Any other ideas, cell formatting etc. to consider?

If you're handling mixed data, try the array-entered* index/match option

In WS1, in C2, array-entered*:
=INDEX(WS2!$C$2:$C$10000,MATCH(1,(WS2!$A$2:$A$1000 0=A2)*(TRIM(WS2!$B$2:$B$10000)=TRIM(B2)),0))
*Press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

Above also uses TRIM for more robust matching to shake out the possible
extraneous white spaces in either/both the source col B in WS2 and the lookup
value in B2 which would otherwise throw apparent matches off
--
Max
Singapore
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
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xdemechanik
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