Importance Of Phone Validation For Businesses: Ensuring Accurate Customer Data

With all the new technological advancements for businesses, gathering data about customers has never been easier. But, with bots, spammers, and hackers, it can be difficult to know if the data you have is accurate or not. Even still, customers may give the wrong information or fail to update changes.

There are five main reasons why you should ensure accurate customer data. Aside from the potential for incorrect information from nefarious characters, you also want to make sure that you avoid duplicate data while increasing return rates on automated campaigns and avoiding data entry errors, to name a few.

You can glean these benefits simply by having customers validate their current phone numbers. Your system will match the records and update any necessary changes. It’s a quick way to keep things tidy and up-to-date.

What is Phone Validation?

Phone validation is a process used to verify the accuracy and legitimacy of phone numbers provided by individuals or businesses. It involves checking whether a given phone number is valid, active, and reachable. Phone validation can be performed through various techniques, such as sending a verification code, making a test call, or utilizing third-party services and databases.

The purpose of phone validation is to ensure that the phone numbers collected or utilized by businesses are correct, up-to-date, and belong to real individuals or entities. By verifying phone numbers, businesses can enhance communication, minimize errors, reduce fraud, and improve overall operational efficiency.

Additionally, phone validation helps businesses maintain data quality by eliminating inaccurate or outdated phone numbers from their databases. This ensures that communications and marketing efforts are targeted towards active and engaged customers, improving the effectiveness of campaigns and reducing wasted resources.

Phone validation also plays a crucial role in fraud prevention and security measures. By confirming the authenticity of phone numbers, businesses can prevent malicious activities such as fake registrations, account takeovers, or fraudulent transactions. This safeguards both the business and its customers from potential harm and financial losses.

Protection from Nefarious Characters

One of the most important components to having accurate customer data is to protect your business from nefarious characters. Hackers, bots, scammers and other similar bad actors can get access to other sensitive information.

From the incorrect information they provided, it will give them an entryway to mess with software and hijack personal records. Once they get what they need, they’ll go dark while you’re left to sort out the mess and crisis. Even if authorities are able to catch the culprit, the damage they’ve done will be difficult to recover.

Plus, issues around privacy are becoming more pervasive every day. So, keeping your customer database clean and updated is one way to defend against such onslaughts.

Avoid Storing Duplicate Data

Another great reason for verifying accurate customer data is to make sure you don’t have duplicate information on any given customer. People change addresses, emails, and phone numbers often. So, using phone verification regularly helps you weed out mismatched or outdated data.

Simply put, it’s a great way to keep your customer database current. The system will match up the phone number to the name and correct the information as required. So, the housekeeping capacity alone is worth the investment.

To illustrate, American businesses lose over $3.1 billion dollars a year because of poor data comprehensiveness, according to IBM. That’s too much money to risk not using phone verification services.

Increase Return Rates for Automated Campaigns

Having a completely updated customer database means any campaigns you release will arrive to the intended people. This, in turn, translates to increased return rates and boosts in sales. Certainly, it’s not a guarantee of profit but it does greatly improve the chances for it.

Sending information to empty contacts equates to wasted time and money. Verifying customer information through their phone number mitigates the waste. This makes such a feature an essential component to getting a return on investment.

Avoid Data Entry Errors

Ensuring you have accurate customer information helps you avoid data entry errors. This can be disastrous especially if your business is in something like the finance or investment industries. You must have precise contact information.

Let’s say, for example, one of your customer’s accounts is about to go into the red. When you send out a notification, you’ll get a bounce-back message because you don’t have the correct contact information. Soon after, the customer realizes what happened and unleashes their verbal wrath on your staff.

Using phone verification to keep things current removes this unfortunate situation. Simply having them verify through the website, via an app, or on the phone will save many headaches for everyone involved.

Sustain Your Brand and Reputation

All of the aforementioned reasons bring us to the last, but certainly not least, reason about the importance of phone verification for businesses: sustaining your brand and reputation. Any miscalculation, faux pas or misstep can create chaos for your business.

This will eventually mean your brand and reputation are at risk. Making sure your customers are who they say they are with the correct updated information provides a solid framework from which to operate. One instance of exposure to a bad actor like a hacker can cost you customers, sales and the future of your company.

All it takes is one major catastrophe and no one will trust you or your brand ever again. So, you want to tread carefully and be smart about the data you collect.

Summary

With so much on the line, it only makes sense to use phone verification to ensure accurate customer information. It’s quick, simple, and worth the investment. All the possible problems that can crop up by not having it has the staunch potential to run your business into the grave.

Having phone verification adds to the company’s desires and goals while being able to provide exceptional customer service. You simply can’t go wrong implementing it. By verifying the authenticity and validity of phone numbers, businesses can streamline their processes, provide better customer experiences, and establish a solid foundation for their operations.