With so many professional companies offering their services, how do you decide which ones to trust? Suzy Miller(pictured) of Certain Shops online professional directory explains what you can do to check.
Few companies have the resources to handle all their processes in-house and even those that do often find some outsourcing is a more effective and flexible solution. Whether you need lawyers, IT services, designers or accountants, outside consultants can be essential. But how can you work out which companies deserve your trust?
Independent references
Researching their past service history is a good place to start. Few of us would employ a member of staff before checking out their references, yet businesses don’t always collect references for every company that they commission. Independent references are a great way of finding out about a company’s past performance, but be careful to look beyond the testimonials on their marketing materials. All companies publicise their success stories; so how do you find out if they’ve got any skeletons in their closet?
Well, for a start you can do your own research into a company’s existing and previous customers. Find out who they’ve worked for and make some phone calls. You never really know what working with a new company is going to be like until you start, but at least this way you can try and get an idea of what it is going to be like by finding out their track record. Talk to people who have used the service before – how did they find it? Were they happy? Did the company deliver on its promises? And crucially, would they use the service provider again? The answer to these questions should give you a good idea of what they are really like.
Think about what you’re looking for in a company. Whether it’s an efficient service, transparent charges or honesty and integrity you want, get an independent report on how they score. If good communication skills really matter to you, and let’s face it no-one likes an accountant who speaks financial gobbledygook, take a look at their brochure or their website to see what kind of language they use.
Customer feedback
In addition to these two techniques you can look for independent customer feedback which is now more freely available via the internet.
Websites such as Amazon and eBay have long relied on feedback from other users to verify the credentials of a member and the business world is now beginning to use the internet in a similar way. However, professional services companies are pretty nervous about using an eBay-style system that puts all of the feedback straight onto the site. And it’s fair to say that this would leave companies open to unscrupulous competitors posing as unhappy customers. If the concept of online customer feedback is going to provide a way to find out whether we can really trust a company a control system needs to be set up for sourcing genuine responses.
CertainShops professionals online is a website set up to overcome some of these challenges and make it easier to find professionals that have a good history of delivering on their promises. All service providers on the site have to complete a rigorous application process where three referees and three testimonials from previous and existing clients are thoroughly checked. The Certain Shops team speaks to referees personally rather than just collecting written answers. Certain Shops also operates a regular monitoring service to make sure companies fulfil their promises in the long-term. Once a service provider is listed on the website they have to maintain their high standards to stay there.
CertainShops is a free-to-use online directory of quality professional service providers selected for the excellent results they have achieved for other companies.