Latest / The Tech Matchmaker / Why Branded Calling Matters: How Pacific East Boosts Answer Rates & Fixes Spam Tags
Transcript
- Gina Gibson: Welcome to the Tech Matchmaker, the show where contact center challenges meet their perfect tech match. I'm your host, Gina Gibson, and in just 15 minutes, we serve up the smartest, coolest innovation shaking up the contact center industry. Whether you're searching for your next solution or just love staying ahead of the curve, we've got the insights to keep you in the know. Let's dive in and discover what's next. I promise you it's going to be fun. Good morning, everybody. Today we're chatting with Lindy Neustater, Executive Director of Branding and Data Solutions at Pacific East about branded communications. It's great to have you here, Lindy. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for hanging out with us on the Tech Matchmaker. I hope today's spotlight sparked some fresh ideas and real solutions for your contact center. Want to dive deeper into the tech we featured? Hit up the show notes for all the links and extras and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if there's a challenge you want us to tackle, don't be shy, reach out. I'll catch you soon with more innovation, more use cases and more ways to keep your business moving forward. Lindy Neustaedter: Thank you, Gina. I'm excited to have this chance to share a little bit with you and hopefully give some insightful information today. Gina Gibson: Awesome. Let's start with the basics. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Lindy Neustaedter: Well, I am one of those dual people I spend half my time in Canada Maybe not quite half and half in Arizona So I'm in Calgary right now but heading back to Arizona and I have a wonderful privilege of working with so many different client clients across the US and so that takes me in to wonderful different into the areas of that country which I love and you my my My I think blessing in having this type of a role is that I get to meet so many really cool people and being you know in their Gina Gibson: Stay curious, stay bold, and keep exploring what's next. Lindy Neustaedter: back room so to speak to help them solve some of their big issues and I thrive on that and that's what I think keeps me going every morning. I'm always excited to be a solution provider but more importantly someone who can really solve big issues for people even though you know oftentimes they don't know the issue until it bites them and so we're there to help quickly and you know it's just been a pleasure and right off the top you know I'll share something that was super cool recently. I had a client say to me, just recently actually sent an email and took the time which you know is always wonderful when they do that and they were just saying you know in this world of automation and submitting a ticket and you know basically just fighting to try and get answers for issues and problems, said you're one of if ⁓ he said what you're one of the few and really the only ⁓ or supplier that we work with that actually responds and actually spends time with us and actually you works hand-in-hand with us and he said I just need you to know that such a rare entity in today's world and I know Gina you're you know you are also built from that same cloth of getting your you know rolling up your sleeves and working hard to solve clients issues and so that was really wonderful to hear recently and sometimes we need that little remembrance that our job is a people job. Gina Gibson: Absolutely. It must be our Canadian roots, Lindy. ⁓ Go ahead into giving us your Pacific East elevator pitch. Lindy Neustaedter: Yeah. Okay, well Pacific East has been a wonderful, very respected company that's been around for over 35 years and they've been really a leading and I think exemplary source of contact data verification solutions. So I always like to say if anybody's going to find you the right contact data, you know, to cleanse your client base, your member base, your patient base, it's going to be us. They have a plethora of repositories to get people the right phone numbers, right... emails, all the things. And on top of that, some really enrichment stuff that includes like age and deceased contact data. And so they've worked with some of the most respected organizations across those 35 years and I think the testimony to them is some of them are still, you know, in the door to this day using them ⁓ and are, you know, are great ambassadors of what we do day in and day out. So with that, kind of platform and that being our core legacy business. ⁓ five plus years ago a lot of our clients were having issues with you know saying well you know I don't know if our contact data is any good because nobody's answering the phone or you know nobody's even answering emails. So with respect to the phone side we were one of the originators and kind of knocked on the door and worked hand-in-hand with each of the wireless carriers to develop and launch branded calling as it is today. So thankfully because our Our core team has such a long telecom history. We got to bring that to life and we've since been, I think... uniquely there's so many different solutions that are popping up in that space that are you know kind of half-baked I'm going to say very generically and that really aren't you know the ticket to solving the issue which is the spam tagging issue and the branding issue and we can brand across all carriers ⁓ our secret sauce is really about the fact again that we have such solidified and strong relationships with each of the carriers and their analytic providers that we can get the job done and get those numbers remediated because branding isn't to get out of jail free card. The algorithm, you know, doesn't discern, you know, who is a good guy and who's a bad guy. They just look at calling practices. And so we try to, that's where we get hand in hand with our clients and say, okay, you know, this is what you're doing that could be triggering those spam tags. And we give them all the things and I'm happy to share more about that after. But yeah, so we're, you know, again, the beautiful thing. about both of those entities, is the, making sure that when you're calling out to people, you actually have the right phone number and or the email. So that is a silver bullet in and of itself so that you're not wasting dollars with all your technology calling people that it's not the right phone number, you know, that you don't have the right email. And that also puts you in compliance, you know, a hotbed, so to speak, because if you are and you unknowingly or inadvertently call a wrong number that's no longer assigned to Gina and that person on the other end is litigious, let's say, you know, we make sure that we also help with the do not call lists and the non-litigators scrub. So we do that as part of that contact data. So the correct, accurate phone numbers and keeping you compliant combined with the branded calling is really our huge secret sauce. So we can not only remediate better than anybody else, but we can also actuate the numbers that you're calling to better than anyone else. So I think that's what's really been a value to the clients that we've had the privilege to work with all through this. Gina Gibson: That's awesome. And there's a lot to unpack in what you just said. And so let me start by a quick question. As we head into 2026, do you think the voice channel is still kind of going to be the most effective way to reach out to people? Or do you think it's kind of evolving into something totally different? Lindy Neustaedter: You know, that's a huge... I think that's such an important question, right? And I would say for our clients that are now doing exactly what I just laid out, right? They're specific in that outreach. I mean, I think there's always, it's necessary to have an omni-channel approach. I don't think, you know, one is a silver bullet for all the reasons, right? If you're doing appointment reminders and all of those kinds of things, you're not going to necessarily, you know, be able to staff to get that call put out. You're going to text or you're going to, you know, do all the automated things come alongside of that. But when it is a race to get to that customer for whatever that is, ⁓ a healthcare situation or all the things, the best and most successful way to have that meaningful, hopefully ⁓ ROI conversation, right? Whether I'm going to engage you for the first time or whether I need to give you some critical health results, the call will always be valued. And similar to what I said about that client ⁓ mentioning that what a unique thing that there's actually human that's willing to work with me and help me. I think there's so much more pushback that we're hearing from clients when they've tried to automate everything that you know people yeah certainly we all want the quickest results in terms of whether it be a customer service request or everything else but we also when we need help or when we need answers we want it now. We don't want to file a ticket we don't want to go on a chat and then be ⁓ wait we're going to connect you that I mean it's everybody's overwhelmed because the you know the commodity is time. Right and so time to you know reach out to people time to respond to people We're all inundated our inboxes or our social media, right? It's it's a full-time job managing your personal email let alone your professional email, so I I do see and feel Gina Gibson: Absolutely. Yeah. Lindy Neustaedter: because of the results that we're able to deliver that those clients who have you know kind of bought in to you know call first with a branded call text next if you need to get to that second touch point with the number that you branded so that there is that trust right there right because there's things happening now when you you know when if you have a bucket of numbers that you're texting from that what you know there's the whisper feature Gina Gibson: Thank you. Lindy Neustaedter: that T-Mobile is doing right where they're getting an answered ⁓ voice recording basically saying hang up this could be a spam number. You know we're all much more highly sensitive to clicking on things or even opening an email and if it's a call and you know who it is like it's kind of a no-brainer right? If it's your doctor you know your cardiologist or your insurance broker or all the things and there's familiarity or even just a you know if it's Gina Gibson: Yep. Lindy Neustaedter: first time encounter and you you you've applied online to get a call back and you actually get a call back you're gonna answer that right? Gina Gibson: Well, it's funny because there was I was thinking like, there's something that happens psychologically when you see a familiar brand name, right? Like that, just like you were saying, it's it's ⁓ I know this person or it's the comfort and it's that trust that actually comes out there. But you've talked a little bit about brand delivery. Can you explain for the audience, like, how does it actually work and how does it work natively across the different carriers so that it doesn't require any other additional work from our customers, right? So as a customer, how does that, what do you do and how does that work for them so it's not an additional step? Lindy Neustaedter: Yeah, and that's often one of the first questions we can ask, right? Like, what does the integration look like? Because we're often working with the IT team and part of it is, oh, we've got all these other things we have to basically onboard and integrate. And we're like, no, this is simple. Other than signing the paperwork, which is really the most difficult part, right? The client will give us their phone numbers. And then after we've done all the due diligence on our side to verify that that company is who they say they are. And then we load their numbers, how they want them branded, 32 characters to AT &T, T-Mobile and Verizon. And then off we go. It's 24 to 48 hours to get live and going on T-Mobile and Verizon. AT &T is a longer process, but it's five to 10 days often to get that rolling. ⁓ And then there's, after that, it's wonderful. We have a portal that can view all our total calls. per number, per brand, they can see answer rates from one of the carriers, they, we, then we take over that piece, right? So in that next step, that's where our job is to be monitoring their numbers because like I said earlier, branding isn't to get at a jail-free card. So if we have a health, provider and they're, you know, doing mobile care, let's call it, or home losses or all of that, and they need to call you to get your gate code and they're calling you more than two times because you're not answering or they're saying, I think we have the wrong, know, so oftentimes there's those types of calls. Number one, they're probably calling after state legislative call times. Number two, they're calling you more than once because you're not answering for all the reasons and that person is there to, you know, ⁓ whatever the purpose is. So if we see that one of our client's numbers is going hot on whichever carrier, then we're able to fix that. to the new advent of what we're doing ⁓ ⁓ &T, that would even still for a branded ⁓ because ⁓ enormity of calls that were getting spam tagged ⁓ AT &T, because their algorithm is much more aggressive and erratic than the other carriers often, ⁓ it would take us, yeah, like, you know, take us a few days to get that cooled off, right? But, ⁓ back to functioning again, and not always, but you know, there were ⁓ ⁓ the standpoint of the analytical provider for AT &T it took time because of the volume of calls that they were remediating because of their algorithm. So now with our new processes, the new you know I'll call it red phone that we have in that situation we're able to like we just we just had a huge group of numbers for a few number of different clients and they were remediated in two hours. I'm not gonna guarantee that because that doesn't always happen. It was like a woohoo moment I was like oh my that was woohoo but it happened. Gina Gibson: Yeah. Lindy Neustaedter: And now we're seeing it quicker and better like it's ⁓ you know, it can be 24 hours depending on when that ticket goes in on our part. But nonetheless what's happening is there's so many other we'll call them you know old school or alternate solutions that a lot of you know, if dialer platforms or software platforms or AI platforms are using to solve the spam tagging issues and they're cheaper, right? So they feel like they'd be a good fix. So they're going to swap out numbers as soon as they tell them one of their numbers is hot. so, but that swapping out and switching numbers actually creates more spam tagging for that company. And so that whack-a-mole, as I call it, you know, it's an endless cycle. And the poor team that has to, you know, if it's the contact center team or the IT team that has to try and navigate that, that's a huge time sack for them, right? They, it's almost impossible to win that game. those band-aid solutions that were all that we had prior to branded calling, can work momentarily, but again, it doesn't help the reputation of those numbers stay clean. And more than ever, ⁓ seeing that even in those situations where we know that those clients are doing things that the algorithm will say bad actor, right? Like ⁓ ⁓ things are happening and ⁓ able to fix it. ⁓ Gina Gibson: ⁓ huh. Lindy Neustaedter: that just take that huge you know pain point off their plates is worth that you know it's it's truly a game changer for them for all the reasons. Gina Gibson: And you've mentioned a couple of times, know, ⁓ part of your differentiator is that you're the best at remediation. And talk a little bit about that and any other differentiators that makes you unique in the environment. Because there's, like you said, you're not the only one. There's cheaper ones coming out now and people are believing, hey, we can just write a bot to do this and it'll take care of it. Just kind of talk a little bit about that and why the human touch and why Pacific East is important. Lindy Neustaedter: Yeah, good question. And I think with respect to the, know, obviously the bad actors are really good at working through these same solutions also. And fortunately, we're not allowing them to brand. That's part of our due diligence at the front end, right? To make sure that, you know, this company is who they say they are. So that often, you know, is one differentiator, right? Is that we are making sure that the good guys have a good path to get their call through. But, you know, with respect to like what we do in the back end, the carrier algorithms are always changing. Like really even just this week Verizon has ramped up again for some reason, right? And so we're on top of that and that's the difference too with a lot of the other, ⁓ I'll call them more automated solutions that even come. So we'll have a, you know, we'll call them different kinds of dialer platforms, right? And they're using various other solution providers. Some cannot brand on all carriers. Some cannot remediate on all carriers. So that in and of itself is our biggest differentiator. ⁓ And then secondly, it's a two hop thing for a lot of them, right? We're the direct... conduit to those analytic providers for our customers. So, you know, if they're working through a software provider, let's call it, you know, a dialer platform, whatever it is, and there's many out there. And that's the thing, we are platform agnostic. We have clients who use all, you you name them, we have clients using them. You know, everything from a RingCentral to a Nice to a Five9. And those, you know, some of those have solutions around the branding or the remediation, but they're not encompassing all of the necessary, you fixes let's say to keep this clean and moving smoothly and we are basically you've employed us to make sure that we are on it and that's where our portal comes in but we like our clients to not have to worry right and don't have to you know continually you know pick up the phone and if they do we're quick to respond and say we're working on it we already put you know we're already on it right like we know we know so I think you know that's the that's the secret sauce again is that we're on it you know Gina Gibson: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Lindy Neustaedter: It's not perfect and if anybody claims it's perfect, it's not. know, we deal with a, it's a, you know, evolving industry in terms of the brand of calling. But I think, you know, if it's, it's like everything, you know, ironically, you pay what you get for, right? And certainly there is a value to knowing that your numbers are hot and there's organizations and platforms out there that can tell you your numbers are hot. Gina Gibson: Yeah. Yeah. Lindy Neustaedter: But then again, you're going to solutions that may worsen the problem. And that is, I think it's trial by error. I think a lot of clients who've been there done that, finally they're pulling their hair out and they're going, this is, I can't, like this is too much, right? We've got to hire two full-time people to just deal with, you know, working around this and buying more numbers and swapping out numbers. you know, there's so many strategies now that we work with clients on, just even in that realm. Gina Gibson: Yeah. Lindy Neustaedter: like I said, like you know, I think our one-two punch with having the contact data, one of the big triggers for the algorithms is if clients are calling because the algorithms from the analytic providers, they put in numbers that they know are not allocated to someone. So if you unknowingly, like I've said before, call a number and you know, you've got a huge member list that you've been tasked as an organ, as a healthcare provider for example, to call out on. And if only 50 % of those contacts have actually been, you know, that they are, you know, that's Gina's number and this is her email, ⁓ get consistent reports that, ⁓ my gosh, like 50 % of those 100,000 members, ⁓ know, we couldn't even reach because we didn't have the right phone numbers, but they've tried them and they've tried them repeatedly until they finally figure out. ⁓ in that process, ⁓ have... ⁓ now created, you know, that their numbers are coming up on the bad list because they're calling in allocated numbers. So for us to be able to do that with an API and append the phone numbers to get them the accurate phone numbers ⁓ in that instance, wow, right? Gina Gibson: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Lindy Neustaedter: Depending on the budget, mean, if they have, you know, if they're just cleansing X records per month or whatever, then we do a batch file, right? And we turn that out around and, you know, as quickly as possible, often in 24 hours. So we don't want them to be stalled in the process. that is, you know, there's other things that now are happening in this world, like, you know, if you're calling and you're not connecting the call, that's also going to trigger a spam tag, right? So if you're queuing up, ⁓ Gina Gibson: Okay. Lindy Neustaedter: So if you're queueing up calls in the dialer and you abort that one because you're taking the live person that answered and you didn't complete the call, that is a huge trigger for the algorithms. There's a length of time that is now our recommended must-do to show that you are actually, you know, you're actually in a real deal making a call that's important. And know a lot of times when you're using BPO's for example and you're paying for live time let's call it and you don't want that agent to leave a voicemail or complete the call because you want them to be on to the next, on to the next. That again is triggering a lot of spam tagging even for our branded clients. So we're saying I know it's money on that end but Gina Gibson: Right. Lindy Neustaedter: You know, you have to pick your poison, right? Gina Gibson: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. That's a lot to digest. Now, I would just add that I think even like your initial story about the White Glove Service and about being there is probably a differentiator from a lot of the competition out there as well. As we're wrapping up, is there anything that I haven't asked you that you'd like to share with the audience today, Lindy? Lindy Neustaedter: You know... I think we pretty much covered it all. You know, one of the biggest things I always say to clients that are checking us out, so to speak, and I just had it yesterday is because there's all these other companies that are popping up and I'm like, ⁓ I haven't even heard of them. And there's other, I'll call it solutions. then you know, my push back, not push back, but my recommendation is ask them to call you and show you that they brand their calls, that they will brand your calls. Gina Gibson: Yeah. That's weird. Lindy Neustaedter: Because as in everything in life, the proof is in the pudding. Gina Gibson: Absolutely. Lindy Neustaedter: And then the second step to that is we do obviously a 90-day proof of concept. And although that can be a pain point for if customers have a really extensive onboarding protocol, right? And they're like, ⁓ you know, so there's sometimes leeriness in that. But the beauty in that is it really is if, you know, for whatever reason and we scale with a client. So if they start and they just want to do a crawl walk run, we live in that space. We're saying just take 10 % of your number or 10 % of your call volume, try it out. Do the apples to apples comparison just in that way and then once you see, you know, we're giving you a 200 plus percent increase in your answer rate. We always say at a minimum 20 % but we're seeing ginormous, you know, increases like 200 % increases in answer rates if they're doing all the things. They've got the right contact data, they've got the, you know, the brand of calling solution, we're remediating their numbers swiftly, they can have tremendous results. you know, proof in the pudding. Do take advantage of the POC, scale it at a, you know, price point, a number volume, and maybe, and that's the other thing. Half the time, you know, they were using a thousand numbers and they cut that down to 50 numbers because we were able to keep their calling, you know, operational and functioning. So there's savings if you do it the right way. Gina Gibson: Yeah. Yeah, I love that. To wrap up the podcast, Lindy, ⁓ I've always been a fan of James Lipton. And so we do a little bit of rapid fire to end it. So what's your favorite word? Lindy Neustaedter: beauty. Gina Gibson: What's your least favorite word? Lindy Neustaedter: pain. Gina Gibson: And what excites you the most? Lindy Neustaedter: People, I love people. Gina Gibson: Lindy, if somebody wants more information on using Pacific East and the benefits, who should they reach out to? Lindy Neustaedter: Well, I would love to intersect them and have an opportunity to share more. So feel free, I might email, think you might have an opportunity to post it, but it's very long and but it's L.U. Stater at pacificeast.com. You can find me on LinkedIn under Lyndy U. Stater. ⁓ And we've got some great blogs that really, I think even better provide some of those nuggets that get you the success you need across all our solutions. And we're thrilled at any time to pick it up and help. Gina Gibson: you Lindy Neustaedter: out and scale with them to give them a really great outcome. Gina Gibson: Excellent. Thank you so much for being our guest, Lindy. And thank you for joining us. It's been very informative and I really appreciate your time. Thanks so much. Lindy Neustaedter: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.