Providers
Reference checking is one of the highest-value hours in any diligence process, and almost nobody spends it properly.
The provider chooses the references. The references are happy. The call lasts eleven minutes and confirms what you already believed. Then you sign.
Reference checking is one of the highest-value hours in any diligence process and almost nobody spends it properly.
Request a firm that left, and a firm roughly your size that joined in the last year. A provider who will not offer either has told you something; a provider who offers both is unusually confident.
Also ask for the reference nobody prepares: the firm that had a problem and stayed.
Happy references give vague praise. Specific questions break the pattern.
"Walk me through the last time something went wrong." Every relationship has one. What you are listening for is not the incident but the response — who called whom, how fast, and whether it was fixed or explained.
"What took longer than you expected during onboarding?" Nobody's transition went perfectly. The reference will tell you, because it is not a criticism.
"What do you still do yourself that you thought they would handle?" This exposes the gap between the sales conversation and the arrangement.
"Who do you actually call, and do they answer?" Named person or a queue. This predicts your next three years better than any feature comparison.
"Would you choose them again, knowing what you know?" Ask it last, and listen to the pause before the answer more than the answer.
The most useful conversation is with a firm the provider did not nominate. Your network knows who uses whom. One unsolicited call is worth three curated ones.
Write it down and put it in the file. If you are making a decision about a provider on behalf of clients, the record of how you made it matters as much as the decision.
Questions this did not answer? Ask them directly — that is what the twenty minutes is for.
Schedule a call to see for yourself