We often examine the scientific and mechanical aspects of how to conduct a professional telecom audit for maximum savings. But what about the psychological impact on the people and interactions within the organizations that you are auditing? Lets face it, telecommunications audit consultants are often in a very precarious position when they present their huge cost savings and telecommunication audit findings to management. I’ve seen employees and managers get very testy when confronted with cost savings that they could have possibly found. Good managers who are company team players are the most common, because they often understand that only a professional telecom auditor can find those specific errors. Just like tax consultants know income taxes, cost consultants know telecom errors and the nuances of over-billing in telecommunications. There are over 100 solid methods that can save money on given business telephone bill. Most people understand that, but some do not.
Most phone bill audit specialists I know, including myself, strive to find pure and absolute savings for our clients. However, this can sometimes lead to sort of a witch hunt by management of employees who may have not paid as good of attention to the telecom bills as we would. I am often asked by a CFO or CEO upon finding hundreds of thousands of dollars in telecom billing errors for their company, “who is responsible for not catching this?” I usually answer that this should be left up to them to decide, not me. Sometimes they are looking for a scapegoat, however, realistically, they need to look to the future not the past.
In this profession, you’ll also get pushback at some point. That pushback might come from a line employee or a member of upper management. There are all kinds of personnel in the usual corporate chain of command and any one of them may be adversarial, either intentionally or by nature. I’ve seen Vice Presidents completely deny that they were ever involved in telecom decisions, when I had signed contracts they executed! They were scared to death of the telecom audit. Also, remember, its human nature to be protective of one’s work turf. Even if one has been told by their management, “listen, we’re bringing in an independent telecom audit pro, and he will likely find mistakes and errors and save money, but don’t take it personally, you’ve only been responsible for approving the telecom invoices for a few months or even a year…relax, its all for the good of the company.” Or “you are not responsible in any way, just work with the consultant.” Now, if you’ve ever consulted in this situation, you might well have experienced a bit of push back from client employees. Do they really want you to find every single phone bill error? Are they worried about losing their jobs if you find issues? These are very real considerations and I’ve seen this kind of protective behavior in employees. Why is recognizing this relevant? Because it can adversely affect your effectiveness as a telecom auditor and your positive impact on the company.
What I would recommend is that particularly at the beginning of the the telecommunications audit project, set the right tone and use some positive psychology. Continually let the employees know that you are working with them as a team, that the success of the audit is a shared experience, and that they are equally responsible for the telecom audit’s success. So you welcome their important and vital imput. Also, this individual possesses valuable knowledge of the telecom network and history that is extremely important to the efficiency of the audit. This does not always work but it sometimes works. And most importantly don’t finger point, be careful about how you present discrepancies. I often bring up the importance of using positive reinforcement during audits and for many managers this does not seem important. However, it is something to be highly cognizant of during the telecommunications audit project.
I am going to be honest, I was once subjected to a very large telecom audit myself as an manager of a large telecom operation for a large enterprise. In fact, our audit was so successful and I had so much fun doing the telecom audit, that I decided that this was the profession I wanted to be in. And at first, I must admit that I was a bit overprotective of my telecom territory. However, the professional telecom auditor that I worked closely with me on the cost saving project convinced me that together we could achieve success and recognition by finding as many cost saving possibilities as we could. He always had me in the same sentence when he talked about money saving company results. And this was absolutely the correct approach to gaining my trust and getting me to work for him on the audit. I received a huge bonus and an upper management position as a result of what we achieved on the audit project. together, we saved the company a few million dollars on the telecommunications audit project.
My point is that we’re living in the real world here and saving thousands of dollars in other people’s backyards can be a weird thing, but also a very satisfying experience.
So be on alert, use your instincts and tread carefully during the audit. And use positive psychology and effective management techniques to help maximize your telecom savings results.
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Tags: phone bill audit, Telecom Audit, telecom cost savings, telecommunications audit
