Call Centers: Are You Prepared for the STIR/SHAKEN Deadline?

A call center's main objective is getting calls to actually reach a client's customers. With the TRACED Act's regulatory deadline closing in, proactively preparing for STIR/SHAKEN well in advance is the only way to avoid the risk of calls being blocked outright. Unless you have a firm date from your carrier for full "A-level" attestation, you're at risk — many blocking and labeling services are already using the SHAKEN token, where present in call metadata, as another trust signal in deciding how to label or block a call.

Background

STIR/SHAKEN is the technical standard created to identify the origin of any call so a bad actor can be quickly located, born out of the Robocall Task Force's push to restore trust in voice communications and prevent fraudulent callers from scamming consumers through robocalls and illegal spoofing. Starting July 1, 2021, telephone carriers and voice service providers are required to digitally sign each call with a token and attestation level confirming they know their customer and that the customer is authorized to use the DID.

The impact on call center operations

Outbound calls placed without the highest attestation level are at risk of never reaching the customer. Contact rates will decline, affecting clients and their customers directly — and no one can guarantee delivery of unsigned calls after the deadline.

The cost of doing nothing

Sitting on the sidelines only hurts operations: lower trust with clients and the customers you're trying to reach, lower contact rates, reduced client satisfaction, and decreased efficiency across the business.

What to do now

With the deadline close, being proactive matters more than ever:

1. Contact your carriers and ask whether they've implemented STIR/SHAKEN on their network, and if so, confirm your calls are being signed with the highest ("A") attestation level.
2. If your carrier hasn't fully prepared, find out their plan and decide whether your business can wait or needs to make a change — waiting is not a commercially practical option.

Customer trust is essential to call center operations. Don't wait until contact rates decline and your list is burned through to act on SHAKEN — the time is now.