6 Ways to Vet Suppliers Online and Avoid Costly Mistakes

The work you do to vet suppliers online can help you identify those vendors who can best help you improve customer and employee relations and keep pace as your business grows.

Vet Suppliers Online as a Low-Cost Add to Process

6 Ways to Vet Suppliers Online and Avoid Costly MistakesWhile we aren’t saying you should skip reference checks, there are ways to vet prospective suppliers and vendors online to get a more complete picture of how it will be to work with them. Here are six ways to check out these companies online in order to avoid potentially costly mistakes.

6 Ways to Vet Suppliers Online in Minutes

1. Check out their Website

You might not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can learn a lot about a company from its website. In minutes, you can use Google to vet suppliers online by determining whether it’s web site is easy to find and what picture it paints about the company. A highly polished, frequently updated, and aesthetically pleasing website shows that the vendor takes pride in its business and leverages its digital real estate to help new and current customers get the information they need.

Take some of these things into consideration when exploring a vendor website:

  • Is it easy to find the answers to frequently asked questions?
  • Is the site easy to navigate?
  • How much self-service is available?
  • Is it easy to find company contact information?
  • When you contact them online, do they respond right away?
  • Do their home or landing pages make you want to immediately hit the back button?

2. Mission Statement Alignment

Imagine you’re on a dating website and you come across a suitor that is a 10 percent compatibility match. Would you jump at the opportunity? We’re guessing that’s a “no.”

A couple things that every vendor should have readily available online are their values and mission statement. If you read a mission statement and it doesn’t align well with your own business values, it might be an indication you won’t have the symbiotic relationship you are searching for.

3. Follow me! To Social Media

When researching a vendor online, it should be very apparent that they have a social media presence on social media sites, especially Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Active social media accounts are another sign a prospective vendor represents an ever-evolving company that is in constant connection with its clients and the world around them.

Why does this matter? It matters because social media is attractive, exciting, and reaches a large number of people in a short amount of time. Through social media, you can see the character of a company, projects and causes they support, and how customers and others feel about their brand.

4. The Power of the Review

In today’s world, there are no secrets kept from the public eye. Make a mistake? Well, chances are someone captured it on Snapchat or uploaded a video to YouTube, and now it’s circulating online. The same thing goes for reviews. Checking for online reviews is a must when you vet suppliers online.

Customers who have a poor experience with a vendor are much more likely to post a review than those with good experiences. However, there should still be plenty of awesome reviews posted for a company that is worthy of your partnership.

Keeping that in mind, go through the vendor website for testimonials and case studies. Check review sites like Yelp, Facebook, or Google to read reviews and determine what issues your company may or may not face when doing business with a particular vendor. This way, you’ll be able to identify any recurring, trending issues that might impact your organization down the road.

5. Can I Get Some Service Over Here, Please?

When you walk into a store or business, you expect to be greeted and directed in the way you need or would like to go, right? It’s no different for shopping your vendors online. As mentioned before, you want to be able to easily find answers to your questions and self-service options, but you also don’t want to be left completely on your own.

When giving your vendors a test drive, make sure to see how their online customer service stacks up against the competition. Using a vendor that has excellent online customer service will make your life much easier down the road when you need to get things done, make changes, or just get some help.

6. Online Credit Check

There are no shortages of ways to get this done. Search online for ways to check the credit for a business, and you will find all you need. When it comes to extending loans, signing contracts, and making long term deals with vendors, you never want to put yourself in the situation where financial stability is in question. This may be the single most important factor, as it has the biggest consequences. Through these credit checks you will be able to see scores, business history, and all you need to make this part of your decision.

You might also like: 8 Signs Your Supply Chain Vendors Need to Go – Infographic

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