Improve Answer Rates with STIR/SHAKEN

smrtPhone is pleased to announce that we have launched STIR/SHAKEN – also known as verified voice – for all clients who have verified their business identity through our newly launched Trust Center.

The smrtPhone Trust Center was launched in September as a central hub for smrtPhone Account Owners to enroll their businesses in verification products that improve brand perception and increase response rates. (Clients with active subscriptions can visit the Trust Center by clicking here >>)

Get better response rates when you're a verified business

Benefits to becoming verified include:

Greater credibility = higher response rates
Contacts are more likely to answer the phone
Consumers more likely to respond to text messages
Distance yourself from scammers
Lower chances of being marked “spam likely”
Improve brand perception

If you are a business who makes outbound calls or sends outbound texts in the course of doing business – especially as part of your sales pipeline – getting verified will give you a big lift and reduce friction in reaching consumers. And it’s part of a large and permanent shift in the telecommunications industry – those who choose to not bother with verification will ultimately be left behind and find it more difficult to do business outreach.

Verification isn’t just a trend, it’s the way of the future for voice calls and business texting.

Get verified in the smrtPhone Trust Center

The first step to greater credibility is creating a business profile in the Trust Center. It’s quite simple and we’ve created a step-by-step guide to help you through the process.. By providing some basic demographic information about your company including contact information for an authorized representative, you can submit your profile for review. Once the information and your business identity is verified your profile will be approved and your company becomes a verified business. As a verified business, you are now eligible to enroll in the products in the Trust Center as they become available.

smrtPhone Trust Center Products include:

STIR/SHAKEN – verified caller id for voice calls. Available now!
A2P 10DLC – verified texting. Coming soon!
CNAM – custom caller ID display. Coming soon!
Branded Calls – include visual elements such as a logo on caller ID display. Coming soon!

Please note that only the Account Owner can access the Trust Center because some trust products will require subscription and only Account Owners can make changes to smrtPhone subscriptions.

The first trust product available is Verified Voice.

Verified Voice is a way of assuring consumers that the phone number displayed on the caller ID is indeed the phone number the caller is using. It was created to combat illegal robocalling where offenders would “spoof” or fake a caller ID to trick consumers into answering. It was a major problem because it is very difficult to track down the scammer to lodge a complaint with the FCC and stop them. Plus, the innocent rightful owner of the caller ID display number is unjustly marked as “spam likely.”

While the FCC was enforcing greater fines for those who were doing illegal spoofing, it is much easier to raise up the good players than it is to stop the bad actors. Working with the major carriers, the FCC helped coordinate the implementation of a caller ID verification system, called by the acronym STIR/SHAKEN.

How does STIR/SHAKEN Work?

STIR/SHAKEN stands for Secure Telephone Identity Revisited/Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs. In plain speak, it means that each phone number is assigned a certificate of authenticity. When the major mobile carriers receive an incoming call, they check the Caller ID information that has been forwarded against this certificate of authenticity. If they match, the call goes through as a trusted caller or a verified caller ID. If the certificate and the caller ID information does not match, then the call will either be marked as spam likely or a carrier may decide to block the calls altogether.

Calls from verified callers are more likely to be answered

Consumers who receive calls from verified businesses are more likely to answer the calls, even if they do not recognize the number. There is a confidence that comes from knowing there is a legitimate business on the other end of the line that makes them more likely to pick up or return a missed call.

The STIR/SHAKEN protocol will help your business stand out as a genuine, documented caller.

Enrollment in STIR/SHAKEN will be automatic for all smrtPhone clients with verified profiles

Verified Voice is a completely free service. Because it will not affect your billing and will boost your credibility and answer rates, smrtPhone will automatically enroll all phone numbers assigned to clients with verified business profiles. The only think you need to do is provide the information needed to get your business identity approved.

STIR/SHAKEN isn’t just good for consumers – bringing confidence to answer incoming calls – it’s great for businesses who will reduce their risk of being marked scam likely, have a pathway for appealing any spam marking, and will increase response rates.