Lethal Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Caller ID
A bad reputation is hard to shake. If an existing customer or prospective lead feels your call is illegitimate for any reason, they could block your number. This not only wastes valuable time for your agents, but it could prevent you from successfully using a phone number you just purchased. Find out how bad numbers, flags, improper agent training and other mistakes can seriously hold back your calling campaign.
1. Purchasing Bad Numbers
When you purchase numbers to prepare for an outbound campaign, be sure you’re buying from a reputable source. Discount numbers or lists from companies you’re unfamiliar with are typically recycled. Those numbers you purchased for direct inward dialing, unfortunately, could already be flagged.
Purchasing flagged numbers wastes your time and money. Not only do they reduce your chance of connecting with customers, but they also affect your first impression with prospective customers.
2. Dialing Too Heavily
Another one of the most common caller ID mistakes is overusing numbers. A busy outbound campaign can quickly exhaust a number list, resulting in numbers being flagged or labeled as spam. Carriers can automatically flag a number that dials over 100 times per day.
Find ways to cycle through your number pool to avoid dialing too heavily. You may even want to only use the same number 50 times to be sure you aren’t exceeding the proper dialing frequency.
3. Avoiding Agent Training
After your caller ID, your agents are some of the first impressions customers get of your company. An agent who is rude, unsure or misinformed can make your company seem unprofessional and unprepared. If a customer talks to an agent and doesn’t have a positive experience, there’s a high chance the customer will flag the number to avoid future calls.
4. Using Wrong Lists
Do your number lists include an interested demographic or a random sampling? If you’re selling a product or service, you don’t want to waste your time with calls to uninterested customers. Choose lists of numbers from a known, suitable demographic to prevent calls that may result in call blocking and agent frustration.
A specific number list doesn’t guarantee anyone will purchase your products or sign up for your services. However, this does increase the chance of a customer being interested in what your agent has to say. Carefully vetting your number list, and connecting them with the right products or services, is an important way to improve your outbound calling campaign.
5. Spoofing Calls
Another serious issue with your caller ID is call spoofing. A scammer may be using your numbers for malicious purposes. If your number is the victim of a spoofing scam, then the customers involved will probably block and flag your number. This can further affect your reputation when a dissatisfied customer cancels services and recommends other customers cancel their services.
You may not be directly responsible for call spoofing, but failure to monitor your numbers can magnify the impact of call spoofing on your reputation. Stay informed about the latest spoofing risks and how to mitigate these. In addition, report any call spoofing incidents to the FCC and carriers as soon as they occur.
Proactive monitoring can help protect your phone numbers' reputation in the event of a spoofing attempt.
How To Maintain Your Caller ID Integrity
Some common call ID mistakes you can avoid, while others feel like they’re out of your control. Maintain your caller ID reputation by staying proactive and taking the following steps. You don’t have to let a call spoofing incident or a flagged number continue to affect your company’s reputation, but you can move forward and build trust with these steps.
Register CNAM
A call from a registered phone number is 53 percent more likely to be answered. Your caller ID name, or CNAM, can be registered with carriers to ensure detailed, accurate information appears on the caller ID. Without a registered name, your number is likely to appear as an unknown. Or worse, your number can appear as a scam or spam number.
It’s important to register your number with all the major carriers. While all the leading carriers use CNAM databases, these databases aren’t always shared.
Sign Up for Enhanced Caller ID
A traditional ID displays your name to current and prospective customers. For even more transparency, consider signing up for an enhanced caller ID. This service is available through most leading carriers and offers these additional features:
- Company name
- Department information
- Logo
While enhanced ID services aren’t always consistent across carriers, they can reduce the risk of a caller not answering.
According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 80 percent of Americans don’t answer a call from an unknown number. If you’re dealing with a large number of unanswered calls, then you may be able to avoid one of the most frustrating caller ID mistakes by investing in enhanced caller ID services.
Scan Newly Purchased Numbers
Numbers are often recycled in the VoIP dialing community. When you purchase numbers, there is a good chance these have been used by other companies in the past. In some cases, the numbers you purchase might come with flags or labels already attached to them.
While your company is not responsible for the previous calls made on these numbers, they can reflect poorly on your reputation. Dialing on numbers with flags can cause your reputation to plummet. Hence, it is imperative to scan the phone numbers you purchase before using them in your dialing cycle.
Set up a routine schedule for call monitoring. This can help you maximize operational efficiencies and avoid using flagged numbers to reach out to customers.
Dial Correctly
Use ethical dialing strategies. Unlike scammers, who use any technique possible to reach customers, be sure you’re calling customers at convenient times and your agents are always speaking respectfully. Proper dialing practices can help improve the reputation of your company and the entire telemarketing industry.
Consider these dialing tips to improve your brand reputation:
- Avoid "least call routing"
- Set daily limits on numbers
- Ensure agents are immediately on the line
- Swap Numbers Out Frequently
Numbers aren’t just flagged by dissatisfied customers. If you use the same number more than 100 times in a day, most leading carriers will automatically flag it.
Swap out numbers in your high-volume outbound campaign to avoid this risk. You may need to expand your number list to accommodate this calling limit, but the investment will help promote your brand reputation.
Let Flagged Numbers Cool Off
Flagged numbers don’t need to be discarded forever. While you shouldn’t continue to use a flagged number to attempt to reach current or prospective customers, all you need to do is give them some time to cool off.
Most carriers will drop a flag from a number after 60 to 90 days of disuse. Stop calling immediately after receiving a flag on a particular number, but you should be able to add it back to your list after a suitable cooling-off period. Continue to monitor the number to be sure the flag has been removed.
If a number becomes flagged or reported after you’ve purchased it and have been using it, then consider removing it from your number pool. This prevents it from continuing to affect your company’s reputation.
Keep Your Old Numbers
When a flag is added to a number, it can be tempting to discard it and move on. While you shouldn’t continue to use a flagged number, you don’t need to release it back to the seller.
Retain your old numbers and wait up to 90 days. Releasing a number isn’t a great long-term strategy, because you can’t always be confident that the number you purchase to replace it is free from a flag or label.
Actively Monitor Your Phone Numbers
Continual monitoring helps you avoid reputation-damaging calls. If a number becomes flagged or negatively labeled for any reason, stop using it immediately. This issue may have been caused by call spoofing or over-dialing, but you need to catch it quickly. Otherwise, you may lose a few customers before you realize your caller ID is the cause of dropped calls and lost sales.
Avoid Caller ID Mistakes With Caller ID Reputation
There are many caller ID mistakes that can seriously hold back your outbound campaign. Follow these tips to make the most of your numbers and avoid using flagged ones. Contact us at Caller ID Reputation to learn more about enhanced caller ID, number monitoring and other helpful strategies to improve your company’s reputation.
