Think Branded Communication can’t get any better? Think again.
Our industry-leading branded calling solution INFORM® is now available on all major carriers in the U.S., improving the phone channel and boosting revenue for more businesses than ever!
This latest advancement allows us to offer branded calling to more than 390 million customers in the U.S.
But what is branded calling, and how will it affect how clients interact with outbound calls from your business?
We’re here to pull away the curtain on unknown numbers and reveal how INFORM sets the standard for what branded calling should be.
What Does This Mean?
You’ve been asking for it, and we’re here to deliver on a promise. Now, with our in-network branded calling solution available on every major U.S. carrier, your business can brand calls to customers across the nation.
With this latest announcement, we are uniquely positioned to be your one-stop customer experience destination for branded calling and call protection technology.
More answers, fewer declined calls. No more waiting around for a callback from an unknown number for your customers. The power of branding is now back where it belongs: in the hands of your business.
Do you know what Branded Communication is? Would you like to learn more? We thought you’d never ask. Let’s explore all the details.
INFORM Branded Calling
If you haven’t heard, INFORM is our branded calling solution that solves the unanswered call dilemma.
Our easy-to-integrate product boosts customer satisfaction and revenue. According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact study commissioned by First Orion, businesses that adopt INFORM into their calling strategy can experience a 498% ROI over three years.
INFORM allows businesses to brand their outbound calls with an industry-leading up to 32-character custom message that can include the full name of your business and the reason for calling. Although Caller Name ID (CNAM) offers a similar technology, CNAM is limited with fewer available characters.
Additionally, CNAM has only been adopted by fewer than 7% of customers, meaning more than 9 in 10 customers won’t see your CNAM branding.
Not only that but there is no single source of truth for CNAM databases. There are up to 8 total databases that business names are pulled from. That means even if you wanted to edit your outbound calling name, you would have trouble knowing where to start!
Brand Protection from Bad Actors
So, you’ve got your branded calling down. Good. Great. But what about bad actors? Isn’t spoofing still a threat to your brand reputation? Yep, but don’t worry; we’ve got that covered too.
For enterprises with high call volumes or those that handle highly sensitive user data, there’s an added level of protection against spoofing – INFORM® Paired and SENTRY™.
Paired is a complimentary feature of INFORM that blocks bad actors from spoofing your branded display. Only authenticated calls receive proper branding, and illicit calls are delivered as an unknown number.
But Paired can only do so much. SENTRY is your ultimate spoof protection solution, blocking bad actors from stealing your branding. It also prevents their calls from ever reaching the end user’s device.
SENTRY can be used alone or as a complimentary feature to your INFORM branding. Imagine SENTRY as the first and last line of defense against bad actors seeking to trick your customers and steal their personal information.
Easy, Secure APIs for Branded Communication Integration
For most small to medium size businesses, the Customer Portal allows easy access to set up your branded calling programs. But for large enterprises and contact centers looking for a more advanced approach, the Branded Communication API offers a single point of entry into First Orion’s INFORM® solution.
The Branded Communication API can be accessed through the Developer Portal, which offers user-friendly guides and tools to help integrate Branded Communication programs into your CPaaS or UCaaS solutions.
And if you’re an Amazon Connect user, INFORM can be fully integrated into your Amazon Connect platform via the AWS Partner Network. First Orion’s branded calling and advanced brand spoof solutions via INFORM Paired have successfully passed the AWS Foundational Technical Review. That means our branded calling solutions meet best practices for security, reliability, and operational excellence.
INFORM, and our Branded Communication APIs, are fueled by an innovative platform, what we like to call the Communication Exchange.
The Exchange is a unified technology platform that provides the data that powers Branded Communication, Communication Protection, world-class calling analytics, our customer portal, and more.
What does that mean?
The Exchange is your one-stop shop for the future of digital communication – from call protection to branded calling. Integration and application of the platform is simple, straightforward, and reliable.
Who Is Branded Communication For?
We like to think that Branded Communication is for every business, from small mom-and-pop shops to large-scale enterprises.
But certain industries see the benefits of branding their calls more than others.
Banks and Credit Unions
Businesses in the financial services industry handle lots of sensitive user data, from account numbers to social security information. That makes bank and credit union members especially vulnerable to spoofers attempting to trick them into relinquishing information.
Understandably, members are reluctant to answer calls from their bank if it comes from an unknown number. Is it essential to members that you properly label your calls? We’d say so.
Our 2022 report found that 90% of people said it’s “extremely” or “very important” that a call from their bank, credit union, or other financial services provider is clearly identified with the institution’s name.
And for added protection, SENTRY is perfect for banks and credit unions to keep bad actors from reaching their members. SENTRY blocks spoofed calls before they can harm your customers, increasing your brand reputation and ensuring your members are happy to be banking with you.
Healthcare
Like financial service businesses, healthcare providers handle sensitive customer information.
Patients trust their providers to care for them, but scammers attempting to harm them financially have made healthcare patients wary. Our 2022 Healthcare Report found that more than half of people said they’d received more scam calls in 2022 than a year ago.
A bad phone call can lead to a bad reputation, and nearly 80% of people would consider rating their healthcare provider poorly for making unidentified calls.
Branded Communication is vital to maintaining a good reputation with patients and providing a smooth customer service experience.
Retail
Those in the retail business know how important customer experience is to a person’s decision to shop at their favorite stores.
And when customers have issues with an order, a phone call is the preferred option for resolving it.
More than half of people prefer a phone call for urgent issues related to an order, and 43% want to talk to a live person over the phone – not a robot or an AI – when trying to resolve an issue.
Ensure your calls are properly branded with INFORM to increase answer rates, decrease callbacks, and boost customer satisfaction.
Call and Contact Centers
And who could forget about contact centers? Not us.
Call and contact centers face incredibly low answer rates – and according to studies, those answer rates aren’t getting better. In a 2023 survey of consumers, we found that 82% rarely or never answer calls from unknown numbers.
How does Branded Communication help? By providing a brand name and reason for calling on every outbound call you make. And with our Customer Portal, you can manage and customize multiple numbers to brand whatever business you’re helping.
And consumers expect businesses to protect them from spoofing as well – remember SENTRY? Nearly 90% of people expect companies – not just carriers – to protect consumers by ensuring scammers do not spoof their phone numbers.
Let’s Get Started
Now that you know we cover every major network and you understand the technology, what are you waiting for?
Ready to see how Branded Communication can boost your business? Contact us today to get started. Let’s set you on the path to better answer rates, more satisfied customers, and increased revenue.
