Directory assistance call completion, repeat dial and call return are nice and convenient for employees - but they will cost your company over time. These features can and should be blocked through your carrier immediately. If any of these features are needed, contact your LEC and ask if a monthly fee be paid for unlimited usage.

5) Review summary section of your bills every month.

Nothing can take place of a well-designed and systematic telecom audit of your entire telecom department. However, a quick monthly scan of summary section of your local telephone bills will sometimes turn up "golden nuggets" of savings.

Common problems include: more than one long distance carrier included (slamming), bogus Internet charges (cramming) from companies other than your ISP, and directory listings that are not listed. These charges can run as high as $29.95.

To maximize savings, review each bill every month. Bogus charges will continue month after month until they are removed. And don't be surprised if they magically appear again in 2-3 months time after they are removed from a bill.

6) Consider upgrading to a T1 if you have more than 20 lines.

For smaller businesses, installing a T1 line into your PBX system can reduce your local telephone charges. A T1 can be cost-effective because it combines many outgoing lines into a single digital line that runs from your office to LEC central office. The T1 can replace up to 24 POTS lines in your PBX. No one will notice a difference except maybe person who pays bills. In addition, a T1 can carry data as well.

7) Gather customer service records (CSRs) from your LEC for more detailed local service analysis.

A great deal of information can be found on CSRs that are not contained on your monthly billing statement. They are an invaluable resource when attempting to identify unneeded services and unused lines. CSRs reveal quantity and types of lines, their PICs, service elements, hunting arrangements, wire maintenance, circuit termination locations, directory listings, and a host of other esoteric information.

Obtaining your CSRs from LEC can be a painful and time-consuming process, but effort is worth it in savings and credits that are eventually rendered. Some LECs will charge a fee issuing CSRs, but with some persistence, you may be able to get this fee waived.

8) Consider engaging a telecom consultant for telecom auditing, bill management or telemanagement services.

Time is money. If your staff is not prepared to consistently implement above tasks, consider engaging a professional telecom consulting firm to handle them for you. Ideally, a telecom audit done first will turn up many areas for potential cost-savings. Then a monthly bill management program will keep bills clean and free from those pesky recurring errors.

At TelCon Associates, we have structured our consulting services for maximum savings to client with no risk. We place our emphasis on details, timeliness and a high level personal service for our clients.

The Truth About Telecom Outsourcing and How To Select a Telecom Consultant will give you more specific information regarding this subject. The Telecom Cost-Cutting Reference Manual is an excellent resource for those that would rather do it themselves.

So get to work on reducing those local phone bills. You will be glad you did.

Tips For Uncovering Maximum Savings On Your CSRs

A CSR can look intimidating at first, but once you get comfortable with codes used and know exactly what you are looking for job becomes much easier. Covering all aspects of auditing your CSRs is beyond scope of this newsletter, but following tips and areas to examine closely should get you started on right track to finding savings.

Tip #1 - Always review CSRs after changing carriers, LD service or service contracts. The chances of mistakes by LEC are highest when major changes have been made. Also be sure that any promotional codes or negotiated contract points are appropriately listed.

Tip #2 - When changing long distance carriers, check to make certain that all lines are PICed to new carrier. Customers have right to select PIC (LD) and LPIC (local toll) using long distance carrier code for both. You can identify new PIC by associated code listed on CSR. Be sure that all of these numbers match for all lines and that there are not multiple PICs on any one line.

Tip #3 - Search for and eliminate all unused lines and phone numbers. It is not uncommon that companies are billed for invalid phone numbers and unused lines for years before anyone even notices. Be sure to eliminate extra services such as voicemail, call blocks and inside wire maintenance on unused lines as well.

Tip #4 - Review line features for each BTN (billing telephone number) and eliminate any that are unused or are unnecessary. This is an obvious but often overlooked area for savings.

Tip #5 - Examine hunting arrangements carefully for errors. You may be being billed for hunting charges unnecessarily. At TelCon, we have had clients that were being billed for six hunting charges for only five lines! In this case hunting charges were separate from lines in hunting.

We recommend auditing customer service records at least once per year - and quarterly if possible. The job can be tedious and is time-consuming but worth effort. If you cannot stomach thought of poring over thousands of pages of CSRs and deciphering hundreds of USOC codes, consider our telecom audit or telecom bill management services. Outsourcing these tasks will more than pay for themselves in savings and reduced costs.