When was the last time you really looked at your business Internet and Telephone bill? Did you know you can uncover major savings by making just one phone call or sending an email to your IT or telephony managed service provider (MSP)? It will take you less than 5 minutes, and you can likely save thousands of dollars over the life of the vendor relationship. If you don’t believe it, then stop reading this article and continue throwing your hard earned money toward the phone company. They appreciate it!
For the rest of you who are interested in lowering your bills, let’s continue.
If you are asking yourself what you should do to save money on internet and phone charges, start by picking up the phone and calling your MSP. If you are considering the option of calling your vendor directly to see if they will lower your bill, we advise against it since that is probably the least optimal option, and here’s the reason why.
As part of most MSP’s offerings, they will review your phone and Internet bills at no charge. In all likelihood, most of them will quickly identify opportunities for your business to save money. A few of the items they will look at should include:
- Are you simply just paying too much, based on market rate?
- Has your multi-year contract discount expired?
- Are you paying more than market rate for 800 number calls?
- Are there unnoticed errors on your bill?
- Have all unused services been disconnected?
It’s likely that your MSP is a registered reseller for almost every carrier in the USA, paying the MSP to bring them customers. Yes, your MSP gets paid commission on the relationship between your business and the vendor, BUT it doesn’t come as an extra expense to your business. In fact, the opposite is true.
Here’s how it works from our perspective- when KME starts researching opportunities for small business vendor relationships, we instruct the competing vendors to provide the most competitive bid possible.
The phone company representative makes a commission on your service and so does the MSP. However, the main difference is that (most) MSP’s instruct the phone companies to provide the BEST offer upfront; no games and no second tries. Unfortunately, it’s the call center agent’s job to extract as much cash from your business as possible, with the goal of your MSP to do the exact opposite.
Your MSP’s expertise should give them to capability to maximize the savings with the vendor relationship, while encouraging you to call any other provider and try and beat the deal. A great MSP partner will have already uncovered hidden discounts, special promotions and upgrades available the first time, without you having to threaten to cancel or change service.
A Real Life Example: Buy a Free Phone System
Recently, KME covered the cost of a brand new phone system by simply analyzing a client’s spend. This client had not looked at their phone bills in 5 years. We discovered that this company was paying for unused fax and alarm phone lines, plus their “savings contract” was still in effect from 2007. Based on the restructuring of the agreement, KME was able to save this company a ton of money, while at the same time, covering the cost to lease a new network and phone system.
If your business is in the dark with its phone and internet expenses, give your MSP a call. Or better yet, call us a call because your MSP should already be on top of this! (Maybe you need a new MSP?). We can be reached at 949-462-7001 ext 460 or at
sales@kmesystems.com. Let our experienced staff review your bills and see how much you can save!
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