How to Protect Your Identity and Improve Answer Rates

You’ve heard it before — who actually uses their phone for calls? It may come as a surprise to learn that more than half of C-level buyers (57 percent) prefer to be contacted over the phone. Eight-two percent of buyers accept meetings with sellers who proactively reach out. Indeed, organizations that don’t attempt cold calls experience 42 percent less growth than those that do. Of course, it’s not simply a matter of spinning up a call center and launching a myriad of outbound call campaigns.

In this article, we cover:

• The continued value of the voice channel in business communications.
• What causes consumers not to answer their phones.
• How to protect enterprise identify and brand reputation.

On the other side of the coin, there is fierce consumer skepticism of who or what awaits them on the other end of a ringing phone. Eight in 10 Americans don’t answer their phone when an unknown number calls. Considering they’re inundated with 4 billions robocalls per month, or 12 calls per person per month, it’s a wonder they pick up at all. Fifty-six percent (or 2.3 billion) of those calls were classified as either scams or spam, meaning that one of every two robocalls received were unwanted. Even callers that can be identified but aren’t a friend, family member, or work associate are going to be treated with great skepticism.

Phone-based Opportunities Still To Be Had 

In other words, there are still great business opportunities to be mined over the phone, but the scourge of unwanted robocalls threatens the viability of the voice channel.

Again, callers that can be identified and trusted get through — friends, family, close associates, and brands whose reputation is sterling. Though an enterprise may follow every best practice to gain the trust of customers and prospects, the well may already be poisoned from the outside. Specifically, brand imposter campaigns perpetrated by bad actors could sully the effectiveness of an otherwise well-devised call campaign from an otherwise trusted brand.

Take for example the case where brand imposters posed as Elon Musk, billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX. Over the course of six months, they were able to extract $2 million from their victims under the guise of investing in Musk’s next big moneymaking venture. From October 2020 through March 2021 in fact, nearly 7,000 people lost $80 million as part of various scams targeting investors of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The medium loss was $1,900. It’s no wonder so many consumers are hesitant to pick up the phone. Now imagine how cynical they might be the next time someone from Tesla comes calling.

Preventing Brand Identity Theft And Spoofed Calls

Enterprise identity and brand reputation protection is the answer to deflecting brand identity attacks, and in turn improving call answer rates. Brand reputation services protect enterprises from the adverse effects of unwanted robocalls by smoking out unauthorized brand name usage over voice channels. By detecting and eliminating imposter traffic, the brand is preserved, the company’s reputation is secured, and customer relationships fortified.

Enterprises seeking out brand identity theft protection should seek zero-hour identification of unwanted robocalls. This is where explicit unauthorized brand name mentions in vishing (voice phishing) scams are monitored. When potential trademark infringement or inappropriate brand mentions are made, the enterprise is notified of the incidents and the call volume of these fraudulent campaigns.

A strong mitigation strategy includes Know Your Customer Behavior analytics, attestation, and artificial intelligence to accurately identify unwanted robocalls. At the attestation level, the FCC’s STIR/SHAKEN protocol authenticates and verifies phone calls passing through transit network providers to the terminating network. An analytics engine adds additional context to the attestation protocols to enhance decision-making.

Every time bad actors perpetrate brand identity theft, it comes back as a ding in the armor of the legitimate enterprise. Deploying brand protection management, including web scanning tools, reputation management tools, and perhaps most importantly, phishing/vishing tools, reduces the risk of bad press and an avalanche effect of lost customers. Not to mention, by outsourcing brand protection, internal IT resources are saved.

If you’re in need of enterprise identity management, YouMail Protective Services offers unmatched data for the ultimate in brand monitoring and defense. That’s why top enterprises service providers and brands like Marriott Bonvoy, Avira, and Mutare trust YouMail Protective Services. If you’re tired of hitting dead ends in your outreach, don’t wait another second. Schedule a demo today to see how YouMail Protective Services can help uncover threats to your brand identity.