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A recent survey was conducted by Communications Convergence Magazine in which a questionnaire was sent out to over 5,000 businesses nationwide. Over 97% of those businesses responded to that survey and some very interesting data was gathered.
The survey revealed that only 35% of all companies said their cell phone bills are audited periodically for billing errors. The remaining 65% said they simply pay the amount the wireless provider says is due each month without auditing or contesting the charges.
Surprisingly, over 75% of those businesses said their cell phone provider did the actual audit for them! And only 25% of respondents said they use the services of a third party wireless expense auditing firm.
NOTE: There is no other area of a business enterprise that will allow vendors to audit themselves.
In the same survey, 73% of companies said they trust and believe that their cell phone bills were accurate with few or no incorrect charges. However, the Federal Communications Commission, the Better Business Bureau, and several other independent analysts have determined that over 80% of all cell phone bills contain significant errors and that 85% of all businesses over-pay their bills each month without contesting or auditing the charges.
Businesses tend to give the cell phone providers the benefit of the doubt, when overwhelming evidence shows that the phone companies are guilty of making significant errors on their customer's bills on a regular basis. What's more surprising is that businesses are fully aware that their wireless providers do not recommend wireless audits or proactively offer one. Nor do they offer packages or services that can reduce costs unless a customer calls in specifically to ask.
Companies waste millions of dollars each year because they attempt to manage their accounts in house or they allow a sales representative who works for their provider to look at their account and make suggestions. It is not uncommon for companies to continue sending money down the drain on wireless services because they have lost control. And without having visibility and control over wireless spending, a company can lose a lot of money simply by not having the time or resources to manage their account. This is a vulnerability that can be very costly.
This is why more and more businesses, both large and small, are now choosing to outsource the process to a professional wireless management firm. Successful Wireless Expense Management is very complex and can be very costly if you do not have the in-house expertise it takes to manage it well.
An independent Wireless Consultant can dedicate the right amount of time and knowledge it takes to manage your Wireless account on a monthly basis. Most companies just pass on their bills to their Accounts Payable department without doing a thorough audit.
When a company provides their employees with cell phones for business use, the cell phone bills can sometimes end up being enormous. Cell phone over-charges are so common, a company can save thousands... even tens of thousands of dollars on their cell phone bill and then further reduce their costs with a thorough analysis of their cell phone services bill by a reputable third party with experience.
Let's take a look at what a professionals and detailed cell phone bill audit can do for your company:
• They can provide a thorough and methodical analysis of your company's cell phone usage, including detailing extraneous usage, including usage against company policies.
• They can act as a liaison between your company and the cell phone services provider to obtain refunds, credits and to implement plan recommendations and optimizations that will benefit your business and not your provider.
• They can pinpoint non-active phones that your cell phone provider may still be charging you for and many times get rid of those costly lines.
• They can identify poor rate plan that are not conducive to the user's needs and make recommendations for rate plan improvement.
• They can identify poor plan minute/rate ratios.
• They can recommend a usage policy for all employees, to reduce usage for non company related reasons.
• They can manage and review your cell phone contracts with your provider.
• They can offer rate plan optimization for further reducing monthly costs and overage fees.
• They can do a plan feature analysis and recommendations for additional features that can save you money.
• They can make recommendations for upgrading cell phones, to newer, more efficient technology and features.
• They can keep you informed about the newest and latest equipment and plans that will save you money.
• They can make sure you are getting corporate discounts and other incentives that you probably do not know about or have access to.
• They can provide an overall report to measure your return on investment with your cell phone services pertaining to your business.
• They can vastly improve your relationship with your current provider and when that is not possible, they can make recommendations to move to another provider and then make that transition go smoothly without the typical chaos that can happen when you try to make a switch like this yourself.
A company who chooses to have their cell phone usage audited by a third party can see an average of 35% to 50% cost savings. Some company's may obtain up to 60% cost savings with a cell phone audit depending on how neglected their accounts are.
A proper cell phone services audit can greatly benefit your company in overall cost savings as well as better usage and implementation of your cell phones across your organization. In most cases, a cell phone audit company will not even charge you until savings have been obtained; therefore they work on a contingency basis. For any company, of any size, that uses cell phones on a daily basis, the advantages of having a cell phone audit are many and the cost, are very small.
Things You Need to Know if you want Manage your own Cell Phone Account....
AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile Business wireless accounts are not easy to manage. Here are a few tips on wireless expense management from an expert.
• Every carrier claims to be the best in their space; AT&T pumps up their worldwide footprint boasting coverage. Verizon has you covered with their "It's the Network" campaign and Sprint can get you there faster with "Sprint Speed." The bottom line is that the Big 3 (Sprint, Verizon, AT&T) all have comparable solutions. The biggest difference in the Big 3 is simply the way they're marketed to the YOU, the end user. So throw out your brand loyalty and make a decision based on what fits the needs of your business.
• In a perfect world your wireless carrier would always make sure that you were on the best offering available, but in a cellular world your offer is only as good as what you signed up for. Plans change frequently and if you are committed to managing your company's wireless account the "right way" it's necessary to review the account on a monthly basis and then reference your plan with the existing carrier offerings to ensure you are getting the best plan for your money.
• End user plan compatibility; the only thing that can hurt your company's wallet more than a bad plan is a plan that doesn't meet the needs of an end user. It's important that every plan is selected for the person that's using it. For example an unlimited text messaging plan is a complete waste of money for a person not using the feature, but for the person using text messaging it can save hundreds of dollars in unnecessary per message charges. The more users you have, the more complicated it can become to juggle this recurring task, but neglecting it won't make it go away; instead it will surely produce an astronomical invoice. Make sure you don't throw in the towel too quickly and hand this task over to a sales rep who represents your wireless provider. Don't count on them looking out for your best interests when their jobs are to keep the profit margins high for their company.
• Feature Blocking; all the carriers have the ability to block unwanted features such as text messaging, web, voice calls, etc., but few advertise it to their customer base as it reduces revenue and hurts the carriers bottom line. It is always recommended to block the cellular features you don't want an employee to access but be prepared to spend some time on the phone with your wireless provider's customer care department to get this done. Then keep your fingers crossed that the job gets done.
• Billing: The providers use the old excuse, "nobody is perfect"... They take this phrase straight to the bank. Cellular billing errors can occur on a monthly basis. They can stem from so many different places. For example you called that rep at AT&T and told them to add data to your bosses new Blackberry, but little did you know it wasn't added correctly. Your next bill arrives and he's been charged $600 in data charges (i.e. many unhappy iPhone customers). Or maybe the rep didn't set it to take effect until the beginning of your next billing cycle, but your boss started using it right away and the charges started piling up. Billing errors like this are common at cellular companies as are their empty promises of making sure that they won't happen again.
• Carrier reps; have you ever been promised the world by your representative only to have that person disappear when his offer didn't work out as promised? Remember, they represent the carrier. When it comes to solutions and saving you money, they may promise to have the best of the best but the statistics of unhappy customers show that in many cases the promises aren't being kept. Remember the easy part is making the decision on what to buy - the hard part is getting support after the rep that closed your deal has been paid a big commission!
• Customer care; This is almost an oxymoron in cellular. If you need to resolve an issue you call an 800 number, you then pray that the person is competent...oh wait they're not... call again. After a few hours on the phone and countless transfers your issue is finally resolved only to get your next bill and find out that the charge that rep said was reversed - wasn't. TRY AGAIN... and so the game goes
• The carrier transition; this process has become easier over the past couple of years now that you can keep your existing phone numbers when swapping carriers. But, depending on the size of your account transitioning cellular companies can be a logistical nightmare. Make sure that you are working with someone that has a proven track record of executing this process seamlessly. Ask for referrals of past customers comparable to your size that have transitioned through them and call them for feedback.
• Procurement; naturally your implementation of mobile solutions has made your business more productive. Now you need to order new devices and grow your account. Make sure that you order from a consistent non-commissioned source that has your best interests in mind. Make sure that you are ordering from someone that is not paid by the wireless provider and someone that can actually look at what you need and make recommendations accordingly. The best way to ensure that this is happening is to do a monthly bill audit, look for how many minutes you are paying for vs. how many you actually used. Look for features end users aren't using. Look for new plans that can lower your overall costs. This can be a painstaking process, but it is an essential piece to any well managed cellular account.
How do you avoid these headaches? Luckily there are companies out there that bridge the gap of the customer's needs and the carrier inability to meet them through cellular managed services programs. In the long run it makes sense to pay a nominal fee and ensure that your problems are fixed by an expert. With a the right Wireless Expense Management company you will see instant results, immediate savings and an improved relationship with your wireless provider.
We are one of those companies and we offer a free account review to show you just how much you are over-paying your wireless provider and how we can get that money back for you.
Call us today at (877) 679-1206 for your free cost reduction analysis. www.wireless-resolutions.com
About Me
Marty Taylor
President and CEO of Wireless Resolutions, a highly successful and much sought after Wireless Expense Management and Customer Advocate group that specializes in helping business owners dramatically reduce their cell phone costs. After 20 years working in the wireless industry and frequently being told that I was too forthright and honest with my accounts, I decided to stop working for the wireless providers and start working directly for the customer. Having worked with all the major providers and knowing how the system works, I have developed the expert negotiation skills needed to get our clients the lowest possible cost for the very best service their carrier has to offer.
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