It’s frustrating for businesses when they call customers or prospects and their phone numbers are labeled as spam or nuisance. When this happens, it's important to take a step back and understand why calls get labeled as spam or nuisance in the first place.
So, why does spam and nuisance labeling happen and what steps can you take to support a healthy call reputation for your business? To answer, we’ll dive into some of the frequently asked questions we get about this topic.
What is spam and nuisance labeling?
When consumers receive a call, sometimes there will be warning labels displayed on their caller ID. This alerts call recipients that the call seems suspicious and they should treat it with caution. Depending on their mobile carrier and aspects of the call itself, the call might be labeled as “fraud,” “spam,” “suspected spam,” “likely spam,” “suspected scam,” “likely nuisance,” or other warning labels.
Why does spam and nuisance labeling happen?
Spam is a global problem. Hiya’s Global Call Threat Report, which spotlights spam data from more than 40 countries worldwide, reveals that the average spam rate is 25%. That means that one of every four incoming calls from someone not in an individual’s contact list is unwanted. Unwanted calls can include nuisance calls — bothersome calls that are not illegal — as well as scam/fraud calls that are intended to steal money or personal information.
All of these unwanted calls add up to time, productivity, and money lost — whether the calls are illegal or not. In Hiya’s State of the Call 2024 report, victims of phone scams reported losing an average of $2,257, up significantly from $360 the previous year. But the losses go beyond that. On average, consumers reported spending 9 minutes each week — or more than 7.6 hours per year — screening unwanted calls. That’s a lot of lost productivity, and an impact that can’t be ignored.
Carriers must protect consumers from the threat posed by unwanted calls, both nuisance and fraud. To address the problem, carriers are implementing technology known as “spam analytics” to identify and label unwanted and suspicious phone calls. As the spam and fraud problem grows, regulators are responding and more and more carriers worldwide are starting to add these protections.
How does spam and nuisance labeling work?
Spam analytics technology varies by carrier and generally uses data modeling and AI to detect calls that look suspicious.
This means they go beyond simply blocking calls from numbers that make spam and fraud calls. Scammers are sophisticated and constantly adapt new tactics, and to be effective, any technology used to protect consumers must be similarly sophisticated. Static lists of rules or phone numbers are not enough to protect consumers. Unwanted calls will still get through.
Instead, an effective system needs to look at a variety of factors together to determine the unique risk to a consumer of each individual call and continually adapt to new threats.
What is business phone number registration and what does it do?
Registering your business phone numbers establishes you as a legitimate caller to carriers that deliver your calls. If carriers don’t know anything about the business making a phone call, they must treat that call with greater caution — after all, there is less information known. But a business that has registered their numbers has proactively raised their hand to be vetted and verified as legitimate. This lets carriers know they can be treated with a higher overall level of trust. While this doesn’t mean you’ll never be marked as spam, registering your business numbers is an important step to support a healthy call reputation.
The process of registering your business numbers involves submitting business information and phone numbers and undergoing a vetting process. It may take up to a few days to see the impact of business registration go into effect.
Does registration change the caller name displayed on outbound calls?
Registration has no effect on the caller name displayed on outbound calls. If you'd like to add business caller ID or see what your calls look like, you can contact us.
Why do legitimate businesses get labeled as spam or nuisance?
Just because a legitimate business makes a call, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a wanted call. Ultimately, it’s the consumer who decides if a call is wanted. Consumers have the ability to block and report calls, and can also indicate their interest in a call by how they engage with it (for example, by not answering in the first place). Carriers are responsible for creating a positive experience for their customers — one where they can trust the calls they receive are both legitimate and wanted — so consumer engagement is important.
A business that is legitimate can still be flagged as spam or nuisance if their calls aren’t wanted by the consumers they’re reaching. That’s why it’s crucial to ensure that your calls are also customer-friendly. What does that mean? Customer-friendly calls are those that respect consumer preferences and laws, as detailed in Hiya’s free guide: 10 Tips for Customer-Friendly Phone Calls.
Engagement with your calls matters, and investing in creating a positive, engaging consumer experience is well worth it.
What is a “customer-friendly” phone call and why does it matter to my reputation?
A customer-friendly call is a call that respects consumer preferences and laws.
As dialing guidelines vary by country, state, or even local region, be sure to always stay up to date on the latest laws and regulations where you are dialing and respect any call recipient's request if they ask you not to call.
What do I need to do to support a healthy call reputation?
For businesses who want to support a healthy call reputation, we recommend:
- Registering your business numbers.
- Following customer-friendly calling practices.
These are two important steps that support a healthy call reputation, and are strongest when used together.
This is not unlike existing practices for managing reputation on other channels, like email. After all, the same email may be spam for one person and a wanted email for others. It’s the same for phone calls.
When companies email their customers, they need to follow best practices to make it less likely their emails will wind up in the spam folder. This includes not only registering their sending domain, but optimizing their emails for high engagement and sending to recipients who have opted in to email marketing. Many of the core principles of email reputation management are similar to call reputation management.
If I’m calling someone who filled out a form on my site, I shouldn’t be labeled as spam, right?
Calls should always respect customer preferences and must comply with all local and regional rules and regulations around consumer communication and consent that are applicable to you such as the TCPA and GDPR. Just because someone filled out a form on your website doesn’t mean it’s their preference to be contacted multiple times. Pay attention to the engagement signals you get from people you contact. If they aren’t engaging with you, that’s a good sign they prefer not to be contacted. Read our guide for more details: 10 Tips for Customer-Friendly Phone Calls.
Is rotating phone numbers a good practice to manage my caller reputation?
We highly recommend not rotating phone numbers. Registering your numbers establishes you as a legitimate business to carriers and builds your calling history. Building a calling history helps tell carriers you’re trustworthy. Just because a number has been labeled as spam in the past doesn’t mean it will be in the future. Your reputation builds over time and can improve — it’s like a credit score. Rotating phone numbers can have the opposite effect of making you look less trustworthy to carriers and more like a spammer.
Do I need to register multiple times or renew my registration on a regular basis?
No. Once your number is registered to your business, it remains registered to your business — unless you choose to change that. It’s that simple. A solution like Hiya Registration can give you visibility and control over the registration process if you want that extra peace of mind. With Hiya Registration, you can:
- Register numbers to your business
- Remove numbers that are registered to your business
- Confirm your numbers are registered
Should I ever have to pay to receive the benefits of registration?
No. It is your right to establish yourself as a legitimate business to the carriers that deliver your calls (see the Hiya Customer Bill of Rights to learn more about our stance on this). This is why Hiya provides registration completely free.
