Is there a way to randomize outbound caller ID?

[philodendrin]

One of my 3CX customers operates a call center. They sell warranties to customers nationwide. Lately, they've been noticing that their outbound calls are being blocked.

I don't know enough about call centers to advise them on what they need to do to prevent this. But, the obvious thing I told them to do was to manually rotate their default outbound Caller ID, in case it's the individual numbers that are being blocked.

Is there a way to automatically randomize outbound caller ID in 3CX? The outbound numbers they have are all legit. There's no spoofing or anything inappropriate happening. But, as a call center, I think this is just one of the challenges...

 

[Evolute IT]

Unfortunately no, there's no way.

I'm sure @voiptoys has something that can do it or they will build it now.

 

[leejor]

One of my 3CX customers operates a call center. They sell warranties to customers nationwide. Lately, they've been noticing that their outbound calls are being blocked.

So... people have "let you know", they don't want to receive your calls, by blocking your number, but, you're going to "trick" them into taking a call anyway, and force them to hang up on you.

I'm sure that is going to make those people very happy, and they'll be more than anxious to buy a warranty.

 

[VoIPTools]

Leejor,

I think there are valid reasons for doing this. For example, if someone owes you money and you are responsible for collections, it would be reasonable, in my view, to make it difficult for the debtor to avoid paying what is owed. However, there are laws in place for protecting people from harassing phone calls.

There are 3 ways to affect the caller ID:

1. Assign a number to a trunk
2. Assign a number to an extension
3. Create an emergency number (ID by extension or group)

There is no way to randomize the caller ID without some programming. If the calls are being generated from a dialer, it would be difficult to do. But if a collections agent is invoking the call themselves (for example), it would probably be possible to programmatically change their extension caller ID prior to each call.

Our 3CX Caller ID tool allows the agent to select from a list of numbers prior to making a call. I suppose you could have a service monitor an extension and AFTER each call, change the caller ID to another phone number in the list. That would ensure each call goes out on a different number. If you wanted to rotate the caller ID for a specific outbound number, that would be a challenge since you can not change the caller ID for the current call after the call is initiated.

 

[davide.bonavita]

Where are you from? In Italy (I suppose in the whole Europe) you can't do that.

 

[leejor]

I think there are valid reasons for doing this. For example, if someone owes you money and you are responsible for collections, it would be reasonable, in my view, to make it difficult for the debtor to avoid paying what is owed.

While there may be, what some people consider a "valid" reason (and that is going to be very subjective) for getting someone to answer their phone, when they have made it quite clear they don't want you calling back, it is quite different from knocking on their door, then jambing your foot in, so it can't be closed. They are simply going to hang up, or not answer if they don't recognise the number, especially (as in your example), if they are being pursued by a collection agency.

Attempting to wear someone down, with repeated, unwanted phone calls, is not going to get you a sale. Take their number off your list, and move on.

 

[Kevin@voxtelesys]

While there may be, what some people consider a "valid" reason (and that is going to be very subjective) for getting someone to answer their phone, when they have made it quite clear they don't want you calling back, it is quite different from knocking on their door, then jambing your foot in, so it can't be closed. They are simply going to hang up, or not answer if they don't recognise the number, especially (as in your example), if they are being pursued by a collection agency.

Attempting to wear someone down, with repeated, unwanted phone calls, is not going to get you a sale. Take their number off your list, and move on.

One thing to note is that it may not be the callee blocking the call but their carrier, this is due to multiple things that VZ, ATT, Sprint/T-mobile, and now Charter/Comcast have implemented into their networks. I am sure that everyone has gotten a call labeled fraud, scam, or even had a call go directly to VM.

If you are running a call center this is a battle you will constantly run into, doesn't matter if you are a medical facility, car dealership, or any legit business, your numbers may be at risk of being flagged due to their filtering and reported complaints.

You can submit whitelisting requests at the links below:
AT&T Wireless (HIYA)
Verizon Wireless (TNS)
T-Mobile (PrivacyStar)

Please note that they will verify your number and make sure that it is being answered by a live person, if not it will stay as a flagged number.

_____

Now if your customer is trying to use 3CX as a predictive dialer they may want to look at getting a specific dialer software, Spitfire dialer would be my recommendation.