Overview
Many modern salespeople and others in customer-facing positions rely on high volumes of calling in order to get in touch with their customers and prospects as quickly and effectively as possible. But callers who aren’t used to managing their caller ID reputations often fall into the pitfalls of poor caller ID management.
Instead, callers should pay careful attention to factors like their call volume, their rotation of different numbers, and prospects’ reactions to their pitches. These are just a few of the most important factors carriers consider when they decide whether to label you as a spam caller, or even block your number.
But the responsibility doesn’t just lie with callers. The IT and support team needs to set their callers up for success with properly-configured tools. That way, high-volume callers won’t have to worry about their call attestation, CNAM registration, and phone number monitoring.
With the combined efforts of callers and their support teams, even the most high-volume callers shouldn’t have to worry about getting their calls incorrectly labeled or blocked by carriers. Carefully following these best practices is the most effective way to remove what can be a major logistical hurdle.
What Should Callers Do?
From changing the number they’re calling from to changing the way they treat the people they’re calling, there are a few tactics callers can use to ensure they’re following the industry’s best practices in how they dial. By taking these steps, they can reduce the likelihood that they will face difficulties getting their calls through without interruption.
Use Multiple Phone Numbers
Generally, you shouldn’t make more than 150 calls per day from any given phone number. Increasing your call volume past that point will raise flags with carriers. Eventually, your calls may start showing up as “Potential Spam”, “Scam Likely” or other negative call labels.
But many legitimate salespeople, marketers, and small business owners need to make a high volume of calls every day. That’s why they rotate the numbers they call throughout the day. That way, they don’t have to worry about exceeding an arbitrary number of calls from the same source.
Engage in Lengthy Calls
Call duration is one of the most important and underappreciated factors in how carriers label numbers as potential spammers. A series of brief calls can cause the caller to be labeled as potential spam, even without displaying many other suspicious behaviors.
That’s because suspicious callers often fail to engage in meaningful conversations with the people they’re calling. They try to optimize their own workflow by calling as many people as possible and only engaging with the lowest-hanging fruit. When legitimate salespeople have a series of very brief conversations, they follow the same pattern of behavior as spammers.
Instead, callers should do their best to have real conversations with the people they’re dialing. That doesn’t mean that every call has to take ten minutes, but it does mean that they should follow best practices to hold their prospect’s interest and keep them on the line. Not only will it help with Caller ID hygiene, it’s what good salespeople should be doing already.
Leave Voicemail Messages
Most callers hang up as soon as they hear the pre-recorded “leave a message” of someone’s voicemail. But voicemail messages serve the dual purposes of lengthening your average call length and decreasing the likelihood that a caller will block your number.
If you hang up right when you hear the voicemail prompt begin, your average call length will probably look suspicious. Even if you’re engaging customers who answer in lengthy, detailed conversations, you’ll have far more calls that last just a few seconds. For that reason by itself, it’s worth the extra ten to fifteen seconds to leave a quick voicemail message.
But critically, people want you to leave them voicemail messages. That’s what one survey found when it reported that 69% of consumers want carriers to send callers they don’t know to their voicemail, not just block them automatically. With only the missed call to go off of, consumers are more likely to think you’re a spammer instead of a legitimate caller.
Rotate Old Phone Numbers
When you find out that a number you’ve been using has been showing up as “Possible Spam,” it’s natural to stop using that phone number. It’s absolutely what you should do–call labels like that have a real impact on the number of people that pick up your calls. But that doesn’t mean you need to throw those numbers out forever.
While following these guidelines should mean that you’re unlikely to be mislabeled as a spam caller, it’s important to know what to do if you have gotten the label in the past. Fortunately, carriers understand that numbers can change hands and callers can change their behavior, so 60 days of no calling activity from the number is enough to erase any negative labels.
By letting numbers “cool off” when they start receiving negative labels, you more efficiently make use of your resources. This becomes especially important if you have invested in phone number monitoring and caller ID name registration.
Use Personalized, Non-Spammy Pitches
Third-party call blocking and labeling apps rely heavily on user feedback in order to identify potential spammers and scammers. While the FCC and phone carriers rely on these reports to a lesser extent, enough negative consumer feedback can affect how they label you as well.
The solution isn’t just to run an ethical, legal business. You should also avoid practices that can be perceived as similar to those of spam callers. This means that you should avoid using pre-recorded voice messages, vague or too-good-to-be-true sales pitches, aggressive sales tactics, agents with heavy accents, or anything else commonly associated with spam calls.
What Should Caller Support Do?
Behind the callers, their IT and support team can work to make sure that everyone’s life is easier with just a few, simple best practices.
Ensure A-Attestation On All Calls
First, call support can make sure that all of their calls have A-level call attestation by choosing the right dialer. Call attestation is a measure of how much trust and information the call’s carrier has with the caller. Poor call attestation can doom a caller from the beginning, guaranteeing that they will receive a negative label from some carriers. That’s why moving to a quality dialer can immediately improve answer rates for high-volume callers.
The best way to guarantee A-level call attestation is by purchasing your phone numbers through a reliable source. By calling from a number sold by services like BatchDialer, you can give the carrier absolute confidence in your right to use that number–the most important factor in attestation.
Of course, call attestation can be more complicated than that. For example, it’s still important to avoid least-cost routing, the practice of finding the least expensive way to route a call. While the lower costs associated with this technology can be appealing, you ultimately pay for it in the risk that your call attestation may worsen. You should confirm with your dialing service how they make decisions about routing, and what level of attestation you can expect with your calls.
Monitor Phone Numbers
While callers should be focused on making their calls, their support and IT team can help them by monitoring the status of the numbers they’re using. By checking their phone numbers’ reputation with carriers, the teams supporting callers can let them know when to stop using numbers that are flagged for spam.
Accurately monitoring every phone number’s reputation can seem like a daunting task, but that’s why companies like BatchDialer include reputation monitoring among the suite of tools they offer. It’s an important component for any high-volume dialing operation to have this kind of intelligence and insight into their own operations.
Caller ID Name Registration
While it can be a more labor-intensive step, registering your phone numbers with carriers can pay off in significant ways. By completing this registration, you tie your phone numbers to your CNAM, or caller ID name, data to make sure carriers understand who owns the phone number.
Unfortunately, malicious callers may attempt to spoof your phone number in order to make spam or scam calls. CNAM registration can protect you in that scenario by making it easier for you to dispute calls made without your permission. That protects your reputation, prevents you from being mislabeled, and makes sure that carriers know who the true owner of your number is.