Branded Calling Rebuilds Voice Calling Trust

Robocalls are an everyday pest for the majority of Americans. In June, more than 4.3 billion robocalls were placed, according to YouMail’s Robocall Index. The high volume of robocalls is affecting consumers’ trust in voice calling, damaging the chances of businesses engaging with customers.

A Transaction Network Services survey revealed that three-quarters of Americans do not answer calls on their wireless phones if they do not recognize the number. That’s hardly surprising, given the combination of annoyance and risk with unknown callers, and it’s driving demand for branded calling. In fact, 78% of people are more willing to answer if the caller ID displayed the logo and brand name.

“Low call answer rates are wreaking havoc on the customer experience and businesses’ bottom lines,” said Bill Versen, president, communications market at TNS. “While progress is being made to reduce the nearly 79 billion robocalls Americans received last year, our survey shows that enterprises must get more proactive to restore trust in voice calling, and that starts with branded calling.”

Branded calling verifies calls and prevents spoofing, controls spam labeling and increases answer rates, increases agent effectiveness, raises customer engagement, delivers brand information and creates a branded moment before and after a call.

Consumers’ trust and willingness to answer branded calls are highest for health care providers and banks.

• 79% of consumers would answer a branded call from their healthcare provider if the brand logo/name was displayed on the incoming call screen.
• 76% would answer a branded call from their bank if the brand logo/name was displayed on the incoming call screen.
• 60% of consumers would answer a branded call from a hospitality/travel provider if the brand logo/name was displayed on the incoming call screen.

For brands seeking to improve call answer rates and bolster the efficiency of calling campaigns, consumers are more likely to engage during traditional business hours.

• 64% of consumers are more likely to answer a branded call that arrives during normal business hours than calls that arrive outside of business hours.
• 57% of consumers trust calls from brands that come in during normal business hours more than calls that arrive outside of business hours.
• 54% of consumers trust branded calls that come in during the work week more than those that arrive during the weekend.

“Branded calling helps restore trust in voice calling by vetting enterprises’ calling practices and registering their telephone numbers to ensure only trusted businesses are able to provide more call information on an incoming screen,” Versen said. “The additional information provides better customer interaction, engagement and outcomes for the legitimate enterprises.

While not everyone may answer calls, even if they are branded, increased branded calling can still help differentiate between legitimate business calls and unwanted robocalls – and improve the perception of inbound calling from legitimate businesses.

Edited by Erik Linask