There are many businesses, including contractors that provide restoration, remodeling, and construction services, that rely on getting phone calls for good leads.  When the phones are ringing, businesses are getting more leads which results in closing more jobs.  However, when a business does start to get a lot of phone calls, some of those calls may be spam.

Spam calls are annoying and frustrating, especially for businesses that rely on phone calls for leads.  Answering a spam call wastes your employee’s time and ties up the line which may prevent a real customer from getting through.  A spam call may also put your business at risk as scammers use robocalls to get money or personal information.

If you are tired of spam calls and robocalls affecting your business, there are some steps you can take to stop them.  In this guide, we will explain how spam calls and robocalls negatively affect your business as well as what you can do to stop these calls.

What are Spam Calls?

Spam calls in general are unwanted calls that may be received on business phone lines, home landlines, and personal cell phones.  There are several types of spam calls, including calls from solicitors, robocalls, spoofed calls, and others.  The majority of spam calls are robocalls as they account for over 60 percent of call complaints reported to the FCC.

Robocalls are automated telephone calls with a prerecorded message or artificial voice.  They are often made by an auto dialer that automatically calls lists of numbers to deliver the recorded message.  While some robocalls are done legally, there are many that are done illegally and are usually trying to get sensitive information.

Phone Number Spoofing

One tactic that robocallers use is called phone number spoofing.  This is the practice of disguising their real phone number to look like a different phone number and hide the true origin of the call.  Calling back the spoofed number will not reach the spammer but instead go to the owner of the phone number the scammer spoofed.

Spoofed phone numbers are sometimes made to look like a legit caller by using the local area code in a tactic known as neighborhood spoofing.  This can fool businesses into thinking that they are receiving a good lead and make them more likely to answer the call.

Spam Call Scams

Spam calls are not just annoying, they can also be dangerous.  There are a couple of different spam call scams targeted at businesses to get personal or business information, scam businesses out of money, or fraudulently take over business accounts.  The following are two common scams your business may encounter:

• Google Business Profile scam: With this scam, a live caller claiming to be from Google will tell a business owner that their listings will be removed from search results. They will claim that they can help prevent this if the business pays a fee.  However, the risk of being removed from the search results is not real.
• Local map verification scam: With this scam, someone will tell a business owner that they need some information to verify their listing on an online map. The scammer will then ask for personal and business information that they will use for nefarious purposes such as taking over business accounts.

How to Stop Spam Calls

Whether they are nefarious scams or simply an annoying waste of time, spam calls have a negative impact on your business.  They can result in a waste of company resources, lost sales opportunities, and skewed sales data at best and the theft of money or sensitive information at worst.  Fortunately, there are steps you can take to stop spam calls from reaching your business.

The following tips will help prevent your business from receiving spam calls and robocalls.

National Do Not Call Registry

Spam calls and robocalls that are business to business calls are exempt from the provisions of the National Do Not Call Registry.  This means that adding your business landline to the registry will do nothing to stop spam calls.  However, you can add cell phones that are used by your business to the registry.  If the main phone number you use for your business is a cell number instead of a landline, you can add this number to the registry.  If your business provides cell phones to your employees, you can also add these numbers to the registry to protect your employees from receiving spam calls.

You can add your phone number to the Do Not Call Registry by calling 888-382-1222 or by visiting donotcall.gov.  It does not cost you anything to add your numbers to the registry.  If calling, you must call from the number you want to register.

Work with Service Providers to Block Calls

When it comes to blocking spam calls from your business landline, sometimes your telephone service provider can help.  Talk to your service provider to see if they can offer any sort of assistance in blocking spam calls.  This is an effective strategy if you notice that your business is getting repeated spam calls from the same numbers.  However, blocking numbers may do little to prevent robocalls as they number spoof frequently.

At RestorationMaster, we can help protect our restoration clients from spam calls by blocking the numbers of spam callers.  We are committed to delivering high quality leads and blocking spam numbers is one of the ways in which we keep our commitment.

Phone Number Blocking System

Your business can use a blocking system to help you block the numbers of spam callers.  These systems allow you to block numbers that you have determined to be spammers as well as automatically block numbers that do not display caller ID information.  However, like with the strategy of having your service provider block numbers, this will only work for spammers that do not mask their numbers.  You will likely still receive robocalls from spoofed numbers.

Spam Call Blocking Apps

If your business primarily uses cell phones, you can protect them from spam calls with spam call blocking apps.  There are apps available for both Apple and Android phones that can help block unwanted spam calls.  You should choose which app to use for your business based on your needs and budget.  Most spam blocking apps are free, but some may require a fee.

You will need to download the app on each cell phone that is used within your business and enable them through each individual phone.

File a Complaint

Another route you can take to help stop spam calls is to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).  The FTC can come down on spammers that are acting illegally, especially if they receive enough complaints about the same scam.  Keep in mind that this is not a quick solution, but your complaint could play a role in eventually shutting down unlawful scammers.

Hang Up on Scammers

The best thing you and your employees can do when it comes to spam calls and robocalls is to ignore them or hang up on them immediately.  If your business has a caller ID system, do not answer calls that show no caller ID information.  If a spam call is answered, your employees should know to hang up immediately without engaging or speaking with the caller.

Spam callers are typically looking for some type of information and avoiding them or hanging up on them will prevent this from happening even if they get through.  Make sure your employees are trained to recognize spam calls and hang up on them without engaging with them.

Lead Generation Services from RestorationMaster

For businesses like restoration and remodeling contractors that rely on getting leads through phone calls, hearing their phone lines light up is music to their ears.  However, having spam calls and robocalls in the mix can be frustrating as it distracts resources from answering real customers, skews sales data, and puts your business at risk for a number of scams.  By following the tips outlined above, you can help reduce the number of spam calls your business receives so you can devote your time and resources to responding to quality leads.

At RestorationMaster, we provide lead generation services to help contractors in the disaster restoration and cleaning industry get quality sales leads within their service areas.  Through our highly optimized website restorationmasterfinder.com, we generate sales leads that will go directly to your business.  The leads we offer are exclusive, meaning you will not compete with other businesses within your service area for leads, and the calls go directly to your phone lines so that your employees can make the sale.  We can also block spam numbers from our end so your business will not be bothered by spam callers.

You can call RestorationMaster at (888) 846-1992 for more information about how we can generate quality fire damage and water damage leads for your business.