Automatic Number Identification (ANI) is a telephony feature that automatically captures the phone number of an incoming caller and allows the receiving party to identify the caller.
What is automatic number identification (ANI)?
ANI is the technology that allows the party on the receiving end of a phone call to have access to the caller’s phone number. ANI data is often transmitted over the telephone network in the form of tonal frequencies. The receiving party can then view the caller’s number before answering.
How ANI is used in practice
In a contact center or BPO setting, ANI allows a contact center to identify the device (and therefore, the person or organization) that the call originated from before answering. This allows for quicker, more customized service, since the contact center can match the number into existing records in their CRM or contact database, enabling a more prepared starting point before the call is even answered.
ANI data is also an important component of advanced routing logic, allowing callers to be routed to an appropriate agent based on their unique needs and interaction history.
What are the benefits of ANI?
While ANI forms the backbone of various other telephony features that we use every day, ANI also has many benefits that apply specifically in a contact center environment, among them being:
- Smarter call routing based on customer info
- Integration and synergy with CRM and other systems
- Fraud detection
- Quicker verification of who’s calling
On top of all of these operational benefits, ANI is also quite useful for reporting and analytics purposes. This is important for tracking data based on call sources, call volumes, and measuring the effectiveness of certain campaigns.