Can You Handle Managing Your Spam Labeling Issues on Your Own?

When you’re up against spam or scam labels tarnishing the reputation of your phone numbers and, therefore, your business, your first question would be: How do I fix this? Having your calls mislabeled is likely something you’re not used to dealing with. Unless you have a team dedicated to the outbound dialing portion of your business, staying on top of the health of your numbers and calling campaigns can be challenging. 

When you start evaluating available solutions, you’ll likely find confusing amounts of misinformation that leave you wondering: Well, why can’t I fix my labeling issues on my own? It’s true; there are monitoring solutions that can give you some insight into your spam tagging issues, and you could spend the time strategizing on how to rotate phone numbers to try and avoid the tags. But the reality is you’re probably not as ready or equipped to solve your spam labels as you may think.

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First Things First: Here’s the Setup it Would Require 

If you can track it and measure it, then you can do something about it. But are you equipped to do that tracking? Can you effectively measure why spam labels are showing up and how they impact your business KPIs? If you’re not confident in how your current methods or platforms deal with spam labeling issues, you won’t get very far. 

• You’ll need to create or invest in a place to view AND manage all your phone numbers across all the major wireless carriers (ideally, a single place/source/platform). It sounds basic, but this is where you need to start to accurately and successfully manage your clean or spam-tagged phone numbers. 
• Next, you’ll need a place to view AND control your calling campaigns across all the top wireless carriers. This is crucial for the necessary data-gathering to track which calls in which campaigns are being mislabeled as spam to provide needed insights into how you would like to proceed from there. 
• The platforms you manage your phone numbers and calling campaigns must be able to report any labeling or mislabeling on your phone numbers across all the major wireless carriers. But reporting alone won’t cut it. 
• You need a way to be notified when spam labeling occurs, not when your customers let you know it’s popping up on their phone screens when you call (lucky for you, they picked up and could tell you it was happening). You’ll need the data to be accessible and as updated as possible when you need to check up on your phone numbers and on which carrier it is being labeled. 
• Managing your phone numbers and calling campaigns is already a significant investment, not only financially but also in your time and staffing resources. Suppose you were to manage your number reputation (spam labeling) on top of that on your own. You need to ensure your team has the tools and time to keep track of your phone numbers, manage calling campaigns, monitor for any improper spam tags, and mitigate the labels should they arise. Is that a scalable process for you and your team to manage effectively?

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Going Directly to Carriers: Here’s What it Takes to Try Fixing a Single ‘Spam’ Label

Once you have the infrastructure, it’s time to figure out how to fix any spam or scam tags harming your calls. Here’s what you’d need to fix just one spam label on one phone number (keep in mind that removing more negative tags, like fraud labels, is typically denied):

• Each carrier has its own support process for submitting spam labeling appeals. If your phone number is showing up as “Spam Likely” via one carrier, it’s possible it’s being delivered as something similar, like “Potential Spam,” on another. You’ll need insight, relationships, or direct access to each carrier independently. 
• From there, you’ll need to consider the following factors when submitting a support ticket to the carriers to remediate, or fix, a spam label (please note that the following data is based on averages for submitting one phone number):

• It can take up to 30 minutes to submit the necessary information in a support ticket to a carrier (up to 90 minutes across all three major wireless carriers), and it often requires several emails back and forth to get everything needed for the remediation process.
• It varies by carrier, but the data that is typically required for remediation includes the phone number, the root entity caller and/or the brand entity caller, what rating or label your call was scored with, your contact information, and sometimes, a screenshot of how your call delivered the device.
• It can take up to 5 business days to receive any kind of response from the carrier, whether positive or negative, about your support ticket. If the number gets denied remediation, more actions are required from there. 

• Once you submit a support ticket to the carriers, there is a 0% guarantee that the spam label will be corrected. Can you afford to wait this long, with such low odds, for just one spam label? 
• With 25% of a business’ phone calls typically at risk for spam labeling events, you’ll likely have more than one label to mitigate. If you’re a heavy dialer, we’d recommend doing the math on how many phone numbers 25% represents for you. Can you handle that volume of support tickets?

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There’s More to Consider: Ongoing Dialing & Testing Strategies

More needs to be factored into an independent strategy besides daily monitoring numbers and submission of support tickets. A successful number reputation management solution will also need to consider the following steps in an ongoing fashion:

• If you’re not sure how current the monitoring data you’re receiving is, many buy test phones to ensure the labels on phone screens are accurate. If you want total visibility and certainty, you may consider investing in mobile devices, each with its own cell plan across all the top wireless carriers. How many phones would you need to invest in, depending on the volume of phone numbers and calls you make? Or what mechanisms do you have in place that provide the certainty you need to trust the data?
• Suppose you decide that rotating or swapping numbers is how you want to try and avoid spam labels. In that case, you need to ensure you’re doing so in a way that is compliant and respectful because the algorithms are on the lookout for that type of avoidant and sometimes suspicious behavior. 

• If you’re dialing at high volumes, you must have adequate resources to handle rotating and swapping that many phone numbers successfully. 
• Does your team feel confident and well-equipped to track all spam tagging to make the appropriate number swaps, support ticket submissions, and call campaign strategies in an insightful and actionable manner?
• Do you know how to stay updated with the latest compliance expectations for your dialing practices, which are constantly changing? Do you know which dialing patterns may lead to negative call labels?
• Can you accept that “new” phone numbers are not likely “new,” just new to you and might come with baggage inherited from their previous users. Some percentage of numbers you add into your rotation are likely already at risk before you even start dialing. 

• Decisions are happening at the regulatory level that impacts your calls. With standards and technologies constantly evolving with the carriers and the delivery of call traffic, it’s critical that you have someone who can stay on top of the latest regulatory matters affecting your business each month. 

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Go Beyond Monitoring: Reputation Management with Number Check

Choosing to monitor and manage the reputation of your phone numbers independently means that 0% of your phone numbers are protected, so you have to monitor 100% of them 100% of the time. Are you confident and well-equipped enough to handle that? With the steps listed above as the minimum required for successful number reputation management on your own, not to mention how costly it is, it’s time to consider a better fit for your business. 

Numeracle has pioneered a Number Reputation Management solution that can manage all the steps listed above, like submitting remediation requests to the carriers and keeping you updated on dialing strategies, all in one place via our aggregated platform. We not only work to remove the barriers getting in the way of you reaching your customers, but we also protect your calling identity as a trusted source and empower you to have control and visibility over your communications. 

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Number Check

The latest enhancement to our core reputation management solution, Number Check delivers additional proactive measures to ensure accurate identity presentation across all the major wireless carriers between our regular dashboard updates and Number Health Check reporting cycles. It provides visual confirmation for any phone numbers registered in our platforms by making an actual phone call to capture call delivery information on-demand, with remediation capabilities, should any spam labels get flagged, right at your fingertips. 

Unlike most monitoring solutions, Numeracle's Number Check is designed to alleviate the burden of manual monitoring and checking all day long. We’re not making phone calls all day long and charging you the monitoring fees; we’re letting you make real phone calls for on-demand spot-checks of your phone numbers when you need them most. 

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Where to Start

If you’re reading this, you’re already on the path to identifying the reputation management solution best suited for your business. Knowing there’s much to unpack here, our team of experts is available to offer personalized recommendations via one-on-one free consultations of your current dialing landscape. This comes totally free of charge, and if we can’t help you personally, we’ll guide you in the right direction. Contact us today to schedule a free assessment of your outbound calling strategies, and may knowledge guide your quest!