For those of us who reside in the United States, we all know the drill. Our mobile device rings and when we answer, we either get a pre-recorded message or a live agent wanting us to buy something. The frustration is that our mobile number is on the “Do Not Call” list. Plus, as stipulated by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), we have not given the calling party our consent to contact us. What this means is that the calling party, per the Federal Communications Commission (FCC (News - Alert)) stipulation in the TCPA says that such consent, including for unwanted text messages and accidental calls or call made in good faith to an incorrect number, are subject to fines. These can be as high as $1,500 per violation for contacting the wrong individual.
While we are frustrated, interestingly we tend to overlook the frustrations of legitimate businesses attempting to interact with us while remaining in compliance with the TCPA. The challenge is that as many of us either cut the cord or use our smart devices as the primary means to interact with us, validating that we are viable for contact center outreach and engagement, can be a time-consuming and obviously costly on several fronts headache.
For those engaged in the outbound customer engagement business for everything from sales to collection calls, the announcement by IDology, a multi-layered identity verification and fraud prevention solutions provider, of the addition of ExpectID Number Verification to the ExpectID solutions suite should be a more than passing interest.
Reduce unnecessary calls and avoiding possible TCPA penalties
IDology decribes how ExpectID Number Verification works in the following manner. Through a batch upload the solution verifies numbers prior to customer contact by accessing more than 750 million mobile numbers in real-time directly from mobile network operators (MNOs). The results indicate if the potential called number is ok to call, not ok or indeterminable. They also note that ExpectID Number Verification does not rely on personal identifiable information (PII) to verify the number.
“With the mobile channel becoming the most popular way to contact customers, it is critical for organizations to have a solution in place to verify mobile numbers and mitigate risk,” said John Dancu, chief executive officer of IDology.
It should also be noted that the solution is not just for voice calls to mobile devices but also for use with SMS notifications.
The reality is that such a solution is a win/win for calling and called parties. Calling parties eliminate the time and expense of making calls or sending text messages to wrong parties and are better able to be in compliance with TCPA, and we should see a decrease in the volume of unsolicited contacts.
Edited by Kyle Piscioniere