Accurate presentation of your caller line ID (CLI) is essential for all calls. This is irrespective of whether calls are coming directly into or going directly out of your contact center, or if your agents are contacting customers across international networks. In today’s post, we’ll talk about why CLI is so essential, and explore what happens when things go wrong. For example, what if your customer calls you, but there is no callback number available? Or if your CLI incorrectly presents itself when you try to call them?
Learn how Cyara can help you increase pick-up rates by providing visual validation of how your CLI is presented.
What is CLI?
CLI, also known as Caller ID, provides the recipient of a call with the number of the calling party. Businesses often use it to identify the caller or the geographic location from which a call originated. For this reason alone, CLI is a highly powerful tool for making customer calls. It adds branding value to your business even before the caller connects with an agent.
It also means that when the car insurance salesperson rings you for the tenth time with an “even better offer” than before, you know who is calling. This allows you to stealthily ignore the call or brace yourself for the incoming sales pitch.
The Role CLI Plays for Inbound Calls
When a customer calls, contact centers use that customer’s CLI to identify the best routing option for that specific call. To achieve this, contact centers match the phone number information to preexisting customer relationship management (CRM) data. After retrieving this information, contact centers can use the relevant information to more appropriately deliver the call. You might recall a time when you’ve called a business and heard something like, “Hello [name]. I see you recently purchased a [product name]. Would you like to…” followed by a list of common account activities with which callers typically want help? This means that in the background, CLI is “sorting” the contact centers call.
While an agent converses with the customer, computer-telephony integration (CTI) uses CLI to provide additional information about the customer and their previous product or service interactions. This allows for a much more personalized customer experience. And if a customer is calling from a new originating number, the system captures their caller ID and adds it to your CRM. This enables your agents to deliver a more personalized experience the next time they call.
The Role CLI Plays for Outbound Calls
If your agents utilize outbound calling, CLIs are of even greater importance. Agents may be contacting your customers following a callback request (also known as automatic callback or virtual queuing), or to remind them of an important appointment. They may also be engaging in revenue-generating outbound sales tactics. Regardless of their purpose for reaching out to customers, success hinges on their ability to have the call answered at the other end.
Thus, the recipient must view the number calling as a “trusted caller.” Worryingly, recent research has shown that in the final three months of 2023, 7.3 billion spam calls were made. This is over 81 million unwanted calls every day. In response to this rise, governing bodies and organizations are increasing their efforts to stop robocalls and fraudulent individuals from reaching consumers. Filtering and blocking applications are now becoming increasingly popular. And while this is great for preventing spam calls and fraudulent activities, it also negatively impacts many legitimate outbound calling efforts.
These filtering and blocking tools might hinder your agents from achieving their key business and performance goals. They could also negatively impact the experience of your customers. For example, a customer may be waiting for an important call that he or she never receives because it was incorrectly interpreted by a filter and automatically blocked or presented as spam, causing the customer to ignore that call.
Thankfully, you now have the ability to test and validate whether or not your trustworthy business calls are being marked as spam. Cyara has a solution that enables you to see and understand exactly how your numbers and business name are showing up on your customers’ mobile devices through carrier networks around the world. Cyara Number Trust, a CLI testing and monitoring solution, gives you this visibility. It equips your telecoms and IT teams with the necessary information that will help them ensure your calls can reach customers accurately. This is imperative to protect your trustworthy, service-oriented, and customer-centric brand reputation.
The Benefits of CLI Testing
Number Trust enables you to validate that your outbound numbers and callback functionality can effectively reach your customers across the world. Additionally, it:
- Provides a more accurate understanding of your numbers: You can conveniently and easily verify the presentation of your global numbers on-demand.
- Increases pick-up rates: Verifying accurate number display significantly boosts the likelihood of customers answering your company’s calls.
- Supports revenue and service goals: Customers answering more calls enables your agents to better achieve their revenue and service targets.
- Improves phone line management: It helps to ensure that you’re not being charged for global toll-free numbers that are being blocked.
- Reduces reputational and compliance risks: Through testing, you can better address any compliance or authentication issues for your numbers. This, in turn, helps you avoid any negative impacts of your brand being associated with spam calls.
- Presents true evidence: Not only does Number Trust provide you with the data you need to rectify any issues, it also provides screenshots. These show exactly how your CLI and caller name (CNAM) are appearing at the customer end.
- Generates real time reports: The solution collects, analyzes, and automatically reports all test results to your team immediately. This means that any issues can be rectified much more quickly and efficiently.
Number Trust is an innovative, end-to-end testing solution that leverages Cyara’s unparalleled ability to test worldwide mobile networks. To learn more about this industry-first solution, see our product page or contact our team today.
