release. You can go in, and we have some documentation, step by step. You can look up the Smarty Google Sheets plugin. That’ll come up, it’ll walk you through, and you can get that installed."

Using the Google Sheets plugin is just as simple as the Excel plugin.

Use cases

Companies across various industries leverage Smarty's address validation and geocoding solutions to streamline operations and enhance data accuracy.

For example, Hippo Insurance utilizes Smarty's US Rooftop Geocoding to predict risks for pre-construction homes, improving their risk modeling and securing better reinsurance terms. Similarly, Lake County GIS integrated Smarty's US Address Verification to standardize address data, significantly reducing returned mail and improving the efficiency of tax bill distribution and voter registration systems.

The American Red Cross also benefited from Smarty's tools by cleaning and standardizing address data, enabling them to accurately target high-risk areas for their Home Fire Campaign, which has documented over 1,189 lives saved due to the program's preventive measures.

Moreover, a commercial insurance company transitioned from a legacy system to Smarty's cloud-based US Address Verification API, saving over 100 hours annually in IT maintenance and ensuring accurate bulk mailings.

What about geocodes?

Question: "Can you use the plugin to retrieve geocodes?"
Landon: "We have these two other buttons in the plugin. We have “Validate Selected Addresses” and “Validate and Retrieve Geocodes.” So you can click “Validate and Retrieve Geocode,” then get your latitude, longitude, and precision right there."

The rooftop geocoding feature provides highly precise latitude and longitude coordinates, pinpointing the exact location of an address down to the rooftop level. This is significantly more accurate than general geocoding, which may only locate an address within a broader area like a postal code.

Different Smarty subscriptions offer varying levels of data access. A standard US Address Verification subscription may only provide ZIP Code level precision, while a rooftop geocoding license ensures you get the exact rooftop coordinates.

In conclusion

One of Smarty's initiatives is to take on the complexities of address verification rather than passing that to our customers, and these plugins are a direct answer to that. Looking for more information on our batch geocoding with our new Excel plugin check our article covering all you'll need or want to know.

If you're looking for other slick address tools, check out our other solutions to common address problems.