Skip to main content

Registering a new business

All calling enterprises and their phone numbers must first be registered, before reputation data can be accessed. The registration process is generally quick, but may include some verification of the business and/or their phone numbers.

Step 1: Register the business​

Businesses are registered via the Register a new business API call. Once a business is registered, it is not necessary to complete this process again. Registering a business requires at a minimum the following information:

  • Business name (legal and ‘DBA’)
  • Physical mailing address (city, province/state and country at minimum)
  • Website
  • Information for a contact at the business (name, email, phone number)
  • Dun & Bradstreet DUNS number (may be optional)

Note: Business information will not be displayed as caller ID. The Number Reputation APIs are only for the purpose of registration and seeing number reputation information, and do not enable any customization of outbound caller ID display. That is provided in a separate service. For more info, see Hiya Connect Branding.

Once submitted, the new business will be assigned a ‘business ID’ for reference while Hiya may begin a verification process of the provided business information. The Get business by ID API call can check on the verification status of a business. Verification usually takes no more than a couple of minutes.

Please note that unless other arrangements have been made with Hiya, all enterprises must have a DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet. If you or one of your customers needs assistance in getting or finding their DUNS number, please visit https://www.dnb.com.

Step 2: Register the phone numbers of the business​

Once a business has been registered, phone numbers can be registered for that business using the Register phone numbers API call. Hiya strongly recommends that businesses register all their phone numbers, not just currently active numbers or ones with a spam labeling problem. When registering phone numbers, a common label (called a “job name”) can be provided to any batch of phone numbers, to track that specific batch of phone numbers. It is best to batch phone numbers based on common characteristics and provide a job name which reflects that characteristic, such as those used for a common purpose or from a common location. For example:

  • “Salt Lake City call center lines”
  • “Office desk phones”
  • “Temp lines for summer pledge drive”

Providing a job name is optional, and phone numbers added without a job name can be found via API under an empty job name. Job names are not used in any way for caller ID and are not displayed anywhere outside of the registration service.

Added phone numbers must first be verified by Hiya, which may take several minutes. During this process, there may be a delay before the API reflects the phone numbers associated with the registered business (especially if thousands of phone numbers have been added). Hiya will confirm the phone numbers are valid, but does not create any calls to the phone numbers. Once the phone numbers have been associated with the business, they will be queued for verification. Progress can be checked using the Get phone number status API call.

It’s important to maintain an accurate list of registered phone numbers using the Register phone numbers and the Remove phone numbers API calls. Failure to maintain an accurate registration may result in de-registration and/or loss of access to the Number Reputation APIs.