Five Survey Insights on Consumer Calling Behavior and the Benefits of Branding Phone Calls

There’s no doubt it’s a digital world. But the need and desire for real connection with a human being through the personal touch of a phone call is still very present. It seems there’s nothing like a phone call to quickly resolve an issue. However, when interacting with businesses, consumers are faced with a growing conundrum. With the increase in robocalls, call spoofing, scams and fraud, each interaction seems fraught with alarm, making us all wonder: Should I answer this call?

We conducted a study of US consumers to better understand how they use the phone channel, especially when it comes to personal, complex or urgent issues with businesses. Read on to learn more about the conundrum consumers face when considering whether to answer your calls, as well as five key insights we gleaned from the survey. You’ll also discover how branded calling helps businesses securely reach more customers, enhance engagement and improve customer experiences through the phone channel.

1. The phone is still very relevant for connecting with consumers

Close to 80% of consumers told us the phone channel is important when communicating with businesses. As suspected, the desire to speak with a human on the phone was particularly important to consumers when they need to discuss personal, high-value, urgent or complex issues.

Here’s what they said:

64% discuss something personal (e.g., healthcare)

55% high-value decisions (e.g., financial investment, mortgage, car purchases)

55% in urgent circumstances (e.g., natural disaster assistance)

40% when making complex decisions (e.g., estate planning)

2. It’s a love-hate relationship: Consumers don’t trust the phone enough to pick up

Imposter scams and call spoofing are exploding and often involve the phone channel. Advances in AI, deepfake technologies and large language models are making it even trickier for consumers to tell the difference between real and fake phone calls. But robocalls, call spoofing and imposter scams don’t just impact consumers, they also affect businesses — especially financial institutions. In the past year, 64% of respondents received at least one call where the caller seemed to be impersonating someone else or was NOT who they claimed to be

Here’s what they said:

80% block calls from numbers they don’t know

74% don’t answer calls from unknown callers because they’re concerned they could be a scam

70% have NOT answered a phone call due to safety/fraud concerns, and afterward learned it was from a legitimate number

If businesses don’t take measures to reassure consumers it’s really them calling, and leverage technologies to protect them, people will continue to take their own measures to protect themselves.

3. Branding calls with rich content helps restore trust and enhance engagement

A key solution proven to help businesses reach more customers and increase engagement while protecting their brands is branded calling. With branded calling, businesses can add rich call content to the mobile display — including name, logo, number and reason for the call — along with STIR/SHAKEN verification the call has not been spoofed. The added context provides consumers with the reassurance they need to answer calls.

Here’s what they said:

73% would be likely to answer calls from businesses if their company names and logos were displayed on calls

61% would be very likely to answer a call on their mobile phones when they’re certain who’s calling

Branded calling is even more important when it comes to financial matters

When it comes to their wallets, consumers care even more about who’s really calling and whether it’s a scam. Over 90% of survey respondents said it was important for financial institutions to clearly identify who’s calling, and 65% said they want a phone call from their banks or financial institutions if there’s suspected fraud. In fact, they care so much, close to half (47%) said they’d be likely to change financial providers to one that ensures their calls haven’t been spoofed. And 38% would change providers to one that adds name, logo, number and reason for the call to the mobile display.

Here’s what consumers said:

91% felt it’s ‘somewhat important’ or ‘very important’ for financial institutions to clearly identify who’s calling when calling their customers

65% preferred a phone call from their banks/financial Institutions if there was suspected fraud on their accounts

4. Adding context improves CX and brand loyalty

The reassurance consumers feel when speaking with a real person by phone is also recognized by businesses when it comes to promoting a positive customer experience (CX). In a Forrester Consulting study of leading enterprises commissioned by Neustar, a TransUnion® company, 48% of respondents ranked the voice channel as critical to meeting customer service goals, and 41% said it’s important. Consumers told us their experiences would improve and they’d be more likely to remain loyal customers if businesses leveraged branded calling. What’s more, studies show enhancing CX by just 1% can lead to significant revenue increases as well.

Here’s what they said:

75% felt their CX with a business would improve if they could be certain calls they receive are from the business they expect them to be

73% would view a brand more or much more favorably if they added their names and logos to mobile phone displays during incoming calls

72% would be somewhat or very likely to remain a customer of businesses that verify their calls have not been spoofed and provide their names and logos on the mobile display

5. There are three critical features consumers really want to see on the mobile display

The most widely recognised framework regarding robocall mitigation is STIR/SHAKEN, instigated in North America in 2018 with the aim of authenticating and verifying caller ID information. Elements of the STIR/SHAKEN framework have been adopted in 78 countries other than the US and Canada.” - Juniper Research, Global Robocall Mitigation & Branded Calling market 2024–2029

Consumers are simply worn out from dealing with scams and demand more protection — or they just won’t answer the phone. In fact, our internal stats show 90% of customers don’t pick up your calls.

While consumers told us the top features they want to see on the mobile display include caller name and logo, they also want verification the call hasn’t been spoofed. That’s a smart move because branded calls can be spoofed too!

In fact, branded calls without call authentication may actually enable more fraud.  It’s critical STIR/SHAKEN call authentication be integrated into branded calling solutions to better ensure security.

Here’s what consumers said they want to see:

87% Caller name

64% Verification the call hasn’t been spoofed

61% Logo of caller

Learn how TransUnion Branded Call Display (BCD) can help you promote your business while protecting your customers and brand from phone fraud.