How to Investigate an Outsourcing Firm
How to Investigate an Outsourcing Firm
As a business owner, you have many decisions to make involving day to day business. One decision you might have made is to outsource your sales functions to a telesales company.
The next step would be to locate the best company in the business and protect your investment. You may have chosen the company that appears to meet the needs of your industry; their website looks great, they have experience in your industry, and they talk a good game.
How can you investigate the outsourcing company? How do you check the credentials of an outsourcing firm? How do you know they are not a fly by night company and will be here to cash your check today and gone tomorrow?
Here are ways to verify company information:
1. Secretary of State. Contact the secretary of State for the state where the company is registered. For example Rich Enterprises is located in Kansas and all available information on REI would come from the Kansas Secretary of state. This department can also give you names of Officers for the business.
This lets you know who you are dealing with.
The Secretary of State can also tell you when this business started. For example Rich Enterprises started their business in 1999 and the Kansas Secretary of State can verify this information is correct.
2. Rip off report. Go to Ripoffreport.com. This gives details on all businesses and websites that have ripped consumers off in the past. Take the time to review any information on the company you intend to do business with. There is nothing worse than providing payment for services and calling them the next day to discover the phone number has been disconnected.
3. Google. www.google.com. Google the business. The world wide web is a huge portal of information. Use this tool to research the company you are considering doing business with. Read forums/Chat boards that involve the business of discussion. Taking the time to do research before jumping into business with an unknown source can save you money and heartache.
4. Scams.com. This site lists the most popular scams. There are many companies out there that are in business to scam you. Scamming is their mission and they are very successful doing so.
5. Chamber of Commerce. A legitimate company is more likely to be a member of the local Chamber of Commerce. Contact the local Chamber of Commerce to learn more about their status. www.chamberofcommerce.com; www.uschamber.com.
6. Better Business Bureau. The BBB handles complaints and resolves related disputes. Their records indicate if this company has had problems in the past. Lack of a BBB report is not necessarily a negative because it simply indicates that there have not been any complaints.
7. Federal Trade Commission. The FTC regulates businesses and has a variety of information available on their site: www.ftc.gov .
8. National Fraud Information Center. The NFIC was originally established in 1992 by the National Consumers League, the oldest nonprofit consumer organization in the United States, to fight the growing menace of telemarketing fraud by improving prevention and enforcement. Their website can be viewed at www.fraud.org.
Most acquired investigation information is available free of charge. You can certainly pay money to investigate the history of companies but there is a multitude of information that is available to all that are seeking information at no charge.
