Call centers and other businesses conducting outbound dialing campaigns know that they need to prevent their numbers from getting blocked or flagged. To avoid those problems, they often rotate numbers. By swapping numbers frequently, they hope to continue reaching consumers without earning negative labels and blocks.

Unfortunately for them, that strategy doesn’t work as well as many believe. In fact, phone number rotation can hurt your business and the overall dialing ecosystem.

Companies that use phone number rotation purchase a large bank of phone numbers. They assign some of the numbers to agents. As the agents place calls throughout the day, the company’s manager or software pulls numbers from use and replaces them with others from the bank.

According to this strategy’s followers, number rotation helps numbers “cool off.” They get a break between use, which helps prevent them from picking up negative labels and blocks from carriers and third-party apps.

Phone number rotation sounds like a reasonable strategy. It even worked well at one time. Today, it comes with several downsides that could harm your business and phone numbers’ reputations.

Phone number rotation relies on a large bank of numbers. You also need analytics software to track numbers and determine when to replace them. The extra numbers and software add unnecessary operational costs that force businesses to either raise their prices or accept lower profits.

Dialing customers from several numbers will eventually start to look suspicious to people. An existing customer would expect to see the same number each time you call. Using the same number every time also shows that your business follows ethical practices and doesn’t need to use outdated tactics to avoid spam labels.

Companies that use number rotation often release them to sellers once they get flagged. When you purchase a list of numbers from a seller, there’s a chance you could get some that have already earned flags from carriers and third-party apps. Because of this, you never know whether your new numbers include negative labels or blocks. If you use them, the labels will prevent you from connecting with customers.

Using the same number gives you opportunities to improve your brand’s reputation. Phone number reputation does the opposite. When people don’t recognize your number, some of them will assume they’re getting calls from a scammer or spammer.

Improving your dialing habits gives you a better way to maintain healthy numbers that enhance your brand reputation. The following dialing behaviors should help you reach more leads and customers.

Neighbor spoofing is a strategy that makes your phone number appear local. For example, you might use a 617 area code for Boston residents and a 415 area code for San Francisco residents.

Some people will like seeing local numbers. What happens when they realize you don’t have a local location, though? They might feel misdirected and lose trust in your company.

Instead, use your location’s area code or dial from a toll-free (800 or 888) number. It might not seem as appealing to some people, but it’s a more honest way to present your brand.

Companies that use number rotation have one thing right: numbers can get “hot” when you use them too often.

Limit how many calls you place so analytics engines don’t flag your number.

Additionally, don’t call the same lead too often. Doing so could annoy the person and prompt them to report your number. All they have to do is tap a “report spam” button to damage your number’s reputation.

List management helps ensure you only call qualified leads interested in learning more about your products and services. If you call uninterested leads, your numbers will eventually get flagged or blocked.

You can manage your lists effectively by gathering leads organically instead of purchasing them from third-party companies. Ideally, your leads have already interacted with your brand.

You also need to scrub your lead lists to remove numbers on the Do Not Call (DNC) registry. You should also keep an internal DNC registry. If your current list contains contacts on either of these registries, you should remove them. Failing to do so could damage your number reputation and lead to steep fines from the FTC.

No one wants to get targeted by an aggressive sales professional. If your agents use aggressive sales tactics, consumers will block and report your number. After enough reports, carriers and call-blocking apps will take notice.

Avoid this problem by training agents to treat consumers respectfully and follow industry regulations.

Managing your calling behavior is an important part of maintaining a healthy caller ID. A good outbound dialing strategy shows that your company has positive intentions and respects people. Following those guidelines will boost your brand’s reputation and instill trust in consumers.

Unfortunately, proper dialing behavior only gives you limited control over your number’s reputation. People can still report your number. Analytics engines can mistakenly flag your number as a source of spam.

Ensure your numbers have excellent reputations by monitoring them with BatchDialer. BatchDialer lets you see real screenshots from a range of mobile devices and carriers, so you can see what appears on caller ID screens.

Want to experience the benefits of knowing you have clean numbers without blocks or negative labels? Sign up for a free trial with BatchDialer.