Recommended Phone Number Formatting

Purpose:

The purpose of this article is to provide guidance to Outreach Users on entering phone numbers in E.164 format. To make sure that calls always connect to the correct number, Outreach recommends that all prospect phone numbers, whether manually entered or brought in via syncing from CRM, are saved in E.164 format instead of a local format.

Intended Audience:

• Outreach Users

Notes:

• In the event a prospect phone number is not in E.164 format, a call will be attempted either using the prospect owner's Default Country Code (if available), or adding +1 for the US as default.

What is E.164?

E.164 number format is an internationally recognized standard phone number format that helps ensure calls always reach the correct destination.

E.164 phone number formatting entails the following:

• A + (plus) sign (replacing the International Call Prefix like 011 for the US or 00 internationally)
• Country code
• Local area code
• Local phone number

Examples of E.164 Phone Number Format

US

Here is an example of a US phone number in local formatting: (555) 444-1234

Here is that same number in E.164 format: +15554441234

International

Here is an example of a UK phone number in local formatting: 020 1234 5678

Here is that same number in E.164 format: +442012345678

Syncing Numbers Not in E.164 Format

In the event that the prospect’s phone number is not in E.164 format when syncing into Outreach from CRM, Outreach will do its best to convert it using the following logic:

1. Use the prospect owner’s Default Country Code.
2. If the prospect owner’s Default Country is not available, we default to adding a +1 for the US.

Additional Resources

How to Set Up Outreach Voice