How Nonprofits Can Increase Answer Rates with Trusted Calling

Trusted Calling for Nonprofits & Governments

What are missed voice calls costing your organization? As a nonprofit or government organization using Twilio Voice, this may be impacting your bottom line much more than you think. For instance, every patient no-show that misses an appointment reminder call costs healthcare organizations $265 in revenue. Relatedly, a study showed a 22% decrease in repeat donors when one-time nonprofit givers were not reached via voice to thank them. These missed calls can add up to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted costs for your organization each year.

Luckily, Twilio’s Trusted Calling suite can equip you with the necessary tools to boost call answer rates and, in turn, increase overall ROI from the Voice channel. Check out the 5 minute video below and read on to learn more about how Trusted Calling can increase engagement and build more trust with constituents:

Robocalls and spam have eroded trust with constituents

Most of us have personal experience with the unpleasantness of receiving a robocall or unwanted voice solicitation. It’s also no surprise that these spam calls have gotten significantly worse in the last decade. Four billion robocalls are received by consumers every month in the U.S. alone, and the FCC has denoted robocalls as their #1 consumer complaint as well as their top consumer protection priority.

Because of this, individuals have a significant incentive to screen unwanted calls. A 2022 study showed 75% of Americans never answer calls from numbers they do not recognize. Relatedly, in an attempt to protect consumers, telecom carriers have begun proactively labeling suspicious calls as spam.

Unfortunately, this has come at the expense of well-intentioned nonprofit and government organizations who rely on voice for their highest priority conversations.

How Twilio Trusted Calling increases constituent answer rates

Trusted Calling from Twilio is a suite of “Know Your Customer” (KYC) capabilities that can significantly increase your call answer rates. Through registering more information about your organization with Twilio and its carrier ecosystem partners, you can ensure more constituents pick when you call. In fact, one Twilio healthcare customer saw answer rates increase by over 100% for calls with Trusted Calling enabled¹.

In today’s telephony ecosystem, three main determinants influence whether a call is ultimately answered or not:

1. Authentication: Is this a verified caller?

2. Reputation: What is the likelihood that this is a spam call?

3. Presentation: Who is calling me and why?

Trusted Calling from Twilio provides you with the ability to address all three of these elements with a single solution that works across carriers. 

• SHAKEN/STIR marks your calls as ‘verified’ when sent to carriers so these networks and end-users trust them [Authentication]. 

• Voice Integrity  (beta) prevents marking your calls as spam by using SHAKEN/STIR and other data to boost your brand’s standing with carriers  [Reputation] . 

• Branded Calling (beta) / CNAM address presentation, allowing you to announce yourself to call recipients. Branded Calling is used for mobile handsets, CNAM for landlines  [Presentation].

The three layers of Trusted Calling are summarized below:

By enabling all of these capabilities on your Twilio account, you can build credibility with carriers and end-users to avoid both call screening and blocking. More connected calls can mean fewer patient no-shows, more recurring donors, and more. 

How nonprofits and governments can benefit from Trusted Calling

Once SHAKEN/STIR, Voice Integrity, and Branded Calling are enabled for your organization, you can boost call answer rates immediately. Note that no matter how you’re using Twilio Voice – in your contact center with Flex, using Programmable Voice APIs, or with Elastic SIP Trunking – Trusted Calling can be enabled for your outbound calls.

See below for some mockups for on how voice calls with Trusted Calling enabled would eventually appear to constituents of fictitious nonprofit and government organizations:

For healthcare organizations: Owl Health gets through to more patients with upcoming appointments by adding their brand name (available now), logo, and call reason (coming soon) displayed as part of a verified call.

For nonprofits: Owl.org converts more recurring donors by reaching more first time givers with a personalized thank-you that makes it evident who is calling and why.

For higher ed institutions: Owl University increases their yield of prospective → enrolled students through a congratulatory call which clearly offers enrollment support that encourages them to pick up.

For government agencies: Owl Gov can recruit program participants more effectively and avoid call blocking by clearly displaying an offer for social benefits when making a call to eligible residents.

Even a modest increase in call answer rates can have a material impact on the financial efficiency of your voice programs. Because voice is often used for the highest-value interactions, your revenue generated and avoided costs associated with more answered calls can significantly impact program ROI. Based on Twilio’s internal analyses, this could yield tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in incremental fundraising revenue, avoided appointment no-show expenses, or additional tuition revenue².

Get Started with Trusted Calling

If you’re interested in learning more about Trusted Calling and getting started on your Twilio account, I encourage you to speak with your Twilio account representative or contact our sales team.

Jeff Eiden is a Director of Product for Twilio.org, helping social impact organizations scale their missions with digital engagement.

¹ 62% answer rate for Branded Calls vs. 20% un-branded during a ninety day experiment period where Branded Calls  activated for a subset of call traffic. Total sample 720k calls - 57,000 Branded (8%) vs 663k Not Branded (92%).

² Analysis forecasts revenue impact of increasing call answer rates from 20% → 40% with a monthly call volume of 5,000 and $0.12 cost per Trusted Call. Forecasts completed for three Twilio.org use cases – reducing healthcare patient no-shows, increasing one-time to recurring donor conversion, and increasing perspective to enrolled student conversion for higher education. Monthly ROI – $55k est. for patient no-shows, $40k est. for donor-based fundraising, and $142k est. for higher education student enrollment. ROI Calculator with cited assumptions available by request from Twilio.org sales team.