Monitoring Your Costs
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008My last post about the hugely inflated phone bill got me thinking.
The primary reason I didn’t act immediately was that I didn’t have time. I generally dislike having to deal with customer service, and faced with a lengthy to-do list, it became easy to put off calling AT&T “until tomorrow.”
The odd thing about my experience was that I had to technically switch companies — from the “old” AT&T to the “new” AT&T — to take advantage of the flat-rate monthly billing plan. Why they wouldn’t have switched all customers of the old company to the new company is a bit of a mystery …
That’s when I started wondering — how many other deals am I not taking advantage of because I’m assuming that my current vendor is giving me the best pricing? And how much am I losing as a result?
I don’t know about you, but I have about a thousand things that are more important than shopping for better deals. Wait, I think I just found a project for my new assistant. 
Tell me, what do you do in your business to monitor costs and ensure that you’re getting the best deal available for the products and services you buy on a regular basis?