Tips on How to Make Your Business Caller ID Irresistible for Customers

With the obscene amount of spammers, scammers, and all sorts of ill-natured callers out there today, it is no wonder people are increasingly more reluctant to answer the phone when they cannot quickly and reliably identify the caller. You must have done that yourself a hundred times, and you will not be surprised to find out that some of your customers are doing it to calls coming from your business. Why? Because your business caller ID is not what it should be.

This post will tell you all about how to improve and customize your business caller ID and make it into something that will immediately show the person on the other end of the line that you are a professional and respectable company with a legitimate reason for calling.

Assess the Scope of Future Work

Before getting started, you have to know what you’re dealing with here. Any caller ID includes two crucial elements – the name and the number.

• Caller ID Name is the name of your business, which can comprise of as many as 15 characters. Experts suggest using shorter names that occupy less space than provided since this is how you can make sure your company title is displayed accurately across various devices.

• Caller ID Number should ideally have ten digits – local area code included – and show your customers where the call is coming from. Being able to contextualize your company’s phone number, name, and specific location helps instill confidence in customers and results in a higher rate of answered calls.

You do not have too many options when you seek to improve your phone number: avoid using toll-free 1-800 phone numbers and those restricted for outbound calling. Stick to the local area number or the number that appears local (if you are using a virtual PBX solution that offers such a service). There is much more room for creativity in terms of optimizing your business caller ID name, though.

Displaying Your Business Name or Other Custom Text as Your ID

To get more of your calls answered, the first thing you should do is personalize your outbound caller ID. Your customers need to have a clear idea of who is trying to reach them as soon as they first look at the screen. Here are some basic rules to keep in mind:

Abbreviate. Find a way to shorten your business name if it exceeds the 15 maximum character limit. Use numbers instead of words where possible but do not take it too far or you risk making your company’s name unrecognizable.

Think ahead. The name you choose to appear on caller IDs will likely stick for years, so make sure you are entirely comfortable with it.

Do not use scammers’ tricks. Do not include names of cities, regions, and states in your business caller ID name – it is what fraudsters do to fool trusting citizens. This kind of association can ruin your business reputation in seconds.

Avoid misrepresentation. It is not just highly unprofessional but also a crime to use caller ID to misinform your customers.

How to Change the Name of Your Business on the Caller ID

How you do this depends on whether your business uses a landline phone service or a cloud phone system.

For landlines: contact your landline carrier and place a formal request for a caller ID change. Only the name but not the number is due to change. Note that it may take weeks before your customers can see your changed business caller ID name.

For VoIP and cloud phone systems: in most cases, the outbound caller ID name can be altered directly from your online admin page. If you cannot find the wanted functionality, contact their customer support and have managers guide you through it. Such updates usually take place within 24 hours.

It is important to remember that a changed outbound caller ID name will only be considered accurate, verified, and valid after it appears updated in the CNAM database.

Best Tips to Help You Select the Perfect Business Caller ID

So, how do you select a business caller ID that will look good and urge your customers to pick up the phone when you’re calling them? Here are a few helpful tips to follow:

Tip 1: When choosing a business caller ID name, go for something short and simple that will appeal to your customers on a more personal level.

Tip 2: Start with the most crucial information that identifies you as a professional and trustworthy business; drop any unnecessary details if you cannot fit them in.

Tip 3: Pick the name you like and are comfortable with; make sure it’s easy to remember and looks appropriate to any of your target customer audience.

Tip 4: Consider assigning caller IDs to specific divisions within your company if those departments have a higher-than-average volume of outbound calls.

Tip 5: Do not provide inaccurate or overly vague information on your business caller ID to avoid being flagged as a scammer and getting into trouble with the law.

Tip 6: If you mostly do your business locally, choosing the number with an area code your customers can easily recognize is the key to winning their trust.

While choosing a business caller ID name might seem a trivial matter at first, this short set of letters often means the difference between getting a new customer and ending up in someone’s spam box. Be very particular and take your time when thinking about which name will give your company the best and most professional appearance.