Written By: Annie Cheng, Netstar, Inc.
----------------------------
Savings Where You Least Expect – 8 Easy Cellular & Telecom Tips
“80% of all telecom bills have errors.” –Gartner Group
I often share that statistic with people, which elicits a jaw dropping response. Imagine you’re overbilled $10 a month for your personal cell phone. Multiply that by a 2 year contract – and you’ve been billed $240 in error. Now imagine how that adds up for a company that pays for thousands of employee cell phones.
The Aberdeen Group estimates telecom errors “result in $8 million per year in lost profits for larger firms and $1.75 million at mid-size companies.” So why do companies not scrutinize these expenses better? There are a variety of reasons, ranging from miscommunications between IT, telecom administrators, and accounts payable, to a lack of knowledge and expertise, to complete oversights.
Although it’s easy to place blame, it won’t help you recover any costs. Here are 8 tips to reduce your cellular and telecom costs, and control them over time.
1. Create a thorough inventory – without an inventory you are doomed. At a minimum, you should record your services, phone numbers or Circuit IDs, and the locations at which they reside. This information helps you to troubleshoot issues, understand your network, and makes it easier for carriers to guide you when making changes.
2. Verify you are billed at contracted rates – carriers often implement contracted rates months after the agreement. Or they fail to implement the new pricing altogether. If your billing rate varies from your contracted rate, you should seek refunds and credits from your carrier.
3. Know who to contact – when you have a telecom crisis or a billing error, you don’t want to spend an hour on hold. So know who to call ahead of time. Write the carrier numbers down and save them. Find out from customer service whether you have an account manager who you can call directly for changes and questions.
4. Escalate problems – Every carrier has an escalation process if your request isn’t handled properly. Don’t hesitate to ask for a manager or supervisor if your customer service rep isn’t resolving the problem.
5. Dispute CRAM charges – CRAM charges are 3rd party charges that are usually tacked on the end of your phone bill. Your carrier acts as a billing agent, so in order to get these expenses off you need to call the 3rd party vendor and ask them to remove the charge. Generally these charges are not legitimate and they will record somebody “approving” the expenses. If it wasn’t an authorized charge, have them credit it back and remove it from future bills.
6. Create a cellular policy – Many companies have high usage costs from data, text messaging, and directory assistance as a result of employees who don’t know their companies’ policy on approved cell phone use. In addition, end users don’t see the cellular invoices so they aren’t aware of their usage and the resulting costs. Develop a policy and communicate expectations to employees.
7. Review bills monthly – Once you have an inventory, and you know approximately how much each service costs, you have a baseline for your monthly bill. They will vary based on long distance usage, and cell phone minute usage, but you can monitor the month to month changes. Drill down into any unusual bills and don’t be afraid to ask your carrier questions.
8. Set up a communication system – last but not least, your Accounts Payable should not be paying cellular and telecom bills without some verification that they are accurate and ready to be paid. Develop a process for validating the expenses prior to cutting checks.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in cellular and telecom expense management, but should get you started. The best advice I can give is to start looking at your bills; you’ll begin to understand them over time. When something looks out of place, then bring it up with your carrier account manager or customer service. Or call Netstar!
For more tips, subscribe to Netstar’s e-newsletter. Or check out www.netstarinc.com.