It doesn’t matter if you have the best information or most urgent alerts for your customers, they won’t pick up the phone if they don’t know it’s your business calling. Conventional caller ID only shows your phone number, and most people avoid picking calls from numbers they don’t know. Branded caller ID takes this a step further and allows you to display your business name, logo, and reason for calling.
For decades, companies have been leveraging phone calls to provide customer service, communicate with providers, and close sales. That said, modern consumers receive an overwhelming number of fraud calls, so if your calls aren’t properly identified then there’s a strong chance that your customers won’t pick up the phone. Enhanced caller ID is a superb feature that can help businesses get better results from their outgoing phone calls. But, you need to know how it works in order to ensure that your details are properly displayed on your customers’ phones.
In this article, we’ll go over the definition of enhanced caller ID and how it works. We’ll also go over the benefits of implementing this feature and giving you tips on choosing the best enhanced caller ID provider.
What Is Enhanced Caller ID?
Regular caller ID was implemented decades ago, but this feature only displayed the phone number making the call. It was designed to help people decide whether they wanted to answer a call or not based on the number calling. With a regular caller ID, if the caller’s details are saved in the receiver’s phone, it displays the name that’s stored on the device instead of the number.
Enhanced caller ID is a type of technology that uses information found on the telephone network to identify the person or organization making a phone call. In other words, enhanced caller ID allows you to label your phone calls and tell your customers that they can trust the person making the call.
Enhanced caller ID relies on a relatively simple premise. When a person receives a call that’s not on his or her contact list, the enhanced caller information feature will attempt to look up the number and matching data in a public repository or carrier database. If a match is found, the enhanced caller ID feature will display the name as well as the phone number of the caller.
Hiya Connect takes enhanced caller ID to a new level by allowing businesses to display their name, logo, and reason for calling.
Features Available Through Enhanced Caller ID
The enhanced caller ID feature can be offered by different companies, so you need to evaluate each provider’s services in order to find the best results. At Hiya, we partner with over 150 million users through carrier networks such as AT&T, Samsung, and the Hiya App to provide caller information from a global network. Hiya’s reach allows you to unlock the full power of the world’s largest network into a caller identification system that appears right on your phone. Hiya’s specialized enhanced caller information features display the name of the caller, the reason for the call, and the business logo if the call is coming from a company for callers from around the world.
Enhanced caller ID helps identify hundreds of billions of calls and text messages every month, but the technology is not standardized. Not all services are the same, but many of these platforms offer similar basic features designed to identify calls and help companies increase answer rates. Most services use known call registries, but at Hiya we use advanced technology to see information the business provides to more accurately identify callers and display them properly.
Some of the features commonly found in enhanced caller ID services include:
Name ID
The first and most important part of enhanced caller ID is that it provides the name of the person or business that’s making the call. This is important because customers won’t recognize a phone number or associate it with one of their providers. At best, customers may notice that the call is coming from their area code, but this doesn’t guarantee they will pick it up.
Through enhanced caller information, you can get the receiver’s phone to show your business name whenever you call a customer or prospect. And, the best part is that this works even if the receiver doesn’t have your contact details saved on his or her phone.
A similar process also works for text messages. When you send any kind of text message, recipients will see that it comes from your business, rather than an unidentified number.
Spam Identification and Unreliable Party ID
Hiya’s 2021 state of the call report highlighted the damage done by spammers in the previous year. Spammers can extract personal information to create fraud down the road, or just convince consumers to divulge money right then. In 2020, 75% of phone users said they had been knowingly targeted by phone spammers with 38% reported losing money to said spammers.The average amount lost by victims of spam in 2020 was $182.
The good news is that many enhanced caller ID providers leverage top-notch spam identification technology to label calls that come from unreliable sources. This allows consumers to make better decisions as to which calls to answer and who they should provide information to. Depending on the enhanced caller information provider, you can choose to simply unveil the real caller’s number or show a notification that clearly labels the call as malicious. Since your business is identified to customers, enhanced caller information reduces the chances of your number being flagged as spam. Hiya Connect also allows you to manage your reputation and identify any numbers that are receiving negative labels.
Business ID and Call Branding
Consumers love branded content, so it’s safe to assume that they also like to see something that identifies a company whenever they’re interacting with its employees. The most impactful feature of enhanced caller ID may be the ability to include business ID and brand a call using logos, at least from a business point of view.
Unfortunately, not all phones have the software to be able to display a logo at the time of call, though it is beneficial for those that can. Further, simply including your logo and name on phone calls won’t earn you a good reputation overnight. That said, identifying your business will definitely boost answer rates right away, which can improve your chances of closing sales, generating more profits, and becoming a leader in your industry.
Display Reason for Calling
Although enhanced caller ID empowers consumers to decide when they want to answer the phone, it also allows businesses to provide a reason for their call directly on the receiver’s phone. So, in addition to seeing who is calling, enhanced caller information also informs people why they are being contacted, which can help businesses provide better customer service.
In these cases, callers have to provide a reason for the call before it’s placed and this data is delivered to users while the phone is ringing. As a general rule of thumb, make sure to always be transparent about your calling reason or your audience will stop picking up your calls altogether!
Business-First Services
While customer-centric, enhanced caller ID is a business-first service that creates a positive experience for a company’s audience while improving back and forth communication. At Hiya, our team works restlessly to develop superior features that result in a better experience and more satisfied customers.
In addition to fine-tuning our feature list, we also ensure that our leading enhanced caller ID features are powerful enough to support businesses of all sizes and industries. That said, we also understand the importance of creating a better experience and keeping up with the latest trends, so we go the extra mile to keep customers happy and engaged at all times.
The Benefits of Enhanced Caller ID
Enhanced caller ID is a great tool that can help you build a better reputation for your business while improving the performance of your internal departments.
Keeping open communication lines with your clients is the only way to gauge their satisfaction levels and figure out what additional services they may need. There are many different communication channels you have to focus on, but phone calls are still among the main types of interactions used by salespeople and customer service representatives.
Therefore, implementing enhanced caller information can have a positive effect on different parts of your business. Some of the main benefits of implementing enhanced caller ID include:
- Higher answer rates
- Improved customer experience
- A trustworthy image
- More engaging interactions
- Customer and employee safety
- Lower volume of customer support requests
- Reduced instances of fraud
- Increased referrals
How to Get the Best Enhanced Caller ID Service
Choosing the best enhanced caller ID provider isn’t easy, especially if you rely heavily on phone calls to interact with customers. There are many providers to choose from, but you need to compare different elements in order to find the best fit. To make the best decision, take your time to evaluate providers side-by-side and look at elements like:
- Ease of implementation and use
- Carrier and global coverage and reach
- Ease and control over personal branding decisions
- Software that goes beyond just a caller registry service
- Network size
- Feature list
- Customer support
- Pricing
Need to Find the Best Enhanced Caller ID Provider? Contact Hiya Today
Enhanced caller ID is a superb feature that can completely change the way your team approached telephone interactions with your customers. That said, you need to take the time and find the right service that comes from a reliable provider.
Hiya Connect Branded Call has powerful enhanced caller ID features, including all of the ones listed in this article and many more. If you want to truly improve voice channel performance, learn more by reading our Beyond Caller ID eBook.
