Robo-dialers indiscriminately dial large volumes of phone numbers without the recipients' consent. That means your Ringba numbers could be among them. This kind of call just takes up your time and resources, especially if your conversion criteria is based on time connected—these spam calls could accidentally convert!
Call flows can help you discourage robo-dialers by making the experience of calling your number unpredictable. By adding a splitter node to your call flow, you can require some callers to speak a keyword to confirm they want to continue. When robo-dialers go down the confirmation path, they can't speak the word, so the call ends and they learn your number is not worth dialing.
This article is for Ringba admin users. This article contains the following sections:
Setting up a Call Flow to Ask for Confirmation
This solution requires understanding of Ringba's call flow feature. If you're not already familiar with this feature, review these articles before you proceed:
Ask for Confirmation Call Flow
The following image shows an example of a call flow where some callers must verbally confirm they want to continue before Ringba dials the target.
The call flow contains these steps:
- The inbound call enters a splitter node that randomly assigns the call to either the path that immediately dials a target or the path that requires the caller to verbally confirm they want to continue.
- Calls that go down the Say Yes path go to a gather node set up to use voice response. The node prompts the caller with "Say yes to continue" and listens for the caller to say "yes."
- Human callers easily say "yes" and the call continues.
- Robo-dialers generally can't respond to a prompt like this, so those calls go through the On Failure path. The call ends and the robo-dialers records that this number is not worth calling.
- Calls that successfully complete the gather node continue to the go to node, which sends them to the same dial node as the calls that didn't go down the Say Yes path to begin with.
Tips for Implementing This Solution
- The main use case for the splitter node is to set up A/B tests. This is a different use case, but you can still keep an eye on the performance of each path to make sure the splitter isn't significantly reducing your call volume.
- If you set up a menu or gather node to use the Say option, the node converts the words you enter into a spoken prompt for the caller. If you set up more than one node that uses the Say option in the same call flow, make sure you select the same voice option to read all the prompts. Using a consistent voice across all nodes gives users a unified call experience.
Thwarting Robo-Dialers FAQ
What should I do if I need help with my call flows?
If you have any questions or need additional help, please reach out to our support team via chat or email at support@ringba.com.