We’ve all been there; your phone rings, it’s an unidentified number, and you know just from looking at it that it’s going to be some spam or fraudulent caller on the other end trying to get information from you.
Unfortunately, while giving attention to random phone calls in the past was something that seldom occurred, nowadays, it’s a huge issue. In fact, it’s highly likely that almost everyone will experience a spam call at some point in their lives.
And if we’re being honest, the sheer number of methods marketers and spammers have come up with to spam your phone is astounding. But through them all, one thing remains a common trend – the use of robocalls to handle the talking side of things.
So, if you want to be sure that your business doesn’t get discounted for using such technology, we’re going to explain what robocalls are, why you shouldn’t use them, and how to stop them from affecting your business.
What are robocalls?
In simple terms, a robocall or caller is a piece of software designed to deliver a pre-recorded message via an auto-dialling system to various phone numbers logged in its database.
In other words, and as the name suggests, it’s a robot, one that’s been programmed to repeat a specific recording in order to elicit some form of action on your end. And in the modern day, this is more than likely going to be fraudulent to some degree.
Why should you avoid using robocalls?
Besides the obvious fact that most people will never pick up a mystery number, or follow the instructions laid out by a robocaller if they do, the long and the short of it is that customers despise these sorts of robotic nuisances.
Now, given that you may only get a spam call every few days or weeks, you might not think of this as being that big of an issue. But the sad truth is that the metrics don’t lie. The number of robocalls received worldwide each year is counted in the billions, with 30.5 billion calls made in 2017 alone.
However, that number is only going to double in the coming years, and customers are going to be in no way happy about the increased volume of spam coming their way. And make no mistake, the majority of robocalls are spam.
Why are robocalls considered spam?
Without going into excessive detail, and as we’ve already highlighted, most robocalls are considered spam because they’ve proved to be fraudulent or irrelevant to some degree by the FCT.
Of course, there are legitimate reasons as to why you might want to use an automated service to contact customers, such as for appointment reminders or highlighting offers. However, anything past this and customers are simply going to assume that you’ve nothing to offer them – mainly because you got a robot to do it instead of yourself.
How can using robocalls affect your business
To cut to the chase, when people are inundated with bogus calls, they don’t want to pick up the phone — and that can make it difficult for you to do business, particularly if you’re relying on robocalls to do the heavy lifting while you hire more staff.
But the unfortunate side effect of this is that you’ll wind up doing your business a disservice by using robocalls, crippling customer trust in your service and besmirching your brand name for providing poor customer interactions.
Of course, not everything to do with robocalls is your fault. Phone spoofing is a particularly vicious technique that’s been making the rounds recently which involves spammers masking their numbers so they appear as legitimate businesses.
Thus, without ever realizing it, customers may be associating your brand with spam because scammers have been able to mimic your business credentials.
How to stop robocalls impacting your business
While it’s obviously frustrating that spammers could be using a masked version of your number to contact your customers, the good news is that there are ways to prevent this from happening – though you likely won’t ever be able to get to a point where there are no more robocalls associated with your company.
So, first things first, you can ask your service provider to implement blocking measures around your personal business number. This should help to mitigate the potential for scammers to use a fake version of your number in their schemes.
On top of this, you should also be monitoring for improper use of your numbers so that you can track down and report spam to the relevant authorities. By doing this, you can further highlight problematic numbers to the FCT, who can then attempt to shut them down.
Of course, if you are a business using robocalls, then the best way to minimize their impact is to stop doing so. Stats show that the biggest factor involved in getting someone to devote their time to your call is to interact with a human being.
In fact, based on data provided by Clutch, 21% of surveyed consumers ranked human interaction as the most highly valued quality on a call. In other words, customers expect to be greeted by a high-quality Live Answering Service.
At the end of the day, people want to know who they’re speaking to, and even though automated technology is improving, the robocall onslaught has led to a distrust of automated systems.
Boost customer trust with VoiceNation
So, now you know exactly what robocalls are, and why you shouldn’t be using them. And that leaves only one question – when are you going to reach out to VoiceNation for your live answering needs?
With VoiceNation, you’ll be put in contact with our team of professional and experienced Virtual Receptionists who will be more than happy to handle all your customer call needs. Not only that but doing so will help you save money on hiring and training new staff.
Get in touch today to learn more about what we can offer your business, and don’t forget to ask about our free trial period! Don’t forget to visit the rest of our blog as well for more articles like this one, such as our pieces on the impact of bad customer service and the benefits of call screening.