According to a YouMail Robocall Index survey, nearly 48 billion robocalls were made in 2018. These are defined as alerts and reminders, overdue payments, telemarketing, and scams1.
As this surge continues, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its enforcement partners created the “Operation: Call It Quits” to help stem the overflowing tide of robocalls to consumers and businesses.
“We’re all fed up with the tens of billions of illegal robocallers we get every year… Today’s joint effort shows that combatting this scourge remains a top priority for law enforcement agencies around the nation.”
Andrew Smith | Director, FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection
But, despite the valiant efforts of the FTC commission, robocalls are still alive and kicking in 2019, and most likely will be in 2020.
You may think this doesn’t apply to your business. And that only consumers need to know how to stop robocalls.
Wrong!
Everyone is fair game in the robocall wars.
Especially because B2B robocallers are excluded from “Do Not Call” FTC provisions. Robocallers who exclusively call businesses are not required to adhere to the National Do Not Call Registry. 2
Consumers can just not answer their phone, but businesses can’t do the same. You end up paying the cost.
Literally.
Here’s how much it’s costing your business and what you can do about it.
This is what a robocaller costs your business:
Per call - $13.00
Per day - $64.00
Per year - $23,442.00
You can find out how we got to the final sum at the end of this blog.*
Not only do Robocallers cost your company, but they also do the following;
For those tracking the effectiveness of their phone sales, robocallers create dirty data which affects attribution models.
Phone agents spend more time with the wrong sort of callers rather than high-value calls.
A receiver can spend up to 30 minutes to regain full focus after a robocaller call3.
Infinity not only provides superior call tracking, but also affective defences against robocallers.
Here's how we do it:
Have you ever pushed 1 for sales and 2 for support? That’s an IVR. Think of it a bit like when you have to prove online that you’re not a robot by selecting images or typing a series of words to authenticate your identity. It’s a tough barrier for robocallers to get through and is fully customisable so you can record your own unique message.
Infinity’s Block Caller feature is as simple as a flick of the switch. Because, well, it is.
When you identify the call is actually a robocaller, just flick the switch to automatically block the number.
If you are an Infinity client, read our Campus article on how to easily block robocalls and nuisance calls. If you are not yet using Infinity, contact us about accessing this for your business.
Post call rating will work in harmony with the robocaller blocker option. If your agents, or yourself, don’t have time to block each call as it comes in - no problem. Simply hang up, rate the call as a robocaller, filter the calls with the same rating, and block them.
Easy.
Robocallers aren’t going away, yet their efforts can be minimized.
If you want to block robocalls and reduce the effect they have on your business, click the link below.
*Robocall cost is calculated as follows:
Receiver’s recovery rate is 23 minutes. The average hourly wage in the US is $23.65. $12.00 per agent plus average cost to receive phone calls in the US $1.00.
$12 + $1 = $13.00
If we multiply that by the average amount of robocalls per day (5) we can see that $65 x 365 days = $23,725 per year.