Caller ID CNAM Best Practices from a Call Center Executive
Call center management has always appealed to me because everything about it is measurable — and when something's measurable, you can experiment with it to find what actually improves performance. Caller ID CNAM is one of those measurable levers, but it helps to understand a few fundamentals first.
The ideal CNAM includes your brand name
A recognizable brand name in the CNAM display entices the called party to answer. Even an unrecognized brand name lends credibility simply by being present, increasing the likelihood of an answer over a blank or unnamed display.
CNAM is stored as 15 characters in the national CNAM database, and most Caller ID lookups today are free for the called party's carrier to perform. Fifteen characters, including spaces, isn't much room, so a common best practice is truncating the brand name by trimming spaces or letters — "American Family Insurance" might become "AmericanFam Ins," or "Northwestern Insurance Company" might shorten to "NW Insur Comp."
The future of CNAM is Rich Call Data
CNAM is moving toward Rich Call Data — additional information transmitted in the call header between carriers, including a brand logo and the purpose of the call. A nonprofit doing donor outreach, for example, could pair a CNAM display of its name with a call purpose like "Loyal Donor Outreach." Google devices already support displaying Rich Call Data; Quality Voice & Data recently enabled it for a BPO client, whose logo and call purpose displayed on 12% of outbound calls — with a statistically higher answer rate on those calls.
Never use CNAM to deceive
Federal and state regulations, including the Truth in Caller ID Act, prohibit using a CNAM intended to deceive or defraud the called party, whether the call is B2C or B2B. Quality Voice & Data helps clients monitor CNAM to stay compliant with both. Note that CNAM can't be a number — it exists to convey additional information alongside the Caller ID, not to replace it.
Answer callbacks with your best agents
One of the easiest ways to lift your outbound answer rate is making sure staff are available to answer callbacks to your Caller ID number, ideally routed to your best agents. Answering with a live agent lets you personalize the experience and reduces the odds the customer files the call under "telemarketing" or "spam" — and if you reward a callback (say, a small discount not available otherwise), you start training customers that calling back is worth their time instead of ignoring the call altogether.
