U.S Voice/Phone Call Best Practices

Convey is committed to creating a healthy voice communication ecosystem that serves all participants and maintains a positive caller reputation. The following recommendations ensure compliance and maintain best deliverability with lowest risk of incurring carrier blocks.

The world of telecommunications compliance is ever-changing, especially within the last five years. While SMS has seen the bulk of these changes up to now, AI monitoring has brought voice compliance into sharper focus. Please take a look at the Call Hygiene Do's and Don'ts below, passed down from the industry regulatory authority, CTIA.

NOTE: Failure to comply may result in carrier blocking to your traffic.

CTIA Call Hygiene Do's and Don'ts

Maintaining good call hygiene is critical to ensure compliance and best deliverability. Failure to adhere to the practices below could result in your traffic being blocked or marked as "Spam Likely" by the carriers.

Best Practices

✓ Support inbound calling.
Your numbers must be reachable and should not be a DNO (Do Not Originate)
✓ Warm up new numbers.
To build good reputation and trust, slowly ramp up traffic before sending full campaigns.
✓ Maintain a predictable, consistent call volume.
Be mindful of call history, including length and answer frequency. While some use cases expect traffic spikes, repeated or sudden increases may cause frustration and result in end user complaints. Short or frequently dropped/unanswered calls can be flagged as suspicious.
✓ Use as few numbers as possible.
While there are some use-cases which require the use of multiple numbers (e.g. your company has different departments and you want a different TFN for each), limit the use of one number per clear use-case (e.g. one number per department rather than two).
✓ Respect "cooling" periods.
Continuing to use numbers flagged as spam will quickly degrade trust and may result in permanent blocking. Honor reassignment and cease using flagged numbers for at least 90+ days (up to six months) to restore trust.
✓ Monitor feedback signals.
If you receive complaints and encounter block rates, review and adjust behavior accordingly.
✓ Exercise caution with high-risk categories.
Telemarketing, surveys, political, and non-profit calls are highly scrutinized by the ecosystem and likely to encounter flagging and/or blocking.
✓ Keep in mind that toll-free numbers are highly scrutinized.
Toll-free numbers may be appealing due to customer familiarity, but they are frequently spoofed. Read more here.

Prohibited Behaviours

Ⓧ DON'T practice wardialing.
Never dial sequential or unassigned numbers.
Ⓧ DON'T "spoof" a caller ID
Never mimic local numbers or fake caller IDs. Additionally, any number used with Convey should either be procured by Convey or ported to Convey's voice services account. Convey cannot project the caller ID of any number without being the controller of that number - not even with the controller's permission!
Ⓧ DON'T use many numbers for one use case
While there are some use-cases which require the use of multiple numbers (e.g. your company has different departments and you want a different TFN for each), limit the use of one number per clear use-case (e.g. one number per department rather than two).
Ⓧ DON'T: rapidly dial the same destination number in short durations
Repeat calls to the same destination within a short window of time will look like spam to the carriers.

Register with Carrier Network Registries

The major US carriers partner with the below network registries to validate business numbers and protect end users.

Hiya (AT&T): https://www.hiya.com/products/connect/number-registration

First Orion (T-Mobile): https://firstorion.com/products/free-number-registration

TNS (Verizon): https://reportarobocall.com/trf/

You can find detailed instructions for registering in each in this article.

All long codes and toll-free numbers should be registered to ensure compliance and reduce the likelihood of being flagged or blocked as spam. Registration is free, and only takes a few minutes to complete. A step-by-step guide for each registry is provided below.

Important Note

Registration must be performed by a contact from the sending business organization.

You should receive emails once processing is completed and records updated with the three carrier networks within 3-5 business days. It is recommended to check with the individual carrier networks, as well as send Convey your validations for record keeping.

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