Phone Number Checker: How to Verify That You Get the Calls You Want

For any call-reliant business, the quality of inbound phone calls is paramount. It’s one thing to generate lots of calls and another thing to make sure you’re getting purchase-ready callers or – if you sell phone calls – delivering calls that match the advertiser’s expectations.

The good news is that today’s technologies make it possible to screen inbound phone calls before you buy them or before you send them to advertisers. Even a basic phone number checker – automatic and affordable – can sieve out irrelevant, low-quality, duplicate, and downright fraudulent calls.

“Put everything in one place – that’s what we tried to do. Phonexa is about tracking everything – the call outcomes, the source of the calls, the route that call went through, which publisher did it come from, which IVR model did it go through, which buyer bought the lead, and what happened next – and then reporting on everything to the point where you can then analyse it in real-time.” – David Pickard, CEO at Phonexa, from Phonexa’s Amplify webinar series

With iClear, part of Phonexa’s all-in-one performance marketing software suite, you can verify phone numbers in real-time, only authorising calls that meet your expectations. Likewise, you can distribute calls better between agents and advertisers.

Sounds good? Then read on to uncover all the benefits of phone number checks.

Book a demo to learn how iClear can help you get more value out of inbound phone calls.

Why You Need a Phone Number Validator, or Checker

First things first: Phone number verification software is crucial for any call-reliant business, but it works best when integrated into a comprehensive call analytics system that also factors in data like the lead’s engagement across channels, purchase history, and more.

Now back to phone number verification.

Here are the main benefits of an advanced phone number checker:

No Time Waste on Dead Numbers	Filtering out impossible, off-type, and irrelevant phone numbers enables higher connect rates and allows agents to spend more time on meaningful conversations that are more likely to result in a sale.
Custom Bidding Strategies	Knowing the origin of inbound phone calls makes it possible to modify your bids. For example, if Liverpool is your best location, you might be willing to pay the highest price for calls from this city.
Higher Call Acceptance Rates	Knowing the details of the caller’s phone number can help you avoid invalid, low-quality, and illegitimate calls. In the long run, elaborate call filtration can grow your reputation and help you secure higher per-call rates.
Traffic Quality Control	Knowing where your most quality calls are coming from, as well as the sources of invalid phone numbers, can improve budget allocation and prevent pipeline clogging.
Avoiding Duplicates	Converting phone numbers to the international E.164 format helps avoid duplicates, so you don’t pay for the same lead twice. Without phone number standardisation, on the other hand, there’s a chance that you occasionally buy the same phone numbers but in different formats.
Avoiding Extra Fees	Phone numbers starting with 084, 087, 09, and 070 may incur additional service charges, while some numbers cannot be used for SMS (for example, landline numbers 01, 02, and 03).
Smart Call Distribution	Some buyers may work with calls coming from mobile phones, some with landline calls, and some with VoIP and 03 business calls, which are typically B2B calls. Overall, a phone number checker helps you route callers to the best-matching advertiser.
Custom Openers	Having the phone numbers checker makes it possible to customise openers for outbound calls. In general, consumers tend to prefer local businesses.For example, if you’re targeting HVAC services in Leeds, you can open a conversation with a line like, “Hello, I’m calling about your air conditioner installation service inquiry in Leeds.”
Improved Predictive Modelling	Knowing phone number data helps build accurate predictive models and develop winning settings for your campaigns, whether you expand into new markets or recruit new affiliates.
Clear Communication with Affiliates	Standardising inbound phone call numbers can help streamline communication with affiliates, minimising friction and disputes related to returns.For example, when rejecting a lead, you specify a clear reason like “Personal 070”, “Premium 09”, or “Non-UK.”
Faster Connection	Identifying the full spectrum of outreach opportunities for a specific caller provides a chance to connect with them instantly via the most effective communication channel. For example, if you’ve received consent for SMS messages, you can text the caller immediately, even if you cannot reach them via a phone call.
Fraud Prevention	Blocking phone numbers with invalid length, random digits, and non-existing prefixes can help eliminate call fraud and keep your call pipeline clean. Likewise, you can reevaluate traffic sources that generate low-quality calls.
SAR Requests	Collecting metadata for inbound phone calls helps build a profile for every caller. Then, in case the caller sends a SAR request – a Subject Access Request that asks you for the personal data you hold about them under Article 15 of the UK GDPR – you can easily provide the necessary information.
Compliance	Phone verification ensures compliance and collects data for audits: what calls you’ve checked, when, and why they were allowed or blocked.

At the end of the day, though, the most important aspect of call verification is that it can be done before you buy or sell the call.

• As an advertiser, you can analyze all inbound calls across multiple criteria – not only the validity of the caller’s phone number but also dozens of other data points available through software like Call Logic – and make a data-driven purchase decision.
• As an affiliate, you can also set up a call processing system that only sells calls that pass your initial screening. With this strategy, you’ll become known for high-quality calls and may get a chance to negotiate higher rates or choose better affiliate programs
• As an affiliate network, validating phone calls that go through your system is absolutely crucial to keep it all clean and compliant at all times.

If you process 10,000 inbound phone calls monthly, with 10% of them having undesirable phone numbers, with operational costs being £10 per call, you can save £1,000 per month by blocking undesirable calls, not to mention you’ll get more connection opportunities.

Read also: Conversational Intelligence for UK Businesses: How to Convert Callers

Phone Verification with iClear

iClear: Phone Number Analysis	Real-time phone number fraud score	£0.001 per ping
iCLear: Phone Line Analysis	Checks whether a phone number is active, switched on, and assigned to a specific network	£0.005 per ping
iClear: Basic Phone Number Validation	Checks phone number validity based on the number’s format, type (mobile, landline, VoIP, toll-free, etc.), and region or country	£0.0005 per ping

Take a product tour to explore Phonexa’s call management software suite in action.

iClear: Basic Phone Number Validation at £0.0005 Per Ping

Basic Phone Number Validation is the most affordable check with iClear, which verifies that the caller’s phone number is in the expected format and type, and originates from the expected location. If all these criteria match, you can accept the call; otherwise, you can reject or at least flag the call.

Read Also: How To Transform Phone Calls into High-Value Leads with Phonexa

For example, you can choose to reject non-numeric phone numbers, numbers with incorrect lengths, and calls originating from outside the UK. In addition, you can provide users with auto-correction prompts so they get a chance to enter a valid phone number.

iCLear: Phone Line Analysis at £0.005 Per Ping

Phone Line Analysis is an in-depth check of a caller’s number that verifies whether the phone number is associated with a real SIM, is active on a network, and is reachable.

Here are the two popular use cases for Phone Line Analysis:·

• If the phone number is assigned and active, it likely belongs to a real consumer, so you can safely buy or sell this phone call
• If the phone number appears to be fixed or VoIP according to Phone Line Analysis, you may not want to buy or sell this number for its historically poor performance

Phone Line Analysis is a valuable tool for increasing the cost-effectiveness of call acquisition, eliminating ghost calls, and routing callers to the appropriate internal or external departments. Likewise, knowing the caller’s location, you can time the follow-up if they don’t respond or don’t convert on the first try.

As an affiliate, selling calls that are actually reachable is likely to increase acceptance rates and earnings per call, not to mention you’ll become a trusted traffic source within your affiliate network. For sources that don’t provide quality calls, you’ll be able to identify and fix the issues.

Call Processing Algorithm Example

Book a demo with Phonexa experts to learn all the ins and outs of smart call processing.

iClear: Phone Number Analysis at £0.001 Per Ping

Phone Number Analysis may be the most convenient check in the context of accepting or rejecting calls, as it quantifies the risk associated with the phone number. In practice, this means you don’t necessarily need to analyse every data item independently but rather process calls depending on their overall score, which, by and large, represents how likely they are to convert.

For example, you can reject high-risk calls altogether – calls with a risk score of 0-30 on a 100-point scale – accept calls with a risk score of 70 to 100, and flag calls that are somewhat risky for manual verification. Likewise, you can connect the least risky calls to the highest-paying advertisers or your best-performing agents.

Again, having risk scores for inbound calls is very convenient and practical, providing ample room for intelligent call distribution and enhanced fraud protection. For instance, you can enable additional phone number verification (such as a short code sent via SMS) for riskier calls, or adjust your campaigns based on the performance of your traffic sources.

Synchronous and Asynchronous Number Checks

One of the biggest advantages of phone number checks with iClear is that you can choose to run them before purchasing the call or without disrupting the call acquisition, with both methods making sense under different marketing scenarios:

• Synchronous phone number check pauses the call processing until the software screens the caller’s phone number against internal and external databases. Then, if the call passes the verification, it’s accepted; if the verification fails, it’s rejected. An asynchronous phone number check doesn’t pause the call processing but still verifies the call against internal and external databases.
• Asynchronous phone number check might make sense if you have limited time to acquire calls or trust your traffic source.

On top of that, you can choose the percentage of calls you’d like to check or set the parameters of the calls you’d like to check. For example, you may only want to verify calls that come from traffic source A while accepting all calls from source B, or you might want to check 10% of all inbound calls randomly.

Predictive Modelling for Call Campaigns

With Phonexa, one of the best things is that you can use all collected data comprehensively, including phone verification data, which you can plug into predictive models that forecast outcomes for the campaigns you’re going to launch, like, for example, paid ad campaigns.

Phonexa’s predictive modelling software can help you reveal the most profitable settings for call campaigns, like your best marketing channel, city, state, price, and more granular parameters like homeownership status. The more historical data you accumulate, the more accurate predictive algorithms become, and then you can simulate myriads of campaigns to go with the winners.

 

Your All-in-One Software Suite for Phone Calls and Leads

For many performance marketers, success comes when they’re finally able to coordinate various campaigns and data sets into a single omnichannel marketing strategy. Advanced marketing isn’t about collecting heterogeneous pieces of information individually but rather synergising seemingly unrelated information to unlock insights unavailable to competitors.

“Our ethos, our job is to build the most capable software possible and then get out of the way. Build all the features, all the functionality, give our clients pure flexibility, pure control, and failover redundancy – essentially, build a robust system that is never a thing that hinders our clients.The worst thing in the world is when you scale a brand, you start generating traffic, and then your system or your software is what’s holding you back. So our logic is to build as much functionality as you can under one roof and then get out of the way.” David Pickard, CEO at Phonexa, from Phonexa’s Amplify webinar series

This is what Phonexa does like no other software suite. With eight performance marketing solutions working in sync, we deliver all essential data on a silver platter, so you don’t have to juggle reports and systems to streamline your marketing. Whether phone calls or leads, you’ve got it all in one intuitive dashboard and are always in full control of the process.

 

Get Phonexa’s all-in-one performance marketing software suite at a single price:

Build your plan now, or book a demo to learn more about Phonexa.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I verify whether the caller’s phone number is genuine?

To check whether the caller’s phone number is real, you can use software like iClear, including one of its three phone verification features – Basic Phone Number Validation, Phone Line Analysis, or Phone Number Analysis – each providing a different angle and depth of verification. In most cases, to check the validity of a phone number, it’s recommended to use Basic Phone Number Validation.

Technically, phone number checkers compare the lead’s phone number against internal and external databases, as well as the data collected on the caller, such as the phone number they entered when submitting a form, their IP address, and other relevant information.

Can I verify the caller’s phone number before buying the calls?

Yes, you can verify the caller’s phone number before buying the call, which is called a synchronous check. Likewise, if you don’t want to pause the call acquisition process, you can check the caller’s phone number in parallel with buying the call, which is called an asynchronous check.

How much does a phone number checker cost?

iClear is one of the most affordable phone number checkers on the market, costing £0.001 per ping for Phone Number Analysis, £0.005 per ping for Phone Line Analysis, and £0.0005 per ping for Basic Phone Number Validation.