Customer loyalty is fleeting as consumers are pulled in a million different directions by a million different brands. It can take a split second, one mishap to lose a customer, and pesky spoofed calls are making it harder for businesses to maintain their trustworthy image. When a bad actor spoofs a call, imitating a legitimate business, they’re often looking to defraud the consumer out of valuable personal information or money. These illegal scam attempts are impacting businesses’ reputations. Some 90% of consumers have said they expect a business to take the necessary steps to protect consumers by ensuring their phone calls are not being spoofed by scammers. As scam calls continue to erode trust in the phone call, businesses can restore trust in this channel by adopting branded calling and spoof protection technologies that enhance operational excellence and elevate the customer experience.
Answer rates are declining
U.S. mobile subscribers received over 100 billion scam calls in just the first six months of 2022 alone, so it's not shocking that Americans now answer less than half of the phone calls they receive. Businesses are seeing this impact as it is becoming harder to connect with consumers for efficient communications on things like appointment confirmations, delivery updates, banking matters, etc. With spoofers and scammers on the prowl, data from the FTC shows that consumers reported losing nearly $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022, an increase of more than 30% over 2021. Scammers are actively leveraging the phone channel to commit this fraud, leading to the highest reported losses at an average of $1,400 per person. Financial losses due to scam calls are expected to continue to mount with Juniper Research forecasting fraudulent robocalls will cost mobile subscribers a record $58 billion this year.
Recognizing the enormous problem, the federal government is stepping up efforts to help protect consumers from the onslaught of fraudulent calls. In August 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed a record fine of nearly $300 million on an international network of companies for making more than five billion robocalls to more than 500 million phone numbers during a three-month span in 2021.
While government organizations are cracking down on scam calls, the sheer volume, frequency and threat of these nuisance calls continues to trigger call avoidance behavior in consumers. Lack of transparency and context for incoming calls has conditioned consumers not to answer calls from unknown numbers. Research shows that 87% of customers rarely or never answer calls from numbers they don’t recognize.
This absence of consumer trust in the phone renders the phone channel inefficient – a real problem for legitimate businesses trying to connect with their customers.
Technology is restoring trust in the phone call
Even as the threat of fraudulent calls continues to condition consumers to ignore calls from numbers they don’t recognize, voice is still a preferred communication channel. To help rebuild trust in the phone channel, technology available today is playing a pivotal role in protecting consumers, amplifying the customer experience and increasing operational efficiency for businesses.
Mobile is working to protect consumers from illegal spoofed calls. According to T-Mobile, the technology it uses to label fraudulent calls as “scam likely” identified and thwarted more than 40 billion scam calls in 2022. This effort instills trust in mobile users and gives them more information about which calls to ignore and which ones to answer.
Branded calling is another technology available today that is protecting consumers from spoofed calls and safeguarding the reputation of businesses by preventing bad actors from stealing businesses numbers and impersonating them.
Branded calling is a powerful tool that helps companies restore trust in voice calls by delivering brand information content on incoming call screens so consumers can identify who is calling and why. This gives businesses the ability to customize unique mobile displays for phone numbers and departments or use cases. It can include the company name, department, reason for calling and even a logo. Furthermore, if a call is missed, the display name is available in the call log afterward – generating engagement beyond the original call. Powerful new spoof mitigation solutions complement branding calls to reduce chances of fraud and protect brand reputation.
With branded calling technology, businesses can dynamically change the display on a per call basis. For example, a bank could place a call from the same phone number to multiple customers at the same time using different displays. One display could show the bank’s account department calling and another display could show the call coming from the bank’s fraudulent activity department.
Content-rich and branded solutions were developed to help companies increase engagement, deliver superior customer experiences, and protect brand reputation. When consumers know that the call they are receiving can be answered without the fear of being scammed or phished, trust and loyalty in the brand increases and experience is enhanced. When those trusted calls are answered, operational efficiency skyrockets for businesses.
When a business is unable to reach customers by phone – appearing as a missed, unidentified caller – this creates a negative perception of the brand. So much so that 64% of people said they would consider switching brands for a business that properly identifies themselves on incoming calls.
Branded calling technology is becoming a critical business enabler in an environment where scammers, spammers, and other nuisance callers are hurting the phone experience.
With branded calling, companies can now take back the phone channel from bad actors. This technology is being strategically adopted nationwide by thousands of businesses, including many Fortune 500 companies, helping them connect with the right person at the right time to enhance customer experience and brand reputation.
Trust takes a long time to build and a few seconds to lose. Scammers are making it nearly impossible for companies to meaningfully connect with their customers and clients.
That’s where innovative technologies like branded calling come into play. It allows businesses to establish the trusted, human connection that their customers unquestionably want, which in turn leads to better customer experiences, enhanced operational efficiency, higher call answer and conversion rates, and increased revenue.
