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Hi,

 

I have a customers order address and a string of multiple comma separated contact names from an earlier step. For context, the customer has multiple addresses and a unique contact name for each address. The string of multiple comma sep contact names has been pulled using the customers email / phone which is the same across all contacts.

 

I need to automate finding the closest match to the customers order address, against the string of contact names from the earlier step. We have a Google sheet containing all contact names and corresponding addresses. However, the order addresses from our online booking site do not always exactly match the addresses with have on record, so an element of judgement is needed to match the address with the correct contact name.

 

Whats the best way of matching an inaccurate order address with the addresses we have on record?

 

Thanks.

Hi there @gloheating,

Based on your workflow, I believe the Lookup table might be fit for your workflow. You can learn more about the Lookup table here: 

Additionally, we also have a Google Sheets lookup table here:

Hopefully, this helps!


Hello there @gloheating

Did you manage to solve things here using a lookup table as Ken suggested? Keen to ensure you’re all set so please do let us know whether you’re still stuck at all on this! 🙂


Hi, a ref table won't work in this case. It's not really practical to list an order address generated by Google address auto complete on the online booking system, against what we have on file (a cleaned up version of the customers address). I've had some success with cleaning up the online booking system generated address using text formatter steps, and then entering the cleaned up base address eg '10 Barker Street' into a dynamic array formula, which then displays a unique number in a trigger column of the corresponding row of a matching address. This seems to work, I'm.just not sure how robust this method will be once live.

 

If anyone could build on this method I would love to hear.

Thanks.


Thanks for getting back to me @gloheating. Ah, yes I can see what you mean!

Cleaning up the addresses using Formatter steps so that they can be matched is a very good approach. One improvement on that could be to make it more efficient by reformatting the Google address that’s added by the booking system to match the corresponding address in the Google Sheet using a single Code step. It’s a bit more advanced but we have a Code with AI feature that can help to generate the necessary code for you. You can learn more about that here: Generate a Code step using AI (Beta).

Alternatively, I wonder if it might be worth testing out Zapier Tables for this? It’s Find Record action has the ability to look for non-exact matches so it might be better able to match the address without the need for additional Formatter or Code steps:
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Hope that helps. If you run into any trouble on this or have any further questions at all just ask! 


Thanks I’ve used Code for a few other steps which has been really useful. I’ve got the Formatter steps working ok for v1. Will look into upgrading these steps to a single Code step when I have time to revise the Zap. Not sure Zapier Tables will work any better, find functions may still be a bit limited for this case use.

 

Thanks.


Sounds good! Glad to hear you’ve been making good use of Code steps @gloheating! 🙌

Sorry Zapier Tables wouldn’t be a good fit for this at the minute. Please do keep us updated on how you get on with this at any rate. Would love to hear more about any further improvements you make! 🙂