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10 Secrets to Help Reduce Your Company’s
Phone Bills
By: Mark Evans, Principal, BottaBoom
Consulting LLC
As year end approaches and companies
continue their relentless cost cutting
initiatives, professionals everywhere
are scrambling to find ways to reduce
expenses. Most professionals don’t give
their telecom bills a second glance.
That is a mistake, notes Mark Evans, a
telecom industry expert. Here are ten
ways that organizations can reduce their
telecom bills—if they take the time to
follow these suggestions.
-
Check your long-distance rate for
each minute of interstate,
intrastate, and international
calls. Ensure your rates are
competitive. Get three bids for
your phone services.
-
Get extra discounts with a long-term
agreement (normally 24-36 months in
duration) for your business long
distance, local, and cell phone
services. The ideal phone contract
is for no more than 24 months,
although the longer the term, the
higher the service discount. Be
prepared to re-negotiate your
contract for new lower rates after
12-18 months.
-
Ensure that your agreement gives
your business additional discounts
for high-volume usage for your phone
services. The more calls you make
the higher the service discount
should be.
-
Ask your phone vendor to bundle your
wireless, local and long distance
phone services for even more
discounts.
-
Directory
assistance savings: Did you know
that you do not have to use your
phone company’s expensive 411
information lookup services? Check
the internet for discount 411
service options and save over 50% on
411 calls. 4114cheap.com is an
example of one company that offers
this discount service.
-
Prevent fraud: Have your phone
system vendor check for
vulnerabilities in your phone
system. For example, ensure that
the remote call forwarding feature
is turned off. This inherent phone
system feature can allow hackers to
access your phone system remotely
and forward their calls to wherever
in the world they want at your
expense. You need to ensure that
this and other features are turned
off unless specifically needed.
-
Shop the internet for cheap pre-paid
calling cards and hand them out to
traveling employees. Calling cards
are available that cost less than
two cents per minute for calls
placed to anywhere in the U.S.
-
Document your telephone service
changes, particularly cancelled
services. Get an order number from
the phone company and insist on
e-mail verification of the
order. Write down the agent’s name
you speak with and note the date and
time of the communication.
Without this documentation you will
have difficulty proving you
cancelled the lines if you continue
to be charged for them.
-
Don’t automatically pay Yellow Pages
invoices without investigating the
advertisement. Carefully examine
Yellow Pages invoices; they are
often from fraudulent companies
masquerading as the real Yellow
Pages Company. Have the company send
you a copy of the actual ad and call
and ask the company about their
distribution areas.
-
Do an inventory of all of your phone
lines and services. Compare what
you pay to what you use. This phone
inventory will also assist you in
disaster planning and emergency
preparedness. If this task it too
daunting, consider hiring a
professional phone bill auditor.
Mark Evans is president of
Bottaboom.com, a nationwide business
phone bill auditing company specializing
in reducing corporate clients' phone
bill costs by finding billing errors and
securing refunds. His firm is paid from
a percentage of the actual savings they
achieve for their clients. Readers of
Accounts Payable Today and Tomorrow
will receive a 10% discount on their
telephone bill audit fees from
Bottaboom.com.
BottaBoom Consulting LLC is a national
telecom audit firm that's been saving
organizations considerable money for
years. They can be reached at
1-888-487-5326.
Coming soon in the
news...look for more auditing secrets!
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