Your kids get report cards. Maybe you're in business school, earning your MBA, or other program and you're graded. You get reviewed annually at your job. Why then, should you let your vendors cash checks without a healthy evaluation of their deliverables?
Agency, vendor, consultant, and contractor competition is stiff right now, take the time to check on your resources to make sure all of your expectations are being met.
Quick Checklist:
Invoices:
First, ask yourself, do you review these in detail every month? Is your vendor providing enough detail? Do you make sure to request itemized breakdowns of their time and deliverables? If you're not, start now. Do the charges reflect the rates and charges agreed upon during the RFP process or yearly contract negotiations? And finally, does anything look sketchy, or exorbitant? Bring it up with your vendor - they should have honest, documented proof and reasons for charges.
Review Communication:
Has your vendor been responsive? On average, how long does it take them to get back to you? Do they still listen to your concerns like they use to? Is their communication professional, complete, polite? Do they communicate with your other partners and vendors with respect? If a technical firm, are they meeting all the requirements of your Service Level Agreement (SLA)? If not, you need to be documenting each instance and requesting refunds (or whatever concessions you negotiated) promptly after receiving invoices.
Analyze their Issue Resolution Process:
Is it working for you? Is it efficient? When issue resolution creates additional line items on your budget is it the best use of your dollars? Are you ever penalized for issues that your vendor is responsible? Do you receive thorough documentation regarding issues?
Does the vendor continue to bring you new ideas?
Have they gotten lazy? Do they stay on top of technology? How good are they at predicting business trends? Do they provide proactive strategies for your business cycles? How often do they request meetings or bring you ideas - or do you have to call on them? How often do they evaluate the work they have prepared for you and it's success (especially marketing campaigns and digital components)?
Are they still curious about your business?
Curiosity can be the catalyst to the best ideas - do they still ask questions? Do they still participate in discussions?
Do you genuinely like working with them?
This is a tough one...sometimes it's the most important question of all...sometimes people really are not a good fit - it happens all of the time. If you're really unhappy with a vendor, they probably feel the same way. You need to look at the impact of cutting ties (financially, contract outs, etc.)
And, because successful vendor relationships are partnerships, here are a few items for YOU:
- Do you have reasonable expectations?
- Do you ever push deadlines? Is everything a fire?
- Do you respect the vendors experience and time?
- Do you provide detailed requests or information?
- Are you polite to them?
- Does your communication reflect the face of your organization?
- Do you know what you want? Can you concretely describe your goals and expectations?
What are some ways you review your vendors?
Keep Clicking!
Michelle
