10 Ways to Manage Your Caller ID Reputation
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Are your connect rates plummeting? Are your reps making 100+ calls per day, but no-body’s picking up? The reason could be that you have a bad caller ID reputation.
Simply put, your caller ID reputation determines if your call will show up as “spam likely” to your prospects or not.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) aims to protect people from robocalls and spoofing calls, by requiring that phone carriers implement the STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication framework.
In other words, phone carriers monitor all incoming calls to make sure that their caller ID is authentic and not falsified. Your overall calling behavior, such as your calling patterns and your pick-up rates, will affect how carriers see your number. If you call the same numbers over and over again, without getting any pick-ups, you will probably be marked as spam.
This can have huge negative effects on the success of your sales team. But if you avoid certain no-no’s, such as overusing the same numbers, and you make sure to implement all the best practices, such as registering your phone number, you will be able to maintain a healthy caller ID reputation.
Why is a Healthy Caller ID Reputation Important?
With so many spoof calls and robocalls circulating, and with so many people getting scammed over the phone, people have lost their trust when it comes to unknown phone numbers. The likelihood of a prospect picking up a call from an unknown phone number is already very low, not to mention if the number is labeled as spam.
All of us have received those calls at some point. Imagine receiving a call from a number you don’t recognize. You probably don’t want to answer it, especially if you’re not expecting any calls.
No matter how many dials your reps make in a day, if your number looks sketchy to the prospects, you’re not going to get any results. Not taking care of your caller ID health will likely result in your calls showing up as “spam likely” to prospects.
This will ultimately lead to fewer connections made, and therefore to fewer conversations and meetings booked. Without getting those connections, you won’t be able to build that pipeline and drive revenue.
Many companies have started to understand how important email deliverability is when they create email campaigns, but many don’t know that the same applies for the sales calls we make.
Caller ID Reputation Management No-No’s
Do you suspect that your caller ID reputation is suffering? There are certain things that can have huge negative effects on your reputation and you should ensure that you are not doing them.
1) Calling prospective customers during inappropriate times. Ask yourself, when are your reps doing call blocks? Are they sticking to the regular business hours, or are they calling super early in the morning, late at night, or during weekends? Calling prospects during improper times could lead to your number getting blocked or marked as spam.
2) Overusing the same number. Cell carriers can track your phone number’s behavior and if they notice that you have called over a hundred times with the same number, they will likely flag it, causing it to show up as “spam likely” on your customer’s phone screen.
It works the same way with email campaigns. Your email domain will find it suspicious if you send multiple emails in a day, and especially so if you don’t get any answers.
3) Calling someone who is on the national Do Not Call list. The Do Not Call registry was designed to protect people from unwanted telemarketing calls. Violating the rules of this list could lead to financial penalties set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Sign up through this link to have access to the list.
4) Branding your phone numbers. Most people do not pick up calls from unknown numbers. This is usually where branded caller IDs come in. You have the ability to control the display on the receiver’s phone, by instead of showing just the number, showing also your company’s name. This and CNAM (Caller NAMe) ID registration are often used to increase trust between you and your customers when calling them, which also increases your pick-up rates.
However, this might not be the case with cold calling. When a prospective customer sees a company name displayed on their phone screen, they will probably recognize that it is going to be a sales call, making them more hesitant to answer.
Also, CNAM ID registration can be very inconsistent, because different cell carriers use different CNAM databases to get their information from. So when you are calling different contacts, your company name might display for some of them, and it might not display for others.
5) Misusing multi-line dialers and parallel dialers. Multi-line dialers and parallel dialers can be faster and they might produce more conversations than a dialer that calls one contact after the other. They might seem like an ideal solution to get more connections per hour, but they can really hurt your caller ID reputation in the long-run, if misused.
The way they work is that they call multiple numbers at the same time. When someone eventually picks up the call, all the other calls are dropped and the agent is connected to the prospect.
The problem is, firstly, that there is often a small delay between the customer picking up the call and the agent responding, making it more likely that the receiver will either hang up the phone, or have a negative impression of the call.
The other issue is that, although you are getting many connections, all the other calls are being dropped. This can seem suspicious to all the cell carriers and your number might get flagged sooner.
Many parallel dialers do have systems and solutions for taking care of your caller ID reputation, so it is better to opt for those dialers to avoid any issues.
10 Best Practices for Caller ID Management
If you are already avoiding all the no-no’s, you can further optimize your caller ID health by implementing the following actions:
1) Call your prospects during business hours. Try to notice when people are more likely to pick up a call and make sure to always call during appropriate hours. By using business hours for dialing, you can avoid bothering and inconveniencing people.
2) Use multiple numbers and rotate them. How big is your outbound campaign? How many dials are your reps placing each day? If the answer is over 50, you should use more than one phone number to avoid overusing them.
Use multiple phone numbers for each campaign to avoid getting flagged as spam. But when you get new numbers, be careful so that you don’t get recycled ones. Some vendors sell used phone numbers from other companies that might already have a bad reputation.
In addition to getting multiple numbers, make sure to rotate them so that no number gets used too many times per day. Some tools, such as Trellus can do this automatically for you.
3) Manage your inbound and outbound call ratio. Phone numbers that have more outbound calls compared to inbound calls will likely get flagged by cell carriers. When you keep the ratio equal, your number will seem more reputable and less sketchy.
You can manage this by using numbers that accept inbound calls and by making sure that any outside calls are being picked up.
4) Register your phone numbers. By registering your phone numbers to your business, cell carriers can recognize that incoming calls from you are legitimate and not spoofing calls. This can help boost your caller ID reputation by a lot, because you will seem more trustworthy. A free tool that you can use to register your numbers is First Orion.
5) Switch to a power dialer. Power dialers call one number from your prospect list after another, instead of calling multiple numbers simultaneously and dropping 3-4 calls when one picks up. This method of dialing is a lot better for your reputation, because there are no delays in the beginning of a conversation and you are doing less outbound calls per hour.
A great power dialer software tool is PhoneBurner. PhoneBurner’s dialer not only lets you control your caller ID display, but it also manages your reputation for you, making sure that you’re not using flagged numbers.
6) Comply with the FCC regulations. FCC has given phone carriers the right to monitor phone number behavior to determine if it is a legitimate, or a harmful call. To avoid getting labeled as spam, you should try to comply with FCC’s rules as well as possible.
For example, always use a valid number, make sure that your provider follows the STIR/SHAKEN regulations, and use real local number pools in case you wish to do local presence dialing.
Just remember to regularly check for updates and changes in the compliance regulations. It’s important to make sure that you are always up to date and that you are always following all the rules to avoid harming your reputation.
7) Monitor the health of your phone numbers. Keep track of all the phone numbers you are using and how they are performing. If some numbers are getting less pick-ups than others, you might want to check if they have gone bad.
If some of your numbers show up as spam, you want to stop using them as soon as possible. You might be able to use the same numbers again after a while, but it might take some time for them to get restored.
8) Use a tool to track your phone number health for you. If you already have a great dialer but it doesn’t manage your reputation, you should plug it in with a tool like Arbeit Software.
Tools like Arbeit Software monitor if any of your numbers have gone bad, and if so, it automatically files a petition for caller ID remediation. If your number is still flagged, then the software will remove that number from your list so that you can add a new, clean number.
9) Keep track of your list of contacts and your CRM. Make sure to update your contact list consistently. Remove any contacts that might not exist anymore, that have asked not to be called again, or that might not work. This way you can steer clear of frustrating prospective customers that do not want to be contacted, and you can avoid making multiple unnecessary calls.
10) Train your reps to have good cold calling etiquette. You want to minimize any chances that prospects will either report you as spam, or block you. Being polite on the phone can go a long way in avoiding frustrating your prospects.
Also, giving a reason for the call early on is an important step to make to build trust between you and your clients. And most importantly, make sure that your reps listen to the customer’s needs. If they wish to be removed from your list, then that should be respected.
Tools for Caller ID Reputation Management
PhoneBurner: If you’re looking for a cloud-based power dialer, PhoneBurner might be for you. This power dialer is great for reputation management, because not only does it offer a built-in CRM which makes it super easy for you to manage your contact lists, but it also manages your number health for you.
PhoneBurner has zero connection delays when calling a prospect, it allows you to control your call display on your prospect’s phone screen, it has real-time spam monitoring for your phone numbers, it will register your phone numbers directly with the carriers to boost number health, and last but not least, it is the only dialer with a Tier 1 carrier, which dramatically reduces the risk of getting flagged.
Arbeit Software: This tool has multiple solutions, such as VoIP Phone systems and cloud-based dialer solutions, but their NumberLab product is specifically made for your reputation management.
Arbeit Software keeps track of the health of your numbers and lets you know if they are being flagged. They also remediate and remove any flagged numbers by registering you as a legitimate business with the call labeling providers. If you are already using a SEP, such as Salesloft or Outreach, Arbeit Software’s Numberlab solution is a great add on to ensure that you have a good caller ID reputation.
Number Verifier: Number Verifier offers an easy and affordable solution on top of your dialer. It helps you keep track of your phone health, as it takes care of your reputation management for you. Also, they have a great feature that identifies any reassigned contacts that might not have given permission to be contacted.
Free Caller Registry: This tool, created by First Orion, Hiya, and Transaction Network Services, allows you to register all your phone numbers easily and for free.
Trellus: This auto dialer integrates seamlessly and affordably with your SEP. Users of Trellus get to do single-line dialing without losing any possible connections, their numbers are being rotated automatically for them, and it provides real-time AI generated coaching to ensure best sales etiquette.
Conclusion
Managing your caller ID reputation is super important for your outbound campaign’s success. By doing so, your prospects will trust incoming calls from you more, and so, you will have higher connection rates. You can take important steps to optimize the chances of having a great reputation, by avoiding some big no-no’s and following best practices.
Just make sure to listen to your customers and respect their requests not to be contacted again, do not call them during inappropriate days and times, track your number health and don’t overuse them by rotating them regularly, balance your inbound and outbound calling ratios, and follow the rules and regulations set by FCC.
Also, you should use different tools to help manage your reputation. For example, use a power dialer, rotate and register your company’s numbers, and connect your dialer with a reputation management tool to track the quality and health of your caller ID.
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