the FAQ
Q. “I find it hard to believe that you provide a service that’s actually risk free. What’s the catch?”
A. Our business works in a non-traditional service model. A number of our clients felt the exact same way. Receiving a telecom audit is one of the best ways to reduce you operating costs with absolutely zero catches. Our goal is simple, if we are able to find ways to reduce your costs, streamline and find ways you are currently overspending, we show you what we are going to do, implement them, allow you to realize those savings and charge you a percentage of the savings. The end result is – no savings no bill.
Q. “We currently audit our bills internally today, we stay on top of our costs so you’re not going to be able to save us any money.”
A. Chances are, unless you employ a full-time audit staff, hiring GrayBear Resources can potentially save you more money. Why? Telecommunications is an ever-changing moving target. Everything from tariff filings, tax implications, rate corrections, human error and tariff violations are just a few of the things that can effect you billing on a monthly basis. In order for you to have better insight into your telecom services you need to have a thorough audit performed, be experts in telecom tariffs, rate changes from carriers, voice, data, wireless and the ultimate advantage – knowledge. We know what other companies of your size and usage requirements are paying. We are able to help reduce your costs without effecting the actual services you have implemented today. Most companies are too busy to REALLY have a firm understanding of their billing and even so you need the backend knowledge and relationships with MULTIPLE vendors to truly get a best implemented rate.
Q. “Isn’t the sales team I have from my carrier/vendor/supplier supposed to provide me with services like yours?”
A. One of the frequent questions we receive is that isn’t my telephone vendor, carrier, etc. providing me with a free audit to show them what they believe is a detailed audit of services already? In truth, carriers that provide this service are in fact simply reviewing your bills, finding an average Cost Per Minute or bandwidth spend, comparing it against a list of products they sell to you and show you how you can save money. In actuality, there is NO real audit of your services performed, they are simply taking your rate plan, find out what comparable products they can sell you so they can make their commission. A true audit requires a forensic “deep dive” analyzing how your dollars are spent, looking for things such as incorrect rate application to your bills, errors, detecting areas where waste may be occurring and reporting back to you those findings. A TRUE audit firm’s primary goal is to cause NO disruption to your service platform. This means, if it is better for you not to move your services, avoid extending or entering into a new contract, to keep things simple then that is what our goal is. No company that is looking to sell you a product will provide you the same service. If your vendor currently did provide you with an “audit” was their recommendation for you to change providers, sign a new contract or completely switch technologies? Did you feel that their best interests are served before yours were?
Q. ” I don’t want to deal with the headache of having to provide you with a lot of bills, access to our facilities etc.”
A. Our goal is to not disturb your business in the least bit. We have no intention of creating any commotion or having a disruptive effect to your daily business. Initially, we will ask for your permission to access your bills, typically that is via an electronic format. We will want you to give us some background related to your telecommunications systems and services, address your concerns and future growth, other than that, we will work diligently and quietly for you.
Q. “I’ve heard audits are expensive. I don’t want to pay a lot for you to perform an audit I might not need.”
A. Unlike say, an accounting firm that you might hire to perform an audit of your books for your company, we work a little differently. We have designed our process to be fully contingency-based*. What that means is that we take all the risk when we audit your bills. If we review your services, find absolutely nothing for you to be able to reduce your costs, there is NO BILL from us. Why are we willing to take that risk? We KNOW that the chances of you having the opportunity to take advantage of our services is greater than 80%. How do we know this? Experience plain and simple but on the instance that you’re in the 20% who don’t need our services you haven’t spent one dime.
*[noticed that little asterisk did you?] In some cases, our clients have rather large telecom bills. This may require more than an analysis than a “smaller audit”. There can be literally thousands to hundreds of thousands of lines we have to review. In those instances a large data-entry project would require us to hire an independent provider to do the data entry for us. We will charge a nominal data-entry fee but prior to us moving forward, we could conduct a “test audit” to verify that there is a potential to save you money. We ABSOLUTELY DO guarantee that our fee will be recovered in the savings we find for you – WE GUARANTEE IT – period.
Q. “I am under contract with my carriers for the next few years, I’d be interested in your services but because I’m locked in, there isn’t anything you can do for me now.”
A. That is actually a perfect time for us to help you out. Why? Regardless of if you’re under a contract, you still may have several opportunities to reduce your costs by simply having us perform an audit. Just because a carrier is under contract to provide you with particular services doesn’t mean they’re delivering what you expected. You may have errors or there may be methods to reduce your costs, your needs may have changed since when you initially signed up or your carrier has modified their terms and services affecting your bills. Actually, in most cases, we find our clients ARE under contract and believe that they are getting everything they expect. All it takes is a simple miscommunication with your carrier rep or for someone to input a wrong rate code and your whole billing is messed up (we’ve seen this MANY times). We can take a look and see if there is something we can do for you, and again – at no cost to you.
Q. “What the heck does GrayBear mean?”
A. Contrary to popular belief, a gray bear did NOT come to our founder in a dream. Nor was the company named after a retreat into the backwoods and coming face-to-face with a grizzly (though that would be a great story don’t you think?). Before the founder’s son was born, his two oldest nephews named Gray and Hunter were (and still are) nicknamed “Gray bird” and “Hunter bear” (though now they’re both teenagers and don’t acknowledge being called that anymore). The combination of Gray and bear was the result. Although Hunter thought that HunterBird would have been a better name for the company, Benny decided against it.
