How to Prevent Spam Calls and Robocalls with Virtual Receptionists

Americans received 33 million robocalls a day in 2023. While many of those went to homes and personal cell phones, a significant number went to businesses. 

Those calls are more than a mere annoyance. They cost your team time, reduce productivity, and come with a financial cost. 

The FCC estimates that robocalls cost US businesses $3 billion per year in wasted time alone. That total doesn’t include the cost of mitigating security breaches stemming from spam calls (an average of $4.45 million).

Thankfully, business owners and decision-makers are not powerless in the face of robocalls. With the help of virtual receptionists, you can reclaim your team’s time, attention, and productivity while protecting your business from security breaches.

What are robocalls?

Before we dive too deep into the discussion, let’s talk about robocalls and how they compare to spam calls. Are all robocalls spam? No, they’re not.

A robocall is any automated phone call. That automated call from your doctor’s office reminding you of your appointment at the end of the week? That’s a robocall. Most of us deal with robocalls regularly, and they don’t negatively affect us. They can be quite useful for both the business making the robocall and the person receiving it. 

However, there’s a darker side to robocall technology: spam.

What are spam calls?

Spam calls are nothing more than unsolicited robocalls. Many telemarketing companies have switched from human callers to robots to cut costs and increase their volume. Some of those telemarketers are aboveboard – they are legitimately trying to sell your business a product or service. You simply didn’t approve of their call.

However, a subset of these calls are genuine threats. You’re probably aware of the most nefarious scams we’ve seen in recent years: extended car warranties, school loans, and taxes. Those are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. You’ll find a wide range of others, from loans to free trials, charities to insurance, and everything in between.

In all cases, the scammer is attempting to sell your business something fraudulently. In a best-case scenario, they’re just after a one-time payoff. In a worst-case scenario, they’re phishing, and the goal is to get into your computer network to steal invaluable business and customer data.

Exploring the effects of spam calls on your business

As a business owner, you cannot simply ignore phone calls. And it’s no simple feat to determine whether a call is genuine or fraudulent, even with technologies like caller ID. That’s because it’s all too easy for scammers to spoof other phone numbers to make the call appear legitimate. So, what happens when businesses answer those spam calls? 

Lost productivity

We’ve already touched on this one, but it bears further exploration. A single robocall per day can erase hundreds of hours of productivity over the course of a year. And what business only receives just one robocall a day? If yours is like most, you field several each day. 

Fraud

While some scammers want your business’s money, others want to steal your data. Spam call-related fraud is on the rise around the world, and it’s an immense threat that can cost you millions of dollars and destroy your reputation.

Increased spam calls

If you answer and engage with a robocall, chances are good that the number of such calls you receive will increase. That’s because spammers realize that you’re an “easy mark” and will do everything in their power to exploit what they believe is your weakness.

How can virtual receptionists offset the risk of spam calls?

While there’s no way to guarantee your business never receives another robocall, there is a way to filter the calls you receive. Virtual receptionists can help recapture time your team loses dealing with robocalls, as well as the risk of fraud and security breaches from spam calls. 

Automated spam blocking

With the right partner, you get a two-step call routing process that ensures you don’t have to deal with robocalls and that you’re not subjected to spam calls. One of the most important parts of this is automated spam blocking. 

By using a list of known spammers (both individuals and organizations), it’s possible to filter out almost all spam calls coming to your business. And if one manages to make it through, that information can be automatically added to the list so that it won’t happen a second time.

Human call screening

The second half of the call routing process uses human receptionists to further screen the calls that make it through the automated process. Genuine calls from customers, vendors, suppliers, and other people you truly need to communicate with are forwarded to the appropriate team member. However, any spam or unwanted calls that make it through the automated process are blocked by live receptionists, who record the phone number and add it to the spam list.

Helping you reclaim lost time and revenue while protecting your business and customers

Today, 20% of the calls your business receives are spam or robocalls, and that number is growing every single day. Each call puts your business and customers at risk. It’s time to act. 

Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists are your first and second lines of defense. In fact, with 24/7 phone answering, you don’t even have to worry about spam calls going to voicemail after hours. We’ve built one of the most robust collections of spam numbers and organizations, which makes it easy to block those calls immediately. Our expert receptionists field the rest, ensuring that you never need to worry about unsolicited robocalls again. 

Of course, we can offer so much more than spam call protection. From outbound callbacks to SMS text answering, warm phone transfers to appointment booking and reminders, we do it all. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.