Vendor reference checks are like employment reference checks for HR people or for hiring managers - everybody does them, but most people think they are waste of time because references tend to sing the praises of the candidates. I suppose in both cases, they do weed out the few potential employees or vendors who are foolish enough to provide reference names that will say negative things about them.
However, due to our litigious society, most companies have strict written policies against verifying anything but salary and dates of employment. No assessment of the work is allowed regardless of whether it would be positive or negative. I'm not aware of any similar corporate policies regarding vendor references. (If you are, please let us know.) Still, most potential vendors will only give out the names of their fans.
Nonetheless, here are 3 suggestions for making those vendor reference checks more useful to you.
1) Use a form with all your questions written out ahead of time. You don't want to sound unprepared and the other Buyer definitely won't want to waste time while you try to think of something to say.
2) Keep the yes/no and straight fact stuff (such as have they ever missed a delivery) to a minimum and get it out of the way fast.
3) Ask open-ended questions that show the Buyer you are genuinely interested in his or her experience with the vendor, that this is more than a rote exercise because your SOP's say you have to do this. Examples here would be asking what the biggest challenge in implementation was and how the vendor handled it or asking what has been the area in which the vendor rep has best shown that his or her company wants to be a true supply partner.
What's your favorite vendor reference check tip?
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