3 Reasons Why Businesses Should Use Number Discovery APIs (Number Lookup)

Businesses rely on telecommunications to engage with their customers, promote products and services, and move consumers through their sales funnels. The problem is, companies are unable to reach all of their customers all of the time. Dead phone numbers, wrong phone numbers, outdated information -- all these can prevent businesses from communicating with customers.

There is a solution to this problem. Number lookup, also number as HLR (Home Location Register) lookup, validates phone numbers by querying a central database which has mobile number details. The result? Companies can find out who a number belongs to, validate customers before they communicate with them, and update their databases with the correct information. Here's how a number lookup API helps businesses in various industries.

1. Contact the Intended Recipient

The average person will change their phone number several times in their lifetime. Someone might switch their network or choose a cell plan that requires a new phone number, for example. In most cases, companies won't receive details about a phone number change from a customer.

A number lookup service prevents this from happening. The latest software will contact a central database to validate whether a person's phone number is still in use. Companies can find out information like phone number validity and status and whether someone has ported a phone number. As a result, companies can send telecommunications like SMS to the intended recipient without any of the fuss.

As more consumers become wary of data collection, many of them provide companies with incorrect contact details.

"People are deliberately giving brands false data about themselves to protect their privacy, and are ignoring brands' efforts to empower them to take control of their data," says Marketing Week.

Number lookup APIs can provide companies with a way to prove information quickly and securely so they can optimize their sales and marketing tasks.

2. Save Money on Wasted Text Messages

Most companies use SMS marketing to notify their customers about products and services. This is one of the most effective marketing methods out there because nearly everyone has a cell phone -- 224.3 million people in the United States, to be exact. Cell phone usage has exploded in the Middle East and Africa, too. Experts predict there will be 789.2 million cell phone users by the end of 2019. Response rates to SMS messages are astonishingly high, too -- 7.5 times higher than email, in fact.

However, many companies are wasting money on sending SMS messages to the wrong people. They have outdated information in their databases and no way to get in touch with the intended recipient.

Using a number lookup service, however, will provide companies with valuable intelligence about their customers. These insights will reduce the cost of wasted SMS messages.

3. Clean Up Databases

Databases with incorrect, outdated information could cost businesses millions of dollars a year. This is a huge problem for companies in almost every vertical. Research shows that a massive 85 percent of stored data is redundant, trivial, or obsolete.

What can companies do about this issue? Number lookup APIs will cleanse existing databases by validating phone numbers and other contact details. Consequently, companies can remove or update incorrect numbers.

Companies who use a number lookup service can contact the intended recipient, save money on wasted texts, and clean up their existing databases. This is why number lookup APIs have exploded in popularity in recent years.

Looking for an authentication solution that validates the phone numbers in your database?