Your callback never rings

A new customer fills in your form: "Please call me about a quote." You call back the same afternoon. Her phone doesn't ring. She sees nothing, decides you never called, and books someone else.

This is new. iPhones running iOS 26 (since September 2025) can screen callers who aren't saved in Contacts. The phone answers first and asks the caller why they're calling. If the caller hangs up or says nothing, the phone never rings, and screened calls arrive with no sound (PIRG). Google Pixel phones can screen first-time callers too, and hang up on calls they judge to be spam (Google). Text messages from numbers she hasn't saved can land in a silent folder.

These features are off by default, and nobody knows yet how many people have turned them on. But the people who do are often the careful ones: exactly the customers who fill in a form instead of calling.

Three small habits that get you through:

1. Say who you are in the first 3 seconds. "Hi, this is Remus from Sylvania, calling back about your quote." Screening needs a reason; silence gets you blocked.
2. Text first from the same number: "Hi Maria, it's Remus from Sylvania. I'll call you in 5 minutes about your quote." Now the call is expected.
3. Ask her to save your number on the form's thank-you page or in your confirmation email. A saved number is never screened.

If you'd like, I can look at your form, your thank-you page and your confirmation email and tell you where a callback might get lost. Free, just reply.

Remus Baltatu, Sylvania Consulting, Buffalo Grove