Phone calls from your contact center are a trusted way to connect with customers, offer support, and share important information. However, the rise of spam calls, robocalls, and caller ID spoofing has caused telecom companies to implement stricter call filtering systems and reputation monitoring for phone numbers. Unfortunately, these measures can sometimes wrongly label legitimate business numbers as spam or scams. When this happens, it can hinder connections with customers, damage your business reputation, and reduce your revenue. Proactive phone number management is now essential to keeping your communication channels effective and trusted by your customers.
The Importance of Phone Number Management
Maintaining the reputation of your phone numbers is essential for effective communication with customers. A poor reputation can result in calls being labeled as Potential Fraud or scam likely caller id, which discourages people from answering and leads to missed opportunities. This disrupts outreach efforts, reduces customer engagement, and makes it harder to connect with prospects or support current clients. Poor reputation can also lower efficiency, since agents end up wasting time on unanswered calls. Actively managing your phone number reputation can ensure your calls are seen as legitimate, which ultimately improves connection rates, boosts customer satisfaction, and enhances engagement. It also protects your business image and builds customer trust within an increasingly cautious telecommunications environment.
How the Reputation of Calling Numbers Are Damaged
The reputation of corporate calling numbers can be compromised or damaged by various factors that lead to calls being flagged as spam or scams by telecom companies.
- High Call Volumes Making a lot of calls, especially to people who don’t pick up, can trigger spam filters. This is because it can look like robocall activity, leading carriers to flag the number as suspicious.
- Customer Complaints If customers report calls as spam or file complaints, your phone number may get flagged. Even a few complaints can make carriers or systems see the number as untrustworthy.
- Caller ID Spoofing Scammers may use a real business’ phone number to make fraudulent calls. This harms the business’ reputation because people associate the number with spam or fraud.
- Vague Caller ID Phone numbers without proper identification, like a business name or recognizable details, can make recipients suspicious. Calls from generic or unknown numbers are more likely to be ignored or reported.
- Unsolicited Calls Calling people who haven’t agreed to receive your calls increases the risk of complaints.
- Calling Invalid Numbers Dialing wrong or outdated numbers, especially ones reassigned to new users, can lead to complaints or spam reports. Too many failed calls can also raise suspicion with carriers.
- Robocall-Like Patterns Short or repeated calls to the same number can look like robocall behavior. Even legitimate calls may be flagged if they follow these patterns.
- Overusing One Number Using a single phone number for a lot of calls can make it seem overused or suspicious. Carriers might flag it as spam as a result.
- Calls During Inappropriate Times Placing calls outside of typical business hours or during inconvenient times may frustrate recipients and lead to complaints. This is especially problematic when callers don’t consider the recipient’s time zone.
- Non-Compliance With Industry Regulations Ignoring laws and guidelines for telecommunication, such as Do Not Call (DNC) lists, can lead to regulatory penalties and reputation harm.
Managing the Reputation of Your Phone Numbers
Effective phone number management involves multiple steps to build and maintain trust with call recipients.
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Authenticate Your Calls Use call authentication technology and protocols like STIR/SHAKEN to verify that your calls are legitimate. Authentication demonstrates to carriers and call analytics systems that your calls are trustworthy, reducing the likelihood of your numbers being flagged. It also prevents spoofing, protecting your number from being misused by scammers.
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Monitor Phone Number Reputation Regularly check the status of your phone numbers using reputation monitoring tools. Detecting issues early, such as flagged numbers or negative feedback, allows you to address problems before they escalate. This proactive approach ensures your numbers remain trusted and effective.
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Provide Accurate Caller ID Information Ensure that your caller ID clearly displays your business name and contact details. A strong and consistent caller ID reputation builds trust with call recipients and increases the likelihood of your calls being answered.
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Follow Responsible Calling Practices Avoid over-calling or contacting customers who have not opted in to receive communications. Limit call frequency and respect time zones to prevent complaints and ensure calls are well-received.
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Maintain Accurate Contact Lists Use up-to-date and accurate customer contact lists to avoid dialing wrong or reassigned numbers.
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Train Your Team on Call Etiquette Educate employees on the importance of professional communication and respecting customer preferences. Proper call etiquette reduces the likelihood of complaints and builds trust during interactions.
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Respond Promptly to Complaints If a customer reports your number as spam or provides negative feedback, address the issue immediately. Proactively resolving concerns helps prevent long-term damage to your reputation.
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Rotate Numbers Strategically For high-volume outbound campaigns, rotate between multiple phone numbers to avoid overusing a single line. This practice prevents individual numbers from appearing suspicious to carriers or analytics systems.
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Use Advanced Technology for Reputation Management Deploy reputation management tools to automate monitoring, gain insights into performance, and recommend actions to improve the reputation of your phone numbers.
SecureLogix: Superior Phone Number Management
Trusted by some of the largest voice networks and contact centers in the world, SecureLogix has pioneered technology for call security, call branding, and call authentication. We’re the only vendor providing a single, unified solution set for the full range of security and trust issues that threaten the enterprise voice network today. With proven, patented technology and the most skilled team in the industry, we protect against contact center fraud, robocalls, vishing scams, voice spam, call spoofing, telephony denial of service attacks (TDoS).
SecureLogix Reputation Defense™ Call Number Management Service
Reputation Defense™ facilitates phone number management by removing fraud and spam labeling attached to your enterprise calling numbers and providing ongoing monitoring to maintain a healthy status. This SecureLogix service collaborates with wireless carriers and analytic vendors to provide a recurring solution that registers, vets, and maintains healthy scores associated with your phone numbers. Unlike other solutions that offer short-term fixes and one-time removal of labels, Reputation Defense™ offers comprehensive and continuous health management of all your outbound calling numbers.
Key Benefits
- Effective Phone Number Management Reputation Defense™ consolidates efforts across all major service providers and analytics vendors.
- Easy Activation Onboard rapidly with number aggregation and registration of all corporate phone numbers.
- Comprehensive Security Reputation Defense™ integrates with outbound call spoofing protection to ensure continuous monitoring and proactive updates.
- Unified Management A consolidated vendor portal simplifies administration, change management, and reputation reporting.
Comprehensive Outbound Call Trust Services
Along with Reputation Defense™, SecureLogix provides a robust portfolio of solutions for enhancing trust and call answer rates. Additional solutions include
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SecureLogix® Contact™ call branding service Increase call answer rates with branded caller ID services that offer a rich call display with your full corporate name, logo, reason for the call, and other trust verifications.
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SecureLogix TrueCall™ Spoofing Protection Service Identify and block spoofed calls attempting to impersonate your brand by using your corporate calling numbers.
FAQ
Q: What is phone number management, and why is it important?
Phone number management involves monitoring, maintaining, and protecting the reputation and performance of business phone numbers. It’s crucial because it ensures your calls are trusted and recognized as legitimate. It also improves answer rates and helps maintain customer relationships and operational efficiency.
Q: Why do business phone numbers get flagged as spam or scams?
Business numbers can be flagged due to high call volumes, customer complaints, inconsistent caller ID information, or behaviors resembling robocalls. Scammers spoofing legitimate business numbers for fraudulent activities can also harm a number’s reputation.
Q: How can businesses check if their phone numbers have been flagged?
Businesses can use monitoring tools provided by carriers or third-party reputation management solutions to check the status of their phone numbers and discover any phone numbers marked as spam. Regular monitoring helps identify issues early and prevents potential disruptions.
Q: How can businesses fix a phone number flagged as spam?
Businesses should contact the carrier or analytics provider to dispute the flag and provide evidence of legitimate call practices. Using reputation management tools and refining calling behaviors can help restore the number’s credibility.
Q: What are the benefits of proactive phone number management?
Proactive phone number management helps maintain a positive reputation, increases call answer rates, protects the business from spoofing, and enhances customer trust.