How to use phone number masking to enhance customer experience

Companies are aware that as long as they take care of their customers, the business will keep going. At the end of the day, it’s them who buy our products and use our services, so keeping their satisfaction on the right level is our priority. We see brands experiment with different campaigns or add functionalities to their online platforms to offer even more convenience to users. What’s interesting is how they started implementing phone number masking to enhance customer experience.

One of the first things that make users abandon an online platform is poor user experience. Customers who feel like they’re not given enough quality simply choose your competition. That’s why building trust can make them stay and continue to use your services. One thing that can help you achieve this is the number masking and tracking system. 

Phone number masking and call tracking - the mechanism 

The mechanism of a system uses virtual phone numbers that aren’t linked to any physical phone line. There are two ways to use call masking:

To mask the seller's number

A seller places an ad, but instead of advertising their real number, they use a virtual one. Using number masking helps them avoid spam calls as the virtual numbers can be disabled anytime. What’s more, a seller can advertise several different virtual numbers to see which ad or which placement generates better results. 

To mask the buyer’s number 

Phone number masking can be implemented in the form of an automated call-back ad that connects both parties in less than 20 seconds. When users click on the ad, the masked number is shared with the seller, who can answer right away or call back later. This way, both sides can communicate easily without exposing their private contacts. Once the call is over, the virtual numbers become inactive. 

All calls can be tracked, helping sellers to spot things that could use improvement. Call tracking provides sellers with details such as: 

• Who called whom 
• When the call happened
• How long it lasted 
• Which ad generated the call

How to use the technology to enhance customer experience 

The three most important things you need to provide your customers with are data protection, convenience, and super fast service. All three can be achieved by implementing the call masking and tracking system into your platform. 

This solution enhances the customer experience by: 

• building trust across your brand, providing customers with an option to contact sellers without exposing any personal contact details; 
• improving quality and consistency of sellers’ response times with the use of the automated call-back button that cuts waiting time to less than 20 seconds;
• tracking the call parameters and finding opportunities to improve or optimize the services on your platform.

Accelerate sales by building trust in your business

An LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) provider has already started increasing their monthly orders thanks to the call tracking and masking technology. The company has a dedicated mobile app that allows customers to order LPG cylinder installation. Starting from April 2019, they introduced a phone number masking service to make the platform the safest place on the Internet to buy liquefied petroleum gas. 

The customers used to call a vendor to discuss the order’s details, so they had to use their real phone numbers and share them with the seller. The LPG company decided to implement a call-back widget that would allow customers to call vendors without exposing their personal contact information. 

Phone number masking increased the platform’s safety and encouraged buyers and sellers to handle the transaction details by phone call. As a result, the company increased the number of monthly orders to 80 000. The process of making the purchase was improved and remain convenient but with a little extra protection. In the end, both sides can easily communicate without violating someone’s privacy. The technology helped in facilitating purchases and protecting sensitive user data. 

Enhance customer experience with Apifonica 

1. Start with choosing how you want to implement number masking on your platform → you can do it here. 
2. Set up the call tracking mechanism to get insight into client-seller conversations
3. Monitor the needs of customers and learn how they usually contact your company 
4. Use the collected information to enhance customer experience and increase the volume of transactions.

Using the information collected by the call masking and tracking system, you have all that's needed to upgrade the quality you offer.