STOP SPAM ... in Three Simple Steps

A benefit of using a mobile phone today is that the device will tell us if an incoming call is potentially Spam.  But, sometimes, the calls labeled as Spam are from businesses that we do business with – like the doctor’s office or a bank. As car dealers, this happens all of the time … to our own customers.

I want to share a conversation I had with a long-time friend who owns five car dealerships in Westchester, New York. He called me with one specific question:  How do I get rid of Spam calls? His telephone system and carrier changed ten years ago; but suddenly, all of his outbound calls from his Sales and Service departments are now coming through as “Spam” to his customers. I told him  - “It’s happening because You Are a Spammer!”

Before I explain why my friend’s dealerships are Spamming their customers, let me ask a few questions… How many of you in the automobile business think you're not Spamming? Are you making outbound calls through your salespeople or your BDC? How many calls a day are each of your reps making? In my friend’s dealerships, each rep makes between 50 and 60 outbound calls per day.  What about your Service Department?  My friend’s dealerships make 25-30 outbound calls each day. 

So, now the explanation.
Behind the scenes, your call manager platform (ex: Cisco Call Manager) is making calls on what we call a landline phone. If your rep calls somebody's landline phone, the call doesn't get identified as Spam; but, if he calls a mobile phone, the call is being tracked by the mobile carrier and could potentially be labeled as Spam, Spam likely, or something similar. This is because mobile carriers (such as ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile) use algorithms to monitor all incoming phone calls. These algorithms try to identify high-volume calls from a specific number but they can’t distinguish between non-Spam and Spam calls. Since this is done automatically, the frequency of calls your business is making on a daily business could cause your telephone number to be marked as Spam.

In the case of my friend, his reps are all making 50 calls a day, 6 days a week, 24 days a month.  It is likely that the reps are calling a lot of mobile phone numbers, and the carriers are going to identify the dealership number as a Spam caller. 

How can a dealer fix this?

Option One: Do It Yourself

Have someone at your dealership own the Spam issue.  This person will be responsible to call the mobile carriers and register all your numbers. To do this, you need to explain that the dealership is an established business, how long you’ve been in business, and that your outbound calls are being labeled as Spam. The carrier will program your numbers into their system. Each carrier has a different process, which takes 10 to 20 days.  You should see a 98% success rate. This process needs to be repeated quarterly because the algorithms are automatic.

Here are the three links for the three mobile carriers. You will have to contact all three and fill out their forms. Each carrier has its own algorithms, so you may have to contact them every few months.

Spam is like a bugs in your home, you have to continue to extinguish them every few months.

AT&T - https://hiyahelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=824667

Verizon - https://voicespamfeedback.com/vsf/

T-Mobile - https://portal.firstorion.com/app/landing/#/signup

Option Two: Do It Yourself… by department

Service department: Train your Service Advisors to inform their customers that callbacks will come from the dealership number and that they should enter into it into their phone address book so that it is not marked as Spam. Because the number is now in their phone address book, your calls will go through. 

Sales department: With Sales, this is a two-step process.

With incoming leads, sales reps can utilize the process that the Service Advisors use to instruct prospects to save your dealership’s number in order to avoid it being labeled as Spam.

For sales reps returning calls from a desk phone or using click-to-call numbers, these phone numbers will need to be registered with the three carriers.

Option Three: Hire a Professional

Companies like TotalCX can remove the headache by managing the three carriers for you. At TotalCX, we pride ourselves on removing this issue from your day-to-day operations so that all of your calls are correctly identified and received by your customers.